I feel so nature-y

So, against our better judgment, we went hiking again today. The weather was really just too nice to stay indoors, so we packed up our gear and headed over to the same nature preserve we went to last weekend. Thankfully, this was a totally different experience. A.) Eleanor was a happy, little trooper in her pack and B.) We actually found a geocache. The cache was loaded with all kinds of interesting goodies. (It's obvious that that's what's in the picture, right?) I was the one to actually find it, though I will admit that Jared had a 17-pound handicap on his back. (I can't believe I just referred to my child as a 'handicap.' You know what I mean, right?) Redo: Jared had the 17-pound love-of-our-lives on his back, which hindered his ability to dig in the mud for the cache. That's better.

Also, I went down the ravine again to try to vindicate myself against that stupid "mystery cache." (I like to think of that as a brave move- not whatever descriptive word you were thinking of.) I think the "mystery" is that it's not there. It was even muddier today because of this week's snow, and I slid halfway down the hill on my bottom. (Much to the amusement of some fellow hikers.) I looked EVERYWHERE at the bottom of that darn ravine. Jared called to check on me. A cell phone ringing in the woods is not nature-y, but necessary for a novice hiker such as myself. I gave up after a little while, and climbed back up that stupid hill. I think I did a little bit better than last time, but still emerged from the woods a red-faced, muddy, thirsty mess.

I will not try to find that stinky cache again. And I will not speak to Jared if he goes back and finds it (except to ask him where the dumb thing was).