Geocaching Adventure

We decided to take the family on a little hike to a nearby park.  Steve did a little research and found 3 geocaches along the trails.  It has been a long time since we went geocaching as a family, Anna was a baby in a backpack, so we decided to go for it.

It was the perfect day for a hike, cool and a little cloudy but not cold.  We found the first cache easily under a log in a black container.  The kids liked putting a little plastic lizard in the box and signing the register.  We then headed to the second.  That's where our luck in finding caches ran out.  It's hard to find caches in the green overgrown brush with bored kids running around.  We weren't able to find the second or the third caches at all.  That's okay, though, we had a lot of fun exploring the trails and listening to the birds.

April 2014

So, April will be split up into several parts.  It was a very busy month.  Lots of things went on.  Here's just an overview of a few happenings.

First, Steve and I went on a date!  We're trying to be better about getting out together more often.  We need that time to spend together just the two of us.  This date was a geocaching date.  There's a nearby park called Coyote Lake-Harvey Bear Ranch Park.  Steve found a couple of geocaches in the area, so we headed over with a couple of Subway sandwiches.  Oh, April is beautiful in California!  The hills were so green and there were wildflowers everywhere.  We hiked all over, thinking we were close, but then just having to go a little further.  We hiked up this huge hill trying to find the cache.  Finally, we found it at the top under a gnarled tree.  Surprise, surprise, there on the other side, was a trail.  We didn't have to go cross-country, we could have walked easily along the road. Oh well!  Below are some of the pictures from that date.

One of the biggest changes to happen to us this month was our move.  We moved April 17 and 18 from our rental on Mira Bella in Morgan Hill to a house 7 miles south in San Martin on the corner of Middle and Center.  This was our 4th move in 18months.  Ugh!  We decided to hire movers to pack us up and move us to the new house.  It was so nice!  I don't think I'll ever go back to packing myself.  They packed all day April 17 and then moved us on the 18.  Apparently, we have so much stuff they had to do two trips!  They men were very nice and the only thing that got broken was Anna's pink piggy bank.  The mover felt so bad about it that he refused his tip that night.  We ordered her one that evening on Amazon and got it two days later.

View of the house from across the street.

We spent that night at Steve's parents' house.  They watched Anna and Matthew both days so that Steve and I could concentrate on getting the houses taken apart and put back together.  Thank you, Mom and Dad!  Later that evening, they brought the kids back so we could all spend our first night in the house together.

View from the back door of the house.  Yard is in front of the fence, hayfield behind.

The house is old- built in the 1950's, and smaller than the one on Mira Bella.  It's surrounded on 3 sides by a hayfield, so no next door neighbors.  We're far enough in the country that we had to get satellite internet, which we hate.  In fact, we've decided that this is just a little too country for us.  We miss having neighbors that we know and kids playing in the neighborhood.  So, when the lease is up in April, we will be moving on.

Family Fall Hike

 Friday after work, Steve, Anna & I headed up to Middle Canyon.  We have several canyons here that we've never been to and decided that seeing the fall colors would be a great way to explore.  We packed up some fruit, drinks, and homemade calzone along with a blanket and a couple of jackets.

The trip into the canyon took maybe 15 minutes.  Suddenly, we could see the beautiful oranges, yellows, and reds that haven't yet reached the valley.  We pulled over to a little picnic area and started to eat our dinner.  No sooner had we gotten settled, than lightning started to flash and thunder to roll.  Soon, rain started to drip on our heads.  We decided to eat in the car.  I must say that a picnic in a car isn't very easy.  Anna loved standing in her seat and Steve sat in the back trying to keep her safe.  I sat up front and tried to cut calzone on my lap.  We thought that we might have to go home, but the storm passed by the time we were done with dinner.

Steve had located a geocache in the valley, so we headed there next.  It wasn't very difficult to find, we almost could drive up to it.  We then decided to take a walk around the area.  We were trying out Anna's new backpack leash.  Even with it, the going was slow.  Anna wanted to stop and pick up every rock she saw.  That was a bit of a problem because we were walking on a small road made entirely of rocks.  She'd fill her hands with her treasures, her "rock-oos", then see one more she wanted.  She tried so hard to pick up just that one more rock, but couldn't so she'd drop everything and start all over again.

It was a perfect evening for the hike and we were glad to be able to see the colors before the weather turns bad.  We're hoping to get up there once more.

Lazy Day Saturday

We had a wonderful lazy day yesterday.  We started out with homemade sourdough waffles.  Next, we got ourselves ready to go geocaching.  We found 4 caches in the nearby mountains and loaded them up on the GPS.  We grabbed some water and granola bars and headed out.

Of the four caches, we found the locations for all of them, but only found two of the actual boxes.  It was such a beautiful day and we loved looking at the scenery.  We got to examine a lizard and almost stepped on a snake!  Our last stop was at the slag canyon.  It's a huge pile of slag left over from a mine that is no longer in operation.  Very interesting.  Anna was done by then and started to fall asleep in the baby carrier.

We drove around for then next 30-45 minutes dreaming of the kind of place we'd like to move someday.

At home, we all took naps and then watched an old Fred Astair movie, The Bandwagon.  Later, we sat out on the lawn and enjoyed the evening weather.  We wrapped up the day by playing Back to the Future on the computer.
All in all, a wonderful, relaxing Saturday.