The Scenic Route: Summer Adventures (So Far)

I'm sad to say this, but it looks like my trusty point and shoot camera is dying. I recently uploaded some pictures from the geocaching my Mom and I did on Memorial Day along with a batch of shots I took during a little hike we took while my brother was at rehearsal one evening.

Some of them are blurry and some of them are a little wonky, but they're the pictures I took and they're the ones I'm sharing today!

 

This round of geocaching was inspired by the fact that we had a couple of travel bugs that we NEEDED to drop off. We haven't done much geocaching lately, so it took a little bit of effort to get everything together and out the door. It was Memorial Day which meant that there might just be people EVERYWHERE, so we would have to be careful.

Well, the first cache almost stumped us. It turned out that we were in the wrong area, but we looked and looked and looked. We use a GPS, but people don't always get the coordinates right which means that you put the GPS in your pocket and start looking anyway.

I kept waiting for a hobo to pop out of the bushes. We did run into two kids who were on the way to "a cool place to hang out", but other than that, we were all on our own. We probably spent most of an hour circling around and around on this trail before giving up and moving onto the next one.

 

As you can probably imagine, this spot was a little prettier and we did run into quite a few people who were out enjoying the day. We walked around trying to get the GPS to show that we were within 10 feet of the next cache when we realized that we were pretty sure a family of four and their dog were RIGHT ON TOP OF IT.

Thankfully, their dog kept running around trying to visit with people, so they decided to head home. As soon as they were on their way, we went over to where we thought it was and were stumped for the second time that day. We think the cache was discovered and removed by whoever found it. So, we moved on to the next cache which turned out to be the first one we were looking for.

After that, we found the rest of the caches and I stopped taking pictures. We were moving quickly and were eager to finish up and get home for some lunch. The day got off to a rough start, but we found three of the four caches on our list, which made us both pretty happy!

Our hike consisted of a short walk to a historical site that we had tried to find one other time. The last time we tried to find it we were short on time and gave up before figuring out where it was. Before my sister left for her trip to SC she said that she really wanted to find it this summer, so with a little extra time on our hands one night, my Mom and I decided to scout it out to save us all the frustration later.

I'm not surprised we couldn't find it. It was NOT where you would expect to find it at all. An apartment complex and little strip mall have gone in convincing tourists that they are in the wrong area. We followed the directions and sure enough, there is history buried behind all of our modern eyesores.

So far, so good, right?

What have you been up to so far this summer?

A Month of Saturdays: June 2015

The four Saturdays in June went by with a whole lot of fanfare!!! We've had one of the hottest Junes I've ever experienced  which seemed to get everyone into the summer spirit right away. We kicked off June by taking my brother to get his learner's permit and having0 lunch at my (our?) favorite Mexican restaurant! As the "baby" in the family, his firsts are always our lasts, so both my Mom and I got a little teary eyed as we all walked out the door at the DMV.

Two weeks later, he had his first drive in Driver's Ed and my Mom and I geocached our way through town while he was out cruising. It was a beautiful day and we found all the caches we were after, plus one extra! At the second cache we were trying to find, our GPS systems were saying different distances. My Mom followed her machine and I followed mine. I found the cache and walked back to tell her, when all of a sudden, she said, "I found it!!!". I said, "Um....Did you TOUCH it?" (thinking that she had watched me find it and was now teasing me.) She said, "Yes! I touched it!!! Why?" And I said, "Well, I found it! And it was back over there where I just came from." So, then we both started cracking up and watched as we each found the one that the other had found. In all of our geocaching that has NEVER happened!

After we finished all of our caching, we decided to go through the store to get something to snack on. We settled on donuts, a chocolate malt for me, and chips and dip (BBQ with Cheese Dip) for her. We like to keep it healthy!!!! We took our snacks to the park that made it very easy to pretend we were in Savannah, GA for the next 45 minutes while we ate and read and tried not to read every perfect line to each other.

The last Saturday in June was peaceful. I got some blog work in (stuff I still haven't shared, even though I was planning to share it all right away), went through my weekly spit and polish routine, and really enjoyed the day.

June went by with a flurry of school and gardening and milestones. All of sudden we're in the middle of July, it's cooled way off, the wheat trucks are headed in and out of town with their bounties, and summer presses on!

That Time We Made It Out Alive

On Monday, my Mom and I decided to do some geocaching while my brother was doing driver's ed. It started out just like it always does. I drove us through the countryside, down this paved road and that gravel road until we were within a few hundred feet of the cache. At that point, I pulled over and got out to take pictures while my Mom fiddled with the GPS.

We found the cache, signed the log, and traded a marble for a little army man. I started heading for the van when I realized that the church was practically begging to have its picture taken. That's when everything went wrong...

My Mom said, "Did you try the door?" And I said, "No! It's locked. Why would it be unlocked? We can't go in there." She said, "Try it." So, I put my hand on the knob and continued telling her that it was not going to open, when all of sudden, it did. No sooner did the door open, than I quickly slammed it shut and started heading for the van as quickly as I could.

At the sight of an open door, my Mom started making her way from the van to the church. The next thing I knew, we were standing in the vestibule signing the guest book. Because when you break and enter  go through an unlocked door, you go ahead and make sure they know who you are.

She started wandering around the church and telling me to take pictures of this and that. I'm just WAITING for some old lady to pop out from nowhere and say in the creepiest voice possible, "Can I heellllllp you?" In short, I'm basically freaking myself out while my Mom is celebrating this little piece of history and our own private tour.

I've convinced her to leave  She's finished looking around and I'm starting to be sure that we'll hear our van start up and drive off leaving us stranded in the middle of nowhere any minute. That's when she discovered another door...Which is also unlocked. Do you know where this door leads? Down into the darkest, most horror movie worthy, basement EVER. This time, I didn't give her an inch. As soon as the door opened and I saw where it led, I slammed it shut and said, "NO! We need to get out of here."

She laughed at me and said, "What?!?!? Are you afraid?"

Yes, yes, I was. That's the stuff horror movies are made of. And I'm not 100% sure that we weren't trespassing. But...Like any good blogger, I further incriminate myself by posting about it.

The church was beautiful. The pictures on the wall were fun to look at. Slamming the basement door and getting out of there was golden. I visited a creepy old church and lived to tell about it.

Grace Upon Grace pt. 2

I'd just really like to get right to God's grace today!

1. I know that getting home safely on Friday night was by God's grace alone. It was a long day, an even longer drive, and I was barely awake. After one 15 minute nap on the side of the road, I was only a little better, but we had to get home.

2. My Mom and I decided to go geocaching yesterday afternoon. We ended up running into some friends who don't get to see often. Lauren and Mikaela, our visit was fantastic! Thank your family for waiting so we could catch up. :)

3. At some other friends' VBS program, I was reminded of the time the Gospel became real to me. It was precious and made me even more excited about "Victory in Jesus" (click HERE, if you missed the invitation to link up!).

4. I'm grateful for the future grace that I know God's got for me over the next few months (read: my LIFETIME). I'm an anxious little monster this morning!

5. Time to go to God's Word and then His nudging me to pray. You'll be hearing more about 1 Peter this week. I feasted on a few more verses this morning and found some great weapons to use on that anxious heart of mine. For now, I'll share the words with you:

"Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; for

'All flesh is like grass 

and all its glory like the flower of grass. 

The grass withers, 

and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.' 

And this word is the good news that was preached to you."

1 Peter 1: 22-25

Tell me about God's grace in YOUR life lately! 

From Four Days

July 17, 2014

Don't mind my I've been swimming hair and going all day eyes. :)

The last six days were mostly really good!

Saturday we got pumped up about geocaching again after we went to a class and grabbed a few caches. We got some of our favorite chinese and it was a great day.

The highlight of Sunday was finishing a game of Kojak. I lost. :(

On Tuesday we went to visit some friends who are all camped out for the week. There was swimming and talking and eating. When we were done we picked up our first trackable and hit two geocaches.

On Wednesday, I went swimming with my brother for a few hours. When I got home I made "THE best dinner since you made steak" according to my brother (homemade chicken nuggets, oven potatoes, and watermelon).

Yesterday, my Mom and I went to the reflexologist in the morning. Then my brother and I went swimming again and I came home just in time to get dinner going. My sister came out to my garden with me and we picked the FIRST green beans of this season (this is also my first year growing green beans) and I fixed them with dinner.

When everything was ready, I took a plate to Al. We visited and then we moved out to visit on his porch and then we took a walk through his garden. He ended up giving me four of the cutest little zucchini! When I got home my Mom announced that she wanted to try out the new Etrex 20 that came in the mail yesterday. We geocached until it was too dark to see. We picked up another trackable, took her to some of our favorite caches, and even discovered two caches that we've never visited before.

Now it's Friday and there is so much to do before my little vacation begins on MONDAY!!! Even though I'll be away, I've got a few posts scheduled for next week because I've just had too much to share lately!

What happened in YOUR life this week?