Category Archives: geocaching

Out in the Desert



I’ve said it so many times, I’ve tired of hearing myself say it. But nothing makes me happier than being with my family out in the desert. It feels like home, moreso than any of the other places we’ve lived since we’ve been married.

This past Saturday, we went to a geocaching event, and after a big breakfast at Denny’s, got to explore a new part of Camp Verde.

Came across these guys a couple of miles into the winding mountain road:


This one wasn’t sure he wanted us to get out to look for the nearby cache:


The horses were more friendly.


In fact, they wanted to get in the car and come home with us.


No geocaching trip is complete without at least a couple of scrapes or scratches:


But it’s all worth it. Really, how can you not love this?








Well I’m going home,
Back to the place where I belong,
And where your love has always been enough for me.
I’m not running from.
No, I think you got me all wrong.
I don’t regret this life I chose for me.
But these places and these faces are getting old,
So I’m going home. ~Daughtry

Leave a Comment

Filed under adventures, geocaching

The Christmas Race

I feel like we’ve been running a marathon the past few days. A fun marathon, but a marathon nonetheless. In 48 hours, we drove 375 miles, played in the snow, took a train ride to the North Pole to see Santa, spent the night at my parents’, logged 14 geocache finds, went to a Christmas party, and watched a 45 minute Christmas light display. Even today, a day that was supposed to be devoted to decompressing, was largely spent out and about – running errands, getting last minute Christmas things, and picking up the new phones that turned out to be Mike and I’s Christmas presents to each other.

On Friday afternoon, we headed up to Williams to take the kids on the Polar Express. I was beyond thrilled that we’d been able to keep it secret since booking the tickets a month ago, and the boys’ reaction did not disappoint! They were so excited for not only the train ride, but also just to see, play in, and experience the snow. We got to drive through a small squall on the way there, they saw a snow plow in action, and they collectively threw about 38265 snow balls.






The train ride itself was fun too, although the trip would have been worth it just to see how happy the kids were to see the snow! Everett and Tegan especially loved seeing the buildings all lit up at the North Pole, and were happy to give Santa a high five when he boarded the train. We all enjoyed the soft cookies and hot chocolate, and the kids were singing carols with the best of them on the way back to the station. I could not have asked for a nicer night.

Here are a few pictures, and I’ve posted more on Facebook.






After the train ride, we spent the night at Mom and Dad’s, thankful to have a midway point at which to crash instead of driving the three hours home. On Saturday we spent most of the day geocaching in another beautiful mountainous area of the state. We got up close and personal with cows (and their poop), cacti, an awesome assortment of rocks, and curious highway patrol who watched from across the street as we found our final cache on a Stop sign.

Saturday night we stopped at a Christmas party hosted by my parent’s minister and his wife, and enjoyed some more good food, hot cider, and visiting before we left for our last adventure – a 45 minute Christmas light display in Cornville. It was an amazing combination of lights set to music, and even in the cold (and at times, wet) night, the 45 minutes passed by in what felt like half that time. This is just a small clip of his display from 2007, although he has upgraded in many ways since then. It took approximately 8 to 10 hours of programming for each MINUTE of music. Awesome.

We got home at 10:30 last night, exhausted but happy and ready for bed. Now that our recent stretch of being go, go, go is momentarily over, this introvert is looking forward to what I hope will be a calm and peaceful 12 days until Christmas. No big plans beyond cookie making and hot chocolate sipping, resting and enjoying the remainder of the season.

Leave a Comment

Filed under adventures, Christmas, family, geocaching

Spelunking we will go


Actually, spelunking we have gone!

On Saturday morning, we had 93 geocache finds to our credit. By the end of the day, we had over a hundred, and had logged the experience of exploring a nearly mile-long, pitch black, underground cave, created more than half a million years ago from flowing lava.

We had wanted to go to the lava tube ever since we heard about it, and thought it was a fitting way to to celebrate our 100th find. The cave was in the middle of the woods, just a short little walk from where we parked.


One minute we were in the woods, and the next we were at what looked like a big rock foundation.

