A Day of Geocaching

Last Friday I was going to take a half day vacation and then head to Rockport to pick up Beth and Gavin and go swimming at the Rockport Pool, however the weather turned cooler, so I took a whole vacation day and headed that way so that we could have lunch at Angelo's and spend the day geocaching.

I picked Beth and Gavin and up and our first order of business was Angelo's.  Actually our first order of business was a geocache at the Rustic golf course (more about that later), but we couldn't find it so we headed to Angelo's for lunch.  I was originally going to just get breadsticks and a sandwich and then I remembered they had their lunch buffet so that's what I had.  It was all yummy!  While we were eating, our friend Cami came in for lunch so she joined us and it was nice catching up.  I forgot my phone in the car so I couldn't get the picture of the breadsticks to post on FB and make all of my ex-Spencer County peeps jealous!  I did snap one of the sign on our way out.

After Angelo's, we headed out on our geocaching adventure.  We headed towards Grandview cause there was a few placed there, however we came up empty handed on the first 3 or 4 of that we did.  Definitely did not make us happy at all! Geocaching is fun when you are actually able to find them; when you can't, it completely stinks!!  We saw this park in town and decided to stop for a bit so Gavin could play.  While we were there, a little kitty and doggie from next door came over to visit.  Gavin was in love with this kitty.  He loved on him and carried him all over the place.  We named them Playground Kitty and Teeter Totter Puppy.

 

After we left the park, we started back up geocaching and scored one at the Grandview Civic Center.  Yeah!! :) :) :)

 

We tried another one or two in Grandview and had no luck.  We decided to cross the new bridge and drive the back roads down to the river to see if we could see the Rockport Bluff from the Kentucky side.  We couldn't see it from the road, but there was a pull off area where we could of parked and got out and walked, but didn't.  I knew Bethie was hurting and wasn't getting out and there was no way I was walking in the river bottom woods by myself!  Maybe we'll try it another time.

 

After that, we geocached some more and found another one before picking up mom to go with us.  The main reason I wanted to pick her up was to help me find the cache at the Rustic.  Now about the cache at the Rustic.  I had read the night before that there was a cache at the Rustic, one that was fairly new, someone had just found it two days before us, and one that appeared to have a travel bug in it.  I've never gotten a travel bug before and was excited to possibly get my hands on it.  Once the GPS took us to the location, the hint was "under the stars to the east".  I searched all over that area and couldn't find it.  I finally gave up and decided we would go back later in the day to try.  Hence the reason for picking up my mom.  I knew she would be all over those bushes to help me find it.  We headed back out there and searched for a while and kept coming up empty handed.  We even almost got careened by a golf ball from a friend who was golfing.  A few other people even helped us look and we couldn't find it.  We finally gave up on that cache.  I logged that cache as a did not find and emailed the cache owner that I was there a couple of  times that day and even had 4 sets of eyes looking for it and couldn't find it.  I got an email back from the cache owner that after I emailed him and logged my DNF, he went out to check on the cache and said it was missing, and that if it was there, I would of easily seen it.  I hate that someone stole it, probably right after the last person found it just a couple days before us :(

 

Yeah, I found another cache!  Did I mention that geocaching is a lot more fun when you are actually finding the caches?

 

The cache in this cemetery was definitely in a neat container and location.  It is placed in a cemetery and the GPS took us to a big pine tree in the middle of the cemetery.  I looked all around and couldn't find it, then I happened to glance up in the tree and saw a bird there.  I thought, oh my there's a bird just sitting up in the tree.  Then I glanced a little closer and noticed the bird had a clip in it's butt.  It was a bird decoy clipped to the tree and was the cache container.  Definitely the most fun cache container we've found so far!

 

The next cache we looked for was in the same cemetery.  Mom thought for sure it was up the hill because of the description and took off running up the hill only to end up falling down and landing on her face on the hill and losing her shoes.  LOL!!  I knew all along it was on the opposite side of the road, however it was behind a fence and LOTS of poison ivy!  Ugh!  I logged that as a find, just couldn't sign the log.

A few more back roads caches and cemetery caches. 



We found another bigger cache that was supposed to have some travel bugs in it, but it was in a bunch of poison ivy covered brush so we'll have to try that one again in the fall/winter time.

 

After we were finished geocaching, I dropped Beth and mom off at their respective homes and Gavin and I headed back to Newburgh to meet Uncle Shawn for dinner at Jalisco's, and then headed to home to bath Gavin and myself and all of our clothes and shoes.  I didn't want to track any poison ivy into this house!

 

We had a great day and a lot of fun caching!  Can't wait to get back out there again and find some more with mom, Beth, and Gavin!

Gavin's first trip to the Louisville Zoo

Last Saturday morning Shawn and I picked up Gavin bright and early and we headed to Louisville to go the zoo and then do some shopping at the mall so Shawn could replace his shoe inserts and then have dinner at our favorite restaurant, the Cheesecake Factory.

