Thompson Family-Life

getting away

We planned our little cabin getaway to Rutledge, Georgia (Hard Labor State Park) many months ago, but it couldn't have come at a better time. We left Friday not long after hearing about the horrific shootings that happened in Connecticut. We were able to read what happened, or what they knew at that time. I can admit with shame, that we were a little relieved that we wouldn't have access to TV or the internet while out there. The TV is easy to stay away from, the internet not so much, with smart phones, etc. But we mentally unplugged while we were gone. It was good for us, and relief for the soul not to be bombarded with the tragic images. I just didn't want to see the faces. I had already shed tears. I wasn't sure I was ready to fully commit to the grief.

But now we are home and I want to see all of those precious faces. I want to educate myself on ways our country can try harder to make these things not happen so easily. To make it a priority (not only with the obvious issues, but others). But I will admit that there are times I want to take Ethan's boss up on his standing offer for us to relocate to Vancouver, Canada. Just to be out of this country, at least for this reason, is a very attractive thing. But that would be irrational. Bad things can happen anywhere, but statistics show, these things obviously happen more here. 

All that aside, like everyone else around the world, my heart breaks for the families that have lost these precious children and adults. I know we will never really know the full extent of their horror and loss. I hope we never have to. 

It made me soak up all of the quality time I spent with my children, my family, that much more this weekend. To kiss my boys, smell their scent, thank God that they are here, and safe. As safe as we can make it for them, as parents, at least. 

On a more positive note, we hiked some beautiful trails, did some geocaching, Cooper and Ethan took an archery lesson offered by the Forest Ranger of the park (how COOL would it be for a kid to tell their friends "My Dad is a Forest Ranger!") and they are officially hooked, and I made good on that promise to myself to start making dolls.

We also made s'mores with the fireplace we had inside our cabin, watched the sky for any leftover shooting meteors (we SAW some!!!) and I got to play with my new lens (I highly recommend this lens if you're looking for a wide angle. It's not TOO wide, at 30mm, but it's incredibly sharp and the background bokeh is gorgeous - see photo above. And the lens is relatively affordable if you can't swing for one of those expensive L lenses like me.)

Geocache treasures... artwork by the geocache owner below : )

Set a boy free in the woods, and they have endless entertainment using the best thing ever: STICKS!

S'more makin' in the cabin...

We watched lots of Christmas movies (some favorites like White Christmas) and some new-to-me ones like A Muppets Christmas Carol (SO GOOD!).

Here are some in-progress photos of my doll I stitched! (using this awesome pattern!) I definitely had one of those "look what I made!" moments after I finished this doll. I feel so, SO excited about all of the doll-making possiblities in the future. She only took me two nights to make and I've already cut out the pattern pieces to make another. I have plans to make at least two more of these girls, and then I'm on to make some out of this Japanese book I found. My nephew is asking his Japanese teacher to do some translating for me (haha), but there are also visual illustrations that I've been able to decipher fairly well. To say I'm excited is an understatement. I haven't felt this passionate about a craft in a very long time.

I have more photos that I'll share shortly! I'm also super excited about the possibilities of creating my own doll patterns. I have all sorts of ideas swimming around in my head - girls from the 60's wearing little mod dresses, and let's not forget the boys! I have plans to make some dolls for my boys as well. They actually love dolls and still sleep with a stuffed doll when they go to bed. 

Are you deep in making handmade gifts for your loved ones? I'm thrilled to have some handmade gifts to gift to some friends and family this year. There's nothing better.

Where's Anime Traveler?

I'm so excited to share this little geocaching story with you! You might remember this kawaii little anime figurine from my Studio Tour. She was a random find at the mall!

When we were preparing for our Netherlands/Belgium trip, we knew we wanted to bring a Travel Bug over to Europe with us. For those of you that aren't familiar with Geocaching, here's a little blurb from Geocaching.com that pretty much sums it up:

Geocaching is a real-world, outdoor treasure hunting game using GPS-enabled devices. Participants navigate to a specific set of GPS coordinates and then attempt to find the geocache (container) hidden at that location.

You can find out more here. And what is a Travel Bug?

