blogs
Letterboxing
Last summer when I was looking for fun things to do with the kids over break, I found an article about letterboxing. After doing a little research, I printed off clues from www.letterboxing.org to a letterbox near our house, found a loose-leaf notebook to use as a logbook and bought a dachshund stamp for our family stamp. We then spent the afternoon at a park near our house searching for letterboxes that other people had hidden. When we found the box hiding in the pine straw behind a large oak tree, Laurel and Trevor squealed with the delight of finding a hidden treasure.
After we opened the letterbox ( a Tupperware container), we carefully flipped through the pages of the log book in the box and looked at the stamps of the letterboxers who had found the box before us. Laurel carefully put our family stamp into the logbook and Trevor wrote our name on the page. We then stamped the watermelon stamp that we found in the letterbox into our own log book and wrote a few sentences about our journey to find the box. After we were done, we carefully hid the box back in the same spot for the next letterboxer to find.
Over the past year, we have found many letterboxes throughout the Triangle area and even hidden two of our own boxes. In addition to being a fun, cheap and healthy way to spend time together, we have discovered many new places in the area that we may not have found otherwise. We had passed by a trail at Shelley Lake at least a hundred times over the years, but never ventured down it. While searching for a letterbox at the lake, we discovered that the path leads to a beautiful creek that has turned into one of our favorite spots to play in the water and skip rocks.
I’ve found that since my kids love treasure hunts, that it’s a great way to get them outside and exploring. When I ask them if they want to go for a hike, they usually respond with a groan. However, if I ask if they want to go letterboxing, they say yes and start looking for their shoes. And as an added bonus, I think that I probably enjoy letterboxing even more than they do.
Jennifer appears Mondays on TriangleMom2Mom.
From Trike to Two Wheeler
Jennifer Gregory left Florida almost 11 years ago to escape the heat and enjoys living in a place where the seasons change. She lives in Youngsville, N.C., which she usually refers to as north of Wake Forest, and has been married to her husband for almost 10 years. As the mom of two kids and three dogs, her house is filled with lots of joyful noise and barking. Her daughter (7) is convinced that she will be a princess when she grows up and her son (5) has aspirations of being the next Dale Jr. After years of writing software documentation for various companies, she "retired" when her daughter was born to become a stay at home mom. Now that her kids are in school, she has finally figured out what she wants to be when she grows up. She spends her mornings as a freelance writer and her afternoons hanging out with her kids. The only things she misses about living in Florida are her friends and family, Publix fried chicken and going to Florida Gator football games.
Comments
What a great idea. I had never heard of letterboxing. Thanks.
I've learned that they have this special shoes used in boxing, wonder how much it costs. Everyone is looking for an easy way to do anything, and the Reebok Easytone shoes are purported to help tone your upper legs and your backside. However, like most things purported to be a quick fix, even Reebok Easytone shoes, it isn't exactly what it sounds like. The shoes naturally offset balance, making muscles work more than normal. That said, they will take time to work, and you have to be out walking for them to work. Therefore, you won't have a Baywatch approved derriere for some time, or at all – even if you get instant cash loans to get Reebok Easytone shoes, you will have to put in the work to shape up.