Our ride over there started out with a first for Aunt Stace and ended with a first for Aunt Stace.  And both involved Gavin and having to go pee!  LOL!!  We had just got on the interstate at the Dale exit and were tooling down the road.  All of a sudden Gavin tells me he has to pee.  There aren't many exits between Dale and Louisville so I whip the car to the side of the road, go around to the passenger side, unbuckle Gavin, pull him out of the car and let him do his thing.  Of course the section of the road we are on has a slant to it, so as he's peeing, it's running back down the road towards us, so I'm trying to hold his pants off the ground, move him so he's not stepping in pee all the while he's still peeing.  And Uncle Shawn is sitting in the car saying, what are you doing, what are you doing!  LOL!!

After that situation, it was smooth sailing to the zoo.  The weather was perfect for the zoo.  It was overcast and cool.  I wore my jacket the entire day.  And the zoo wasn't very crowded at all.  We saw all the animals we wanted except for the elephants and they were already put up by the time we got to them.  We got to see the giraffe too, but he was in his cage :( Note to self:  take the path to the left ... you'll see the big animals first!

We only had two little melt downs that day.  One when he wanted a toy.  We told him we would get the toy, but not at that specific gift shop, we wanted to wait until we got to the one right before we were leaving the zoo.  So we had a few tears over that.  And then a little bit later when he was thirsty and wanted a drink and we didn't have anything.  So Uncle Shawn trekked back to a snack stand to get us a soda.  After that, the world was good!  I think he was tired and wore out more than anything :(

I don't know why, but I love this little picture of him getting a drink.  I think it's the backpack that makes me like it.  He's getting to be such a little man now.  He wore that backpack almost the entire day.  He wanted too.  I even had it loaded down with stuff, but he still wanted to wear it.

While we ate lunch and sat for a while, Gavin enjoyed playing on one of the playgrounds at the zoo.  They have a splash park there too that I thought we would partake in, but it was chilly for the day and they didn't have it running.  

This is where one of the melt downs took place.  

All was better once we had a soda to drink!

The tigers were one of my favorite exhibits at the zoo.  That big white barrel was his chew toy.  He had been chewing on it, then pushed it into the water and then a second later, he used his teeth to pull the barrel out of the water back onto the land to continue chewing on it.  That barrel was almost submerged with water too!  

I love these next three pictures.  He was laying in the grass all calm and I held my camera up to take his picture and he gave me the stare down and raised some.  Almost like he was going to lunge towards me.  

As you can see below, he got the toys he wanted.  I told him we would get them for him.  He also got a smashed penny from the zoo.  I don't even think we were out of the parking lot of the zoo and he was out.  He was this way for the next almost two hours while we drove to the mall and waited for a table at the Cheesecake Factory.  Shawn went into the malls and did his shopping while I sat in the car with Gavin while he slept.

My delicious piece of cheesecake that I had for breakfast the next day!

And of course the peeing situation on the way home.  We left Louisville around 9:30 Louisville time.  Gavin and I both went to the bathroom before we left the restaurant because I knew it was a two-hour drive home.  We hadn't been in the car that long at all when I hear "I have to go pee Stace".  What??  Are you kidding me!  We just went pee.  We are on a five-lane interstate with no shoulder to pull over on, and no exits with visible bathrooms for miles.  I told him to hold it as long as he could and we'd find a bathroom, and thought well if he has an accident, I'll just have to change his clothes and we'll move on.  As I'm pulling into the gas station, I hear "I already peed in my pants Stace".  I told him it was ok and we went into the bathroom to change. :(  Note to self:  don't let him have that much to drink before having to make a road trip and even when you think you are finished peeing in the bathroom, let's hang out just a few minutes longer and try again.

Playground Fun @ Smother's Park

Saturday me, Beth and Gavin went to Owensboro to a vendor fair that a friend from church was at with her Tastefully Simple food.  After the vendor fair, we went to the new Smother's Park in Owensboro to play.  The weather was a little chilly that day, but the sun was out and helped a bit.  There wasn't alot of people at the park so it was easy to keep an eye on Gavin as he ran around and had ALOT of fun!  This is a new park that they built last year and it is simply amazing!

 

I copied this from a website about the park "Set to reopen in August 2012, the new Smothers Park will be more than just a riverfront park. The park will be the home of the Shelton Memorial Park, honoring MIA’s from all wars. It will feature an iconic fountain at the foot of Frederica Street. An outdoor children’s museum and playground includes handicap-accessible overhead ramps inside large artificial trees. The park will span five city blocks and cover over five acres of land. It will also offer outdoor space for events, with concessions and restroom facilities."

 

The children's area of the park was awesome!  There was so many different slides and playground equipment for children of all ages!  Gavin and I both had fun on the slides and running around the ramps and through the trees!  I can't wait to go back with him!

 

 

 

What a brilliant idea!!!  Portable heaters to warm up with when it's cold outside! 

 

There was all kinds of ice sculptures when we were there and were able to watch them carve one!

 

Visit Owensboro - You can click on this link to take you to lots more pictures of the new park and some ariel shots of the entire park!