Searching for Hidden Treasure Matey

So call me out of it, but I had never heard of such a thing as geocaching until eating lunch with a group of friends from the American Women's Club. Our friend Dallas offered up that her and her husband, Thomas, enjoy geocaching together. "What is geocaching?" was my question. Basically you act like pirates (not everyone really acts like them, but my son sure would) out to find hidden treasure, only when you take, you must replace. For the past 3 years my son has dressed as a pirate for Halloween, so this would be perfect for him!

McDonald's Happy Meal toys work well or even an American quarter for the replacement.

The first day of summer holiday (that's what they call it in Europe - it's not vacation, but holiday), we had Dallas choose some pretty easily hidden and easily accessible caches. There were three relatively close in proximity to each other in a nearby forest area. As she had said, "Maybe your kids will want to do more than one." Boy, is she ready for motherhood! Yes, my kids would need to do more than one so they can take turns with the finding, opening of the box, and replacing of the box. We don't want any fighting or arguing. She programmed the coordinates into her GPS and it walked us right to the place where X marks the spot.
Dallas explaining her special GPS for geocaching.

J taking her turn to find the first treasure box.

R taking his turn to open the first cache box.
Taking her turn to hide the first cache is J.

These are the surprises we ended up finding!

While eating our customary scrambled eggs and pancakes the next morning, J tells K, "Yesterday was one of the best days of my life." I thought, "Oh, really, I forget, what did we do yesterday?" He asks, "Why?" She responds, "I found 3 toys while we were geocaching."

Thanks, Dallas, for making my daughter's day!