The Active Life......#1: Hunting for Treasure

 

I really enjoy reading Aanie's blog The Active Mum, she inspires and motivates me and is truly lovely too.  Although Aanie, I must confess I am still yet to dust off my running shoes, but it's in the pipeline trust me!  

I noticed last week that she's started a new link up called The Active Life, here is what she has to say about it:

"I started this link up because I'm passionate about raising awareness of the importance of an active life style.  It is so important to give our children opportunities to be active, and hopefully when they are old enough to make their own lifestyle decisions, they too will choose a healthy active lifestyle."

She's truly a lady after my own heart and I just couldn't agree with her more.  I firmly believe that children nowadays are far too sedentary and much too easily amused indoors.  As a child I loved to be outside, breathing fresh air and enjoying myself and that's just how I want to raise my daughters.  So it was a very easy decision for me to join in with this link up.

As we're always on the lookout for new kinds of good old outdoor fun we decided to go Geocaching for the first time at the weekend.  Geocaching essentially is an outdoor treasure hunt where you use the GPS system on your mobile phone to hide and seek little containers known as Geocaches.  Caches are usually small waterproof containers hidden carefully around the countryside that contain a log book and sometimes toys and trinkets for swapping.  

Once you've successfully located a Geocache, (trust me it isn't always easy, those pesky blighters are usually VERY well hidden) you sign the log and replace it for the next person to find.  Geocaches are hidden all over the world, and the Geocaching website gives hints and clues as well as detailing caches hidden in your area.

As I said, we went at the weekend, together with Impressive E, Impressive D, Woolly and little baby Beetle went on her first expedition.  Of course the children loved it, what child doesn't love a treasure hunt?  They were racing around all over the shop pretending to be pirates, and we got lots of lovely fresh air and exercise.

After several hours of hunting we headed back to our house for baked Camembert and wine, which was also lovely.  All in all a really lovely way of spending time with friends and getting the children to be a little more active.

I'd love to hear if any of you have any experience of Geocaching, or if you're planning on having a go in the future, please let me know!  We're completely addicted!

Thanks for the chance to link up Aanie!

Love, love,