Enjoying the outdoors

#6076—The kids enjoyed the hike to find this lonely geocache, despite the windy conditions that made the actual temperature feel a little cool in the afternoon sun.

Enjoying the outdoors
By Allan Olson
My incessant need to keep moving and be busy took over again this weekend as the family was kept busy over the course of Saturday and Sunday with very little screen time for us and plenty of outdoor activity.
The weekend started with Friday night which resulted in doing some cleaning in the house, I informed the kids that they needed to clean a few certain areas before the television or computer could be used. They eventually complied and that evening they had a couple hours of screen time before I sent them to bed at their normal weekday time. Of course – if they had listened to me earlier in the day and not made my crabby at them then they would’ve enjoyed a little extra screen time.
Saturday morning – I slept in, by a whole 30 minutes, I made it until the late morning hours of 6:30 a.m. I tried going back to sleep but it was no use I was awake so I started reading a book. The day’s plans were largely set but we still had a few hours before we needed to get moving. Eventually we all had breakfast of some sort and then I started packing things for snacks and lunch as we were getting out of the house.
First on the list was a couple geocaches to find, one of which I had my eye for a couple weeks after I discovered it hadn’t been found in over three years, I really wanted to have a go at it. The cache was a considerable distance away but the return trip would had us going right by the late afternoon plans of learning about Sugar Bush camp for a future story – so all was going to work out – I hoped.
We finally set our course about noon and prior to my departure I told the kids – I’m not going to be in a hurry today, it’s going to be a leisurely day “so don’t make me crabby.” Something must’ve sunk in because they listened all day. We finally arrived at our location close to 1 p.m. and set forth for a hike. I was out in this area a couple weeks prior with the girls and thought about driving down the road, but didn’t think the mini-van was up for the challenge –I was right and was glad I had my alternate ride for this trek into the woods. We arrived at the recommended parking coordinates and then set off for a hike, finally after some misguided errors in navigation – largely operator errors between a few of us, we set course for the cache. After another five minute hike down a nice grassy road we came upon the likely spot, Nikolai started the search and found the cache in less than a minute. We examined the contents, inked the log, returned the cache to its hiding spot and headed back to the vehicle. Of course looming in front of us was a steep hill and I was “worried” about falling down the hill backwards so I asked my girls for help, they declined and instead offered to shove me down the hill faster if I started falling – I really felt their love, of course since we were all joking we had a good laugh.
We had two other caches targeted for this short adventure and neither of them were much of a hike and both of them it had been over two years since anyone last logged a find. With our caches found and our appointment time pending we headed towards the Sugar Bush Camp.
At the camp, we helped collect sap, learned the process of it, enjoyed a meal and Alivia and I especially enjoyed drinking the sap from the tree – it was delicious. It was our first trip to a Maple Sugar camp and I’m pretty sure it won’t be our last.
On Sunday – I did manage to sleep in, I woke briefly at 7 a.m. but at 8 a.m. I was awake for the day, it felt great to sleep in after a full day in the outdoors the day prior. Since we had company coming later in the day, we had some work to do. The original plan was for some yard cleaning and house cleaning but with the rain it left everything in the yard just a little wet – so we settled for house cleaning and garage cleaning. I put some of the kids to work cleaning the garage – including the pellets the rabbits have left for us over the winter and of course some garbage. My wife, had some of the kids in the house doing other things, including laundry, dishes and general cleaning. In our house full of crazy kids – cleaning is a never ending battle along with laundry and dishes – it would be easier just to buy new stuff, but it might just be a little more costly.
Plans for this weekend – Easter dinner with the family and who knows, maybe we will find time to grab, or place a geocache this weekend also.
Thanks to everyone for reading, and as always, please be safe while enjoying your favorite outdoor recreational activity and on the lakes, and remember to take pictures to preserve a lifetime of memories.
Remember to drive safely, and watch out for those buses carrying our children. 

Thanks for reading, and have a great week! For more of my columns visit: http://allan-crazykids.blogspot.com.

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