The cave was cool, damp, and dark. We could smell it before we even entered… a sort of earthy, dirty smell that I actually didn’t find at all unpleasant. The climb down was slow going while carrying a 25 pound toddler, but once it leveled off I was able to wear her (and she even walked herself in some of the less rocky areas)

The darkness and stillness of the cave was not like anything I’d ever experienced. Complete and total silence that you could feel in your soul, and taste in your stomach. There were a lot of people sharing the tunnel with us that day, but when we were alone on a bend we’d shut off our headlights for a second to appreciate the blackness. I didn’t know how the kids would like that, but they kept asking for more! It took us around an hour to make it to the end, where a few members of our party explored some of the tiny crevices…




We took our time heading back, and stopped to appreciate the swirls and splashdowns created by the lava so long ago.


We were tired and sore from the trek (Hello thigh muscles, nice to feel you!!) but we all agreed it was well worth it, and is a trip we’re looking forward to repeating in the future.

And because life is about stopping to smell the roses, or in our case, stopping to spot the wildlife, I’d be remiss not to mention that we were lucky enough to see a bobcat in the wild on the way there. We pulled over, but not in time to get a picture. We did however, snap some pictures of the bulls we passed on the way out. 🙂


Leave a Comment

Filed under adventures, Arizona, geocaching

Science Center, Camping, & CT Scans


This past week was perhaps one of the busiest weeks we’ve had all summer. We were on the go daily, to and from everything from dentist and doctor’s appointments, to field trips and mini-vacations. On Wednesday, we met up with our old homeschool group at the Arizona Science Center. It was the first time we’ve been there since Tegan was an infant, and the first time we’ve ever seen the planetarium (where the girl happily grabbed a nap). We were there for over 4 hours, and I’m pretty sure the kids would have liked to stay for 4 more.






Mike took the day off on Friday and we headed north for a couple of days of camping at White Horse lake. As per our usually preferred method, we took the scenic route. It was beautiful!





The campground itself was one of the nicest we’ve ever been to. It was in a gorgeous wooded area that reminded me a lot of New Hampshire. Our site was big and clean, and the bathrooms were surprisingly non-smelly for vault toilets! The first night was a little rough – Tegan burnt her hand on a lantern, and it took more than an hour to nurse her into feeling well enough to get some sleep. By day two she was feeling much better and not slowed at all by her bandage.

We enjoyed hanging around the site…







We visited the lake…



We hiked…




We went geocaching…

It was a good trip, a quick trip. It was nice to come home on Sunday to sleep in our own beds… not nice to get that blast of Phoenix heat when we stepped out of the car. You can see the whole album of camping pictures here.

And finally, I had a full CT scan of my kidney – and related parts – on Tuesday. Is it a sign that I’ve had too many of these things that I suddenly find the field of radiology very, very interesting? Anyway, I see my doctor again on Friday, and will find out what’s next. Thank you to those of you who’ve followed my saga, asked me for updates, and sent your good wishes. I appreciate it more than you know.

1 Comment

Filed under camping, family, geocaching, health, summer

Seasons Change

It’s officially hot in Phoenix. While our east coast friends are celebrating spring and turning to their outdoor activities, we are doing just the opposite… switching gears and enjoying our indoor pursuits for most of the day. We are still geocaching (in fact we logged a marathon session of 39 finds this weekend!) but we’re sticking to side-of-the-road “park and grabs” now, instead of those that require hikes. Spencer brings his radar gun, and entertains himself by shooting the passing cars when he’s not looking for a cache.

Everett and I have been doing a lot of puzzles and playing a lot of card games, and the big boys are rediscovering old computer programs – Spencer is currently immersed in Roller Coaster Tycoon, and is giving us frequent updates on his visitors, attractions, and food. Paxton is keeping busy with Zoo Tycoon, and his most recent experiment involved letting the lions out of their pen to see if they would eat the scientist. (They did)

We made homemade donuts this weekend, which was a first, and is a project that will likely be repeated in the future







Finally, dad celebrates his 60th birthday next weekend. We surprised him by showing up with the kids and a cake on Saturday. We grilled burgers, drank prickly pear margaritas, and just generally enjoyed the day. Happy Birthday Dad!!

1 Comment

Filed under geocaching

Cache us if you can


Ha. Couldn’t resist.

We hid our first cache last weekend, and three days later it was approved, listed on geocaching.com, and ready to find. We’ve been caching for 3 months now, and have found 44 caches. The excitement of the hunt though is nothing compared to the excitement of hiding our own!

Tucking it into its hiding place


Double-checking the coordinates


Check out the view! I love Phoenix.


Because there are sometimes hiccups in life, our very first cache was stolen less than 24 hours after we planted it. And because life goes on, the following weekend we hid a new one in a better place, updated our listing, and all is right with the world once again.

Leave a Comment

Filed under geocaching

(More) Adventures in Geocaching


We’ve been a little too housebound. We’ve been sick with various ailments recently, and Everett was diagnosed with strep throat on Friday. On Saturday, no one wanted to hang around at home – including Everett, who felt much better after a good night’s sleep and his first two doses of antibiotics – so we headed out to do some more geocaching. Since Everett wasn’t up for hiking, we chose a series of micros that were right off the side of the road, all in row. Perfect for “park and grab” caching. At some of them, myself and one or more of the kids jumped out, and at others Mike took a turn. We did all 11 caches in the series, and enjoyed a leisurely ride through a beautiful area. When we finished with those, we did only two that were a couple hundred feet from the car…

One in a really cool wash




And one on a long (and beautful) winding mountain road, at the location of a no-longer standing General Store.



We were pretty hungry by that point, as it was well past lunchtime and we hadn’t eaten since breakfast, so we decided to call it a day and head home. We’d been on the mountain road for a long time (which is funny in retrospect, given what followed) and didn’t really want to retrace our steps. We weren’t sure if it circled around to somewhere familiar or not, but we were having fun and willing to chance it. We promised the boys we’d stop at a store – when we found one – and get them a snack. We enjoyed the scenery; passed a campground, some tiny houses and old sheds, and a whole lot of miles of nothing. We were feeling pretty good about coming out to civilization soon, and then we came across this sign:


The sign made me laugh. What else could I do? There were tears in the backseat though, which turned out to be due to a fear of being “lost in the middle of nowhere.” We reminded the crying party of the GPS, showed him the atlas with its detailed map, and told him that if all else failed we had cell phones. Mike did some quick research, and found that there was a turn-off road (that would eventually lead to the freeway) up ahead and that we would not in fact have to go the whole 60 miles. Onward we went.

It really was a beautiful area! Truly God’s country. I pray I never get blase about the beauty that is Arizona.



It was well into the afternoon by then, but we were all enjoying the drive. It was slow going of course, as some spots were extremely rocky and/or steep or narrow, but no one seemed to mind, even the hungry boys in the backseat. It was an adventure.

And then there was a sound, and a “What was that?”, and well….


Not to be deterred, the pit crew made quick work of the flat, and we were on our way again in 20 minutes.


Are you wondering if we passed any other cars? We did. In fact, two good samaritans stopped to see if we needed help while we (by “we”, I mean Mike) were changing the tire. After we were up and running, we came across one of the very same good samaritans again, when they were dealing with a flat tire of their own. We returned the favor and stopped to help. We stretched our legs, and Tegan had a snack – the only one of us who was able to eat all day…

While we were stopped, we were passed by more cars, this time coming from the opposite direction. They were bearing news, and it wasn’t encouraging. Three miles up ahead was a river that had to be crossed. A wide one, with large rocks and soft sand.

Did I mention my truck is not 4-wheel-drive?

It does have high clearance though, which played a big factor in our decision. Of the people who stopped, one thought we could make it if we took it slow and easy, and two thought we’d be foolish to even attempt it.

There were a few more brief tears. The kids, who were incredibly patient and pleasant for the entire trip despite being starving, were getting tired and were not happy with the new turn of events. But we all eventually rallied.

We had two options… not even trying, turning around where we were, and driving the many many hours back through the mountain (eventually through the dark); OR continuing on up ahead and risking either having to turn around like the others and driving the many many hours back through the mountain anyway, or even more worrisome, getting stuck!

There was really only one thing to do.

Mike took one look at the river three miles later and essentially said that it would be a piece of cake. And it was.


Until it wasn’t.


Thankfully, no one panicked when it got stuck. It took some rock rearranging, some finagling, some praying, and of course some careful driving… but it was only a matter of time before he got it un-stuck. Our hoots and hollers must have been heard clear across the mountain when we’d finally made it back on dry land. My truck, and my husband, ROCK!

There were even more tears. This time, of happiness. The last hour of the trip was perhaps the best. The sun was setting as we were finally making our way out of the mountain, and everyone agreed that it was well worth the drive.






It was 7:30 PM by the time we made it back to the highway, and our first order of business was stopping at a Walmart to get the kids their promised snacks. We got them their snacks (and some dinner too!) then we headed home, all six of us tired and happy.

4 Comments

Filed under Arizona, family, geocaching

Exploring Arizona

I love Arizona. I’m especially loving Arizona today, as I listen to all my friends back east complain about the time change (Arizona doesn’t do a time change). I’m also especially loving it for the beautiful weather, again at a time when New England is still getting brutalized with snow. Perhaps my favorite thing about the state though is the diversity of the landscapes. Mountains in one direction, desert in another; forests to the north, saguaro cactuses to the south. It is the quintessential place for anyone who loves to be outside as much as we do.

This past weekend we went on another geocaching trek, this time with Mom and Dad and the whole gang. It brought us up to Camp Verde, to a little tucked-away natural playground that can best be described as looking like the surface of Mars – at least the way it looks in my mind.




Yesterday, we spent another day out caching, enjoying another part of the state. I’m so glad that after 3 1/2 years, none of us has lost our sense of wonder. This is a great place to live.

Leave a Comment

Filed under Arizona, geocaching

A Week in Pictures … and a few words too

Has it been only 9 days since my last blog? What a full and eventful 9 days it’s been.

First, I’m sad to report that we lost the praying mantises. 🙁 We still don’t know what went wrong, but every last one of them had died by the time 3 days had passed.

On a brighter note, on Friday we released our butterflies. It actually took some coaxing to get them out of their habitat (I think I was envisioning them just gratefully bursting forth as soon as it was opened) but they eventually found their wings – and their freedom – among the bushes in our backyard.




In other animal news, Paxton’s leopard frog tadpoles are still doing well, but Everett’s tadpole is… off. We can’t yet tell if he is dying or if he has just slowed way down because he is a critcal stage of his transition. I’ve been following the instructions, feeding him regularly (but not too regularly), keeping his water cloudy (but not too cloudy) etc. I guess all we can do now is wait.

We actually haven’t had a lot of time to think about butterflies and tadpoles lately anyway, because we’ve been busy visiting! Our good friends Doug and Erika were here for five days and we had such a great time. We hadn’t seen each other in six months so we had lots to catch up, necessitating lots of busy days and late nights… and in one case, staying up till 4 in the morning playing Wii, PS2 and baking cookies.

Our first order of business was going geocaching. We’d been wanting to do it forever, and were happy to finally have an excuse to go, and some willing cohorts to go with us. For the uniformed, geocaching is like a big treasure hunt game. You plug in some coordinates into a GPS, hunt for the cache – which is filled with little trinkets – sign the log book, take something & leave something, and re-hide it for the next person. It was a blast and it is now officially our new favorite family hobby. We can’t wait to go out and do it again.






We also went to the Phoenix Children’s Museum for the second time, and it was every bit as fun as the first.







Last, but most definitely not least, we celebrated both Spencer and Tegan’s birthdays in one big party on Saturday. Tegan loved spending time with her grandparents and aunt and uncle, and she had a blast opening her presents






But the highlight for Tegan, in traditional Tegan style, had to be eating and enjoying her first ever birthday cake. I have to note again, for the people who have not yet heard me say it, that the lamb cake was made from the very same cake mold that made my first birthday cake 34 years ago. I was so very excited to make it for my own daughter, and what made it even more special was learning from my Mom that she too had a lamb cake for her first birthday. Three generations of little lambs! She commented that my grandmother – who passed away 5 years ago and whom I still dearly miss – would be tickled to know that Tegan had a lamb cake too… and I know that she was.






Spencer loved his cake too



and his presents




and having a real life police officer to show him how to use his new fingerprinting kit

All in all, it was a great day, and a great week… with great family, and great friends.

Leave a Comment

Filed under birthdays, family, geocaching, Spencer, Tegan, visitors