It's HOT!

The sun has slipped it's orbit a little bit and has become closer to California this week. Rumors are that it will remain close for about another 3-4 days, and then it will slip back into it's regular orbit.

 

We just aren't ready for August weather yet!  You know it's going to be a hot day when at 6:30 in the morning going to seminary it's already 75 degrees out!

 

Here is the temperature readout from the car as I was driving home.  But I do have to tell you that the temp gauge in the car typically reads 3 degrees higher than it really is...So it's really not that hot...plus, it's a dry heat, right??      Yeah, right.

RIBBET! RIBBET!

So you know how much Doug hates to have small animals and reptiles (snakes, frogs, mice etc) in the car with him, right?  Well, he does! 

So Jacob and Doug went to the "Father's & Sons's Campout" last weekend at Rollins Lake. And you know how much Doug doesn't really cheerish camping like he used to, right?  Well, he doesn't.

So it seemed excessive to bring the 10 person tent and set it all up and everything else associated with it just for Jacob and Doug for one night. So they decided just so sleep in the van. Easier, more comfortable, easy set up and take down, plenty of room...etc and all the other positives that go along with it.

It came time for bed, and Jacob and Doug were all sung as a bug in the rug, and about 2 hours after going to sleep, they heard some rustling on the floor in the front seat. It was a plastic grocery sack...making noises....  Doug thought about what it could be, and of course based on previous (bad) experiences, jumped to the conclusion that it was a mouse.  So he found the flashlight and he and Jacob turned it on fast and shined it in the front....and saw......  The very frog or toad you see above. The photo doesn't do it justice...It was BIGGER than what you see above. It was about as big as Doug's fist.  Then as the light shone on it, the slimy gross thing crawled up under the glove box inside the dash area... 

Thinking it was safe to go back to sleep, Doug and Jacob went back to bed. About an hour later, more sack rustling....there was a sack on the floor and the frog was hopping on it.  This time Doug and Jacob tried to get it out. So around 2am they got out of the car, opened the doors, and tried to get the frog, but he quickly crawled back under the dash board...and so the night went...ALL NIGHT!!

Seems that a neighbor kid thought it would be funny to put the frog on Jacob's sleeping bag before he went to bed.  And being up in the wilds, Doug didn't think he would need to lock the car while they were camping just right near the car...and that led the misplaced frog.

The culprit couldn't find the frog in the morning, so it was assumed it was still under the dashboard.  Doug drove all the way home, and didn't hear a peep or a ribbet out of the frog.  When he got home, Doug cleaned out the car, removed all the sleeping bags, pillows, etc.  Shelley had to run some errands and she didn't see the frog either. 

Later that evening, Jacob was getting some other stuff out of the car, and guess what?  The frog was now in the very BACK seat of the van!  The neighbor kid was nearby and we told him to come get his frog...which he did, and it's now living in his backyard.

RIBBET!  RIBBET!

Geo's In April

 

With the weather getting warmer, we've been increasing our Geo Caching and finding some nice hides. We are still looking for the perfect spot for us to place (hide) a cache and trying to think of some clever and creative ways to do one. If you have any suggestions, just click on "Post a Comment" and let us know!

On the way to our "Temple FHE" we stopped and did some geo's. This was overlooked the river by Folsom Dam.

Can you see the cache there behind the stick in the hollow of the tree?  You can't?  Look closer.....still can't? Right click on the photo, and choose View Image and it should open up bigger...then you should be able to see it. If you still can't see it, believe me, it's there!

Now can you see it? Yeah, I thought so!

Remember our "travel bug" from a previous post? The rubber chicken?  We dropped him off here as this cache was set up specifically for other travel bugs. This cache was next to the freeway so the idea is that people drop and take travel bugs on their way to somewhere else.

We then went across the street to the Folsom Outlets and tried to find a cache here, but were not finding it!  We will have to get some more hints and then go back and try again.

Here are some others we did in the past week:

Can you see it through the hole in the log above?

Here it is taken out:

This one was a pretty big one. Inside was a bunch of plastic easter eggs and inside one of them was the log to sign. Appropriately, this one was called "Easter Egg Hunt." We liked this one. It was a creative one.

 

This one was called "On The Down Lowe" and was at this light pole in the Lowe's parking log. The clue was "1 of 4". See the small compartments at the base of the light pole? There are four of them. Get it? The log was inside one of them.

 

This next one was called "The Black Bridge" and was under a black bridge over a stream on a hiking trail. The hint was that you needed someone who was not "height challenged" to reach the cache.

 

This next one is a favorite...even though we had some problems with it...It is a four stage one as is called "Jackrabbit Run" and is along a 1/2 mile or so hiking trail that is home to many many jack rabbits, and yes, we did see several.

 

The first clue we found was titled "Push It" and we finally found it inside a hole in this post. It was on a plastic dowel and fit perfectly inside the hole. You had to "push" it out of the hole from one side or the other.

On the dowel, were the coordinates to the next stage, and the clue was "Twist It". It led us to another post with the cable running through, and we thought we had to twist the cable to see something on the underside of the cable, but we were wrong.

Hidden under some nearby rocks, was a plastic container, like a large pill bottle, and we had to "twist" off the lid and found a key, with the next set of coordinates.

The next clue was "Peel It" and it led us to a drainage area with a pipe and some metal railing around it.

We were "peeling" up the landscaping material around the railing to see if we could find the next stage. But we couldn't find it! 

Finally, we found it! It was a magnetic piece of stuff that was the same color as the railing and it was just sitting there, along the railing!

So we got the coordinates to the next and last stage which was called "Unlock It" with the key we already found from stage 2. The coordinates took us to a bridge along the trail and we looked and looked and looked and looked and dug and dug and moved rocks and looked and well..you get the idea..we didn't find it!

We had to email the owner and ask for a clue which we are eagerly awaiting so we can finish this one!

UPDATE: We finally got a clue back, along with some new coordinates, and found the final stage 4! So with key in hand, we found it!

Also, fitting with the title of this cache, JackRabbit Run, we also found some parts of a Jack Rabbit that was obviously no longer running!

FHE at the Temple

We decