Letterboxing

Yesterday we went on a little adventure to West Rock State Park. While we were there we saw a lady who appeared to be geocaching. I asked her if that was what she was doing, and she said she was actually letterboxing. I have never heard of that before, so I bugged her for some more details. Basically what it is is a treasure hunt. There are websites where people post their letterboxes with clues. You follow the clues to find the box and inside it is a stamp (often a hand carved stamp). You take it out and stamp your book/journal to record your find. There is also usually a notebook in the box to record that you were there. Each person has their own stamp that they leave in the notebook, and they sign their name and date. It sounded like so much fun that we tried it ourselves.

If only Noah was making a normal face...

My 3 crazies!

Wolcott Falls

We looked for one last night but had no luck finding it. There was some construction in the area, and the box had been destroyed. So we went again today on a hunt for another one. And we found it! It took us to a trail pretty close to our house. Down the trail was a small waterfall, and the box was hidden near there. The kids loved finding the treasure and stamping their books. We tried to explore the area some more but abandoned ship when we discovered Noah running through a field of poison ivy in flip flops!

We found it!

Bumble bee stamp

Pretty cute still even though he's pouting.

We had printed off a couple of clues, so we decided to look for another box. This time we went to the Farmington Canal Trail in search for a 3 part letterbox. The first one was missing so that was a little disappointing, but we did find the second. We headed back after that though because the kids were tired. Also because Noah was trying to climb up some jagged rocks with a broken arm in flip flops (again with the flip flops!). It's so hard keeping these kids alive!

I had to run back to the car for some underwear and pants for Sarah after a potty accident. Quite the unexpected workout! I guess they got bored waiting for me.

He gets his short cast tomorrow. I can't wait to get this dirty, stinky one off!

Eli stamping his book.

Noah had some trouble with the stamp :)

Here are a couple of websites for letterboxing: http://www.atlasquest.com/ and http://www.letterboxing.org/