summer | amypoland

Here are a number of photographs of our geocaching adventures

This was one of our first finds in Bayliss Park
There was a lot of searching before we found the cache. We also had no idea what we were looking for.
Success-who knew it would be a Tupperware box.
And the treasures inside were fascinating
That basketball game hung out in my Jeep for quite awhile that year.
This might have been our most difficult find
We had no idea how small a cache could be
Can you find it?
This pirate cache may be my favorite. The write up on geocaching.com and the find itself was a lot of fun. We ‘found’ this one twice.
Brock released his trackable Butterscotch here. It made it as far as Omaha before being lost.
This one in downtown Omaha was fun as well. I’m not sure why Brock wasn’t with us.
I still have this find from the geocache.
Another Omaha find. Andrew and I would be back here a couple of years later looking at schools for after high school.
We loved the artillery box used as a cache.
Hailee released her trackable Mailey here but it was stolen. I love that hers was a seahorse.

We released five trackables that summer as well. Here is a list of each trackable’s information and map of where it went.

Brock, age 6, would like to see Butterscotch make it to different states in the United States as well as visit other countries around the world. It made it 13 miles to Omaha.

Hailee, age 9, would like Mailey to make her way through the western United States and go to Hawaii and the islands of the South Pacific. This is Hailee’s first trackable and she is looking forward to watching Mailey travel around the world and hearing about all of her adventures. It was unfortunately stolen from it’s original placement.

Waddles is the name of the beanie baby/beanie buddy penguin Granny had for all of us when we were young so we named this penguin after that first one because we miss Granny every day. We would like Waddles to visit every state in the United States and every province in Canada just like our Granny (though she never made it to Hawaii). Then we would like Waddles to visit countries that she would have liked to visit in Europe and around the world. We would love to see photos of Waddles visiting different places around the country and the globe. Waddles has travelled 19366 miles and has been all over the US as well as to Canada and Cancun.

Henry is a ladybug owned by Berkli and has been hidden by her cousins. Berkli would love to see photos of Henry as he travels from cache to cache. Henry has travelled 4962 miles all over the US.

Sarah the inch worm belongs to the youngest member of our family, Maci. She was activated on the day she was born and has been hidden by Maci’s cousins. Maci, her sister, and her cousins would love to see photos of Sarah as she travels from cache to cache. Sarah has travelled 13789 miles all over the US including Hawaii.

And then a few years later, Brock and I went on a geocaching adventure again on a trip to Storm Lake and Sioux City and found 2 caches in Missouri Valley. Here are more highlights from that trip. Brock loved using the bank tube when we stopped by on our way to Storm Lake. We both love King’s Pointe in Storm Lake. And while I don’t have a photo, we stopped by Storm Lake Bakery to get donut holes to bring back to everyone as well as Jerry’s Pizza for dinner. We also were able to see Caleb and Robin on that trip.

We have a definite theme in these first memories. Today was Hailee’s first contribution and it was from a trip to the Kansas City Zoo to see Lea the elephant paint. I’m pretty sure I was at least as excited as the kids were for the trip.

Elephants and penguins have always been special for our family. Penguins were from my mom-I have a collection on my shelf and the kids have a stuffed penguin from her. My grandmother collected elephants, but only with their trunks pointed up so they wouldn’t lose their luck. I fell more in love with them after reading Silent Thunder: In the Presence of Elephants about how elephants communicate, their social lives, and efforts to protect them from culling. Elephants represent loyalty, intelligence, and determination. I was once told that elephants represent manifestation-that with commitment, we can accomplish anything. For those reasons, when I completed my Ph.D., I had a former student tattoo an image of an elephant on my foot.

I don’t remember where I first saw an elephant painting but I do remember searching to see if there was one closer to where my family lived so we could go and watch them. I was excited that we would be able to see Lea the elephant paint at the Kansas City Zoo. I remember it being very hot the day we went and we had to wait quite awhile for the demonstration which wasn’t easy with young kids. But it was so worth it. We were able to choose the colors for her to paint and the style of painting. Hailee and I had her paint with a sponge brush and Brock had her do a ‘kiss’ painting with her trunk. My painting is in my office at work and reminds me of the trip and the elephants every time I see it.