Simply put, a Groundspeak Travel Bug is a trackable tag that you attach to an item. This allows you to track your item on Geocaching.com. The item becomes a hitchhiker that is carried from cache to cache (or person to person) in the real world and you can follow its progress online.

Find out more about Travel Bugs here. 

When we were looking around the house for the perfect object to attach our Travel Bug tag to, when I saw this little gal, I knew she was perfect! She looked like a little traveler with her little pink backpack. So, Ethan poked (drilled?) a hole into her backpack and attached the bug. Here she is in Amsterdam about to be placed in the geocache.

You can put a request on the Geocaching site as to where you might want your Travel Bug to end up. You just log in the number on your Travel Bug tag at Geocaching.com. You can see Anime Traveler's profile here. Here's the goal we set for her:

With my world on my back, I want to see the world. Please photograph me and send pics. 
I would especially love to see Asia.

Ethan wrote that. I have to point out the redundant word "world". That is me being anal-girl. Ha!

So cute though right?! I really hope she ends up in Tokyo. My ultimate goal would be for her to make it to every country on our planet. I have to say, it is THE biggest kick for Ethan and I when we get updates on where she is. You just never know how a Travel Bug is going to fair in the big wide world. We've seen some Travel Bugs that were just trashed. Sometimes people stumbled onto Geocaches accidentally and aren't very nice to them. :( But I think this little gal has a lot of personality, and it inspires people to keep her going. I would say for the most part, Geochachers are VERY into it. If you're a cacher, you're IN IT. Which is so inspiring. They take it very seriously and I think all cachers have a general respect for each other and the caches out there. It is such a neat world, this Geocaching thing!

While we were caching in Amsterdam, we stumbled onto what seemed to be the perfect place to set little Anime Traveler on her journey. What looks like a nondescript utility door, when you open it you see this:

:D

So we put her in the little jar and set her free. ; ) We were amazed to see that while we were still in Amsterdam, someone had already picked her up! Here's a map of where she's been so far:

And here are some photos taken by cachers!

It seems that she was last seen in that little birdhouse up there in Vienna, Austria. I translated the note that the last cacher left on the site that says: "a small girl .. so, the journey continues". : ) I think they retrieved her, so she must be on a journey somewhere else. I hope whoever has her will keep the momentum going. Can't wait to see where she goes next.

You know what's cool? Apparently, you don't even have to see a cache in person to log it in on the site (you typically log any cache you find into the site, so that the cache owners can see who's visited! You can also leave notes if a cache needs attention. Sometimes the weather gets the best of them, or "Muggles" have tampered with them. Muggles are non-geocachers that stumble onto them. ; )

Ethan saw one day that someone logged in our Anime Traveler because they saw her on my blog! What a small world it is! 

Here are some more pics of our Amsterdam geocaching adventures:

This one above was cool. Some caches are very small. This one was a little box attached with a magnet to this utility box.

The one below was SO rad!! There were some really creative caches in Europe. Look at this little decal. : ) It wasn't the final destination though...

You had to keep looking, but to the left of this light pole, was an identical decal attached to a fence. Ethan lied down on his belly (ha) and felt underneath the bridge and...

... there it was. We signed the log book, added my business card and put her back. I think she was attached with a magnet as well to the iron fence.

We also brought a Travel Bug that we found in Florida (I think?) while on vacation, to Europe. I took photos of it with the Amsterdam backdrop and posted them on the Geocaching site for the owner. : )

More log books. I always love looking through these to see where people have come from.

I'll be sure to update you on Anime Traveler's progress! :D

Also, I designed some Geocaching gifts for Ethan for his birthday last month that I need to share with you. Some personalized family caching business cards, a log book custom stamp and some customized wooden nickels. Personalized wooden nickels are popular with cachers and I had some made that represented our family. :D Will share soon!

