Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Our New Hobby

So, our family decided to take up a new hobby with it getting close to summer. We wanted it to be something outdoors. In one of my parenting books I came across a blurb about "Letterboxing." There was a website link in the book to check out. It sounded so fun that I thought my family just HAD to try it.
Letterboxing 101- It's kind of like treasure hunting. You are following directions (you get them from the website) to find a Letterbox. A letterbox is a small container (like a rubbermaid food container) that has been hidden somewhere like a park, historical place, or occasionally a building. You follow the directions to locate the box. When you find the box you open in up and will find a log book and a rubber stamp inside it. You take your own stamp (that you bring with you along with your own log book, stamp pad, pen, and maybe a small momento to leave for the next quester) and stamp it in the logbook of the box. Then you sign in with your Trail Name (Our name is The Goober Dudes....don't ask..lol). You take the stamp in the box and stamp your own log book and record any info you want to about your quest for the letterbox, etc.
Anyway, our family did this for the first time this last Saturday and we're hooked! We met up with our friends at a park where there were two letterboxes hidden. We chose the PERFECT first letterboxes. The directions were so easy that the kids were excited about finding the letterboxes for their first times. When we found the first one, Audrey and her friend Jacob were so excited that they rolled the rock hiding the box down the hill and Jacob's dad Aaron had to chase it down. Pretty funny. After replacing the box we hunted for the second one. Again the kids were excited because the directions were very easy and very short. They had a ton of fun. I can't wait to try more letterboxes!!! After locating the letterboxes we let the kids play at the park and had a picnic before heading home for naps. Letterboxes are hidden EVERYWHERE. In almost all the states, in foreign countries, in fact I think I counted 30 letterboxes hidden in JUST Weber and Davis counties here in Utah. So Fun!!!

7 comments:

Marcy said...

Okay...so what is the website???

Shelly and Ben said...

www.letterboxing.org

Shelly and Ben said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Tracy Giles said...

I definitely want to give it a try!! Sounds Fun!

Saunders clan said...

I am glad you had fun.. and Thanks for the idea, we are going to have to try it maybe this weekend if there isn't any SNOW.

The A Family said...

Oh that's like an easier version of geo cashing. It's funny that there are so many and yet most of us haven't even heard about it!

The A Family said...

Oops, I meant geocaching, it's like treasure hunting with a GPS. =)