Once in a while a new geocache gets published within walking distance from our home. If I feel I can get there before anyone else AND I am not needed at home AND I do not have work that cannot wait then I may try and be the first to find. On these rare occasions I will quickly grab my GPS receiver, upload the cache info and location, put on my caching pack and off I go. In order to be the first you have to act quickly and you cannot stall.
It was Monday morning and it was my turn to look after the kids while Lisa did some work. Everyone was playing nicely and I had just finished doing some cleaning in the kitchen. I decided to check my e-mail and I saw that a brand new cache had been published pretty close to home. I pondered this for a moment before wandering downstairs to see how Lisa was doing. I was fighting the urge to put on a movie for the kids while I snuck out so I thought I would casually mention this new cache to see if she had any ideas. Unfortunately she really wanted to get work done so she suggested that I take the kids with me. I fought back some laughter and just smiled and then when Lisa’s expression did not change I then decided that maybe I should try this with all three kids. Rushing out for a first to find is a little different with 3 kids. On top of my regular uploading of the coordinates and grabbing my backpack here are a few more steps I had to do.
- Talk the kids into coming. After a lengthy negotiation I agreed to a post-cache visit to the beach.
- Get the twins out of their pyjamas
- Ask Annika to get dressed
- Change diapers
- Pick out clothes for the twins
- Tell Annika to get dressed
- Put clothes on Bryce
- Walk with Jada to the room to pick out clothes more to her liking
- Demand Annika that gets dressed
- Get Jada dressed
- Find kids shoes, hats, & sunscreen
- Wait for Annika to finish colouring the picture she had been working on
Look for my keys- Put sunscreen on the kids
- Walk to the van
- Console Bryce after skinning his knee by walking too fast
- Clip the kids into their car seats
- Make sure I have the stroller in the car
- Drive out of the driveway
- Go back and get my backpack
- Drive to the trailhead/beach area.
- Remind the kids that the agreement was cache first/beach second
- Try and remember how to assemble the stroller as the regular one has a blown tire (won’t say why)
Help three kids into a double stroller.- Create a ‘bumpy ride’ with the stroller which was also part of the negotiations
- Find a trail that is easy to create a ‘bumpy ride’
- Tie the safety strap to make sure next time I do not lose the kids down the hill
- Figure out general idea where to look before Annika asks for the GPSr
- Help everyone get out of the stroller
- Give Annika the GPSr
- Look for the cache as a team
The amazing thing about this is that I believe we were the first team looking for the geocache. I don’t know for sure because after 30 minutes of looking we gave up and left for the beach. I was able to get 30 minutes to look because Annika found a neat looking beetle and was so interested in this bug that it distracted the twins while I looked. We had a little play on the beach before returning home for lunch. After lunch I went online and looked to see if anyone else had found the cache and I saw that there had been others who also had returned empty handed. As it turns out the coordinates were wrong and the correct ones were posted that evening while Lisa was putting the kids to bed. Determined to put a happy ending to this story I left the house in a blink of an eye and started to power walk to the new location. The result was a first to find party in the woods. Yay team!!!