Have a great weekend! Maybe do some caching? : )

Artwork sources: "friendly mail" letters & kawaii camera from Team Kitten's "Forever Friends" available here.

geocaching on the coast

I know I've mentioned geocaching several times here over the past month or two. If you'd like to learn more about it you should check out this website dedicated to it. I'd heard about it randomly in the past year or so and at some point Ethan started researching it and got completely hooked. It has become his main hobby! Which is nice because it's a very inexpensive hobby (we always seem to choose the most expensive hobbies... beer brewing anyone? doll collecting? photography? remote control cars? can you guess which ones are mine? ; )

The exciting part about geocaching is that it's truly an activity that every single person in our family LOVES. That is rare my friends. Especially me being the Mama surrounded by boys. And it's something you can literally do anywhere! There's probably a geocache right around the corner from you. We knew we wanted to find some on our trip to St. George so we hopped on our bikes, road around the island and went treasure hunting! It feels like this great adventure. : )

(now you know where Campbell gets his ear-holding-habit. I caught Ethan in the act above.)

So, here's my very first geocache! It turns out that I have quite the eye for finding them! Ethan was totally impressed. I think it's because of all the practice I've had from shopping at thrift stores and junk shops - I'm able to spot gems instantly (I know you treasure hunters know "the eye"). This one was super small, inside a film cannister tucked inside the bark of a palm tree.

Each geocache always has a log where you sign in. So cute. This is what geek dreams are made of. This little one was rolled up inside the cannister.

There are usually little treasures left behind inside for the kiddos (and for the big kiddos). The rule is that if you take something, you have to leave something! So we have a little stash of fun things we keep on us when we're geocaching. There are always things for girls and boys which reassures me that girls like to do it, too!

The log books are the most fun to look through. Some go back many years! Some people have stickers they use as their "sign in" or even stamps like the one below. Ethan started telling me about all of these cool customized things that serious geochachers have made to leave behind and I'm totally geeked out to make some that represent our family! We have an anniversary coming up and I told Ethan I'm theming out his gifts all about geocache. I'm totally doing a custom stamp.

And some have custom business cards. Love it.

This one behind the sign was pretty cool. They had decorated the plastic container with shells. Um, cute.

This one was a special geocache because it had a "travel bug" inside...

It's a little plastic whale toy with the travel bug attached to it. If you take it, you're supposed to take it to another geocache location, so we brought it to Atlanta! I'm really excited to do one of these when we go to the Netherlands and Belgium this summer. I'd love to take one over there. You enter the code in so that the person that put it out into the world can see where it is! You can set a goal for your travel bug by stating where you want it to end up.. how great is that? We want to create a travel bug and see if it can make it across the world.

This one was under a boardwalk.

Check out this guitar pick with a geocaching logo on it that we found inside.

One can always use a Lord of the Rings bookmark.

Another one under a boardwalk.

  Here's the little gadget we use to find them. It was a little steep on price, but that is the most expensive item we've bought for this. You technically don't even need one, you can use google maps, etc. But it definitely makes it easier! I love this girl's business card tagline.

I saved the best for last, this one was amazing! Cooper and I drove over to Apalachicola by ourselves so we had a Mommy-Son adventure, just the two of us. Ethan was totally jealous because he stayed back at the house with cranky-pants Campbell and missed out on the best geocache of our entire trip.

 

Cooper and I must have walked a few miles to find this one. We walked and walked and walked! It would've been a better idea to drive at some point, but we were both determined to find it. That really is the funnest part of the whole thing, the hunt! We first stumbled onto this...

It was a replica of a Vietnam memorial that is in D.C. Cooper actually recognized it from the trip he took with Ethan last year. It was really amazing. The cool thing about lots of geocaches is that they often have a history lesson to go along with them, or something new to learn.

We thought it must be hidden near the memorial, but the GPS took us over to the historical home right beside it.

This one had a dollar bill inside. Which was pretty dang cool in the eyes of an 8 yr. old. : ) I feel like I'm already storing away all of these great memories that I'm creating with my boys. If you haven't tried it, I highly recommend it for a great quality family experience.

I'll be posting again about a little survival-geocaching-kit we're putting together and I'll keep you posted on those customized items I'm going to design. We're trying to think of a family "symbol" we can use. Ethan visited an Army surplus store today and came home with some ammo boxes that we're going to turn into our own geocaches to put out there. To say we're excited is an understatement.

Do you geocache? With your family or alone maybe? Tell me about your experiences! Any tips?