Summer Is Almost Over

We have ten days until school begins. Boogs and I are finding fun activities to do before we are both stuck inside all day.

Last Friday, we went on a family trip to Fiesta Texas. We bought season passes at the beginning of the summer and this is only the second time we have been. The two hour drive to get there is a bit of a deterrent.

We had a great time. My husband and I were able to ride all of the big rollercoasters. Boogs stuck to the slower rides this time. We were surprised how uncrowded the park was, must have been the 100 degree heat. Boogs kept cool by making sure to get as wet as possible on the water rides. He is actually standing behind that wall of water in the lower right picture above. After several hours of rides, we put on swim suits and spent the rest of the day in the water park.

Boogs just finished up two weeks of diving class. This year he was not quite as brave at diving as he was last year, no forward somersaults off the diving board. I tried to encourage him to try a dive off the high dive instead of just jumping in. He told me he would do a dive if I would. Well... that put an end to that. Boogs has already told me he wants to return to diving class next summer. We spent a little bit of time at the park next to the pool after diving class. We also went swimming several times at various pools this week. Boogs loves being in the water.

 

Geocaching at Wilco Park 

Boogs and I met the Jboys and their mom at the park at 8 a.m. to try and find hidden treasure. The boys started out excited about finding a geocache but soon asked if they could just explore and play. We spent about three hours at Wilco Park before it became so hot we decided to head home to air conditioner.

 J4 wanted to keep up with the big boys.

 The geocache map led us off the trail.

 The clue was "cliffhanger".

 It was steep and slippery down the cliff side.

 Sliding was the best way to reach the bottom.

 The boys searched and searched but did not find the hidden geocache.

 I felt very lucky that the boys didn't find any snakes where they were exploring.

 But they did find lots of bones and a half decomposed animal. Ewww!

We only found one of the three geocaches we looked for, but the boys had a great time running around outside. Oh well, maybe we will have better luck next time. Right now we are heading out the door to go swimming (again).

This week was Shark Week on the Discovery Channel so Boogs helped me make a special shark breakfast. He ended up not wanting to eat it because of the ketchup "blood". We took some friends to Terra Toys toy store because they were supposed to have Shark Week activities. We must have gone at the wrong time because we didn't see any but we did have fun exploring the store. I bought the Fred Snack Attack cookie cutters to make this breakfast. It has surfer eggs, shark cheese, ham on toast surfboard, ketchup and a blueberry ocean.

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Geocaching Wilco Park

Our Central Texas weather has been all over the place lately. We had a snow & ice day last Friday. On Sunday, my husband, son, and I went geocaching in light jackets that we ended up taking off. Then, three days later we had another snow & ice day. I thought I would share some pictures from our latest geocaching adventure on Sunday.

We searched for three geocaches and found two of them. We probably walked about 3.5 miles during our outing. My husband and I really think it is a lot of fun. Boogs likes it enough to want to go, but his patience runs out if he can't find what he is looking for quickly enough. I think it is a great way to get outdoors, enjoy the sunshine, and spend time as a family.

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Geocaching Fail

Geocaching is a real-world treasure hunt. Millions of containers are hidden all over the world. You use coordinates or a GPS Geocaching app to locate hidden containers. The containers usually have a log book to record your visit and a small "treasure". It is an honor system where you take a treasure and leave a treasure. The treasure can be anything. Boogs is very happy when we find a container with small toys or coins. It is fun for the entire family. Sometimes Geocaching works out and sometimes it fails. We still had fun searching for the hidden containers on this day and we were able to play at a great park together.

According to our Geocaching app, we were in exactly the right place to look for the hidden container. The clue was "under a pile of rocks".  We searched for quite a while but never found it. I was just glad we didn't find any snakes.

The other Geocache was supposed to be at a nearby park. With the app my husband uses, you can check to see the last time someone commented that they found the container. Sadly, the last people that checked on the container at the park said they did not find it either. Sometimes the containers get taken or moved. But that is all part of the fun of treasure hunting. It would be pretty boring if you easily found it.


This park has an obstacle course type playscape. Boogs had fun challenging my husband and I to races. It was fun but the obstacles were so much harder to get through than I remember it being as a kid. Whew, I am sooooo out of shape.

Nets and bars to cross

Wobbly balance beam

Wiggling hanging steps

This was the hardest part to get through.

I was glad that Daddy found it as difficult as I did. Boogs just breezed through without a problem.

He was pretty satisfied with his reining champion status.

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Sixth Week of Summer

Boogs went to Keep Austin Smart 4 Day Science Camp this week. This is the third year that he has attended this camp and says he wants to go back again next year. This year's topics included: Science of Water, Symphony of Sounds, Rainbow Science, and Spineless Animal Wonders. He even came home with a new pet - a mealworm. Yay???

Fiesta Texas

On Friday, my husband took the day off of work to take a family trip to Fiesta Texas. We spent nine hours at the park. Boogs enjoyed the water park area the best. He said his favorite ride was the Texas Tornado. I left my camera at home and only took a few pics with my husband's phone.

On Saturday, we saw Despicable Me 2 at the movie theater. It was adorable.

On Sunday, we packed a picnic to take to Blanco State Park. The park is a little over an hour drive from our house. It has a shady hiking trail and great swimming spots along the river.

As soon as we hit the hiking trail, Boogs took control of Daddy's phone to find a Geocache. The geocache was well hidden. Boogs picked a treasure from the box, left a treasure, and signed the log.

We enjoyed hiking through the trees. Boogs spotted this little green snake on a shoulder level branch right next to him on the path. The snake was beautiful. We admired it from a distance. Luckily, that was the only snake we found during our hike.

At the end of the hiking trail, we broke through the trees onto a road. My husband looked at his geocache app and saw that there was another geocache within a mile of where we were. The app led us down the road to Blanco Cemetery. We looked at many of the headstones while finding the hidden geocache. The oldest grave marker we found was for someone who was born in 1793. The geocache was hidden in the hollow of a large tree. Boogs was a little worried that some of the spirits might follow us home from the cemetery.

We hiked back to the park, had a picnic lunch, then jumped in the river to cool off.

 Boogs and his daddy spent almost two hours doing this

 They were both tired and ready to go home.

Summer is passing by so quickly. We are trying to enjoy every minute of it!


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Geocaching

We had a relaxing weekend. We wanted to do a different kind of family outing this weekend so we decided to try geocaching. Geocaching is a treasure hunting game where you use GPS to hide and seek hidden containers. When you find a container, you write down your name and date on the log, take a treasure, leave a treasure, and then return the container to its hiding spot. My husband bought the Geocaching iphone app. It turns out there were several hidden containers in the greenbelt area behind our house. Boogs took control of the compass to lead the way. It took about twenty minutes to find the first one.

We had to lift up the stump to find the hidden container.

Boogs was so excited to see what was inside.

The "treasure"

Boogs chose a dream catcher necklace. We left behind  Growing Beads.

He had a good adventure.

The log inside the container was first signed in 2008. Boogs really wanted to see if we could find another one. So, my husband and Boogs kept searching. I pulled my back during a workout last week and could not tolerate walking around anymore so I returned home. They found another geocache placed up in a tree before they came back home. Boogs really enjoyed this activity and is looking forward to doing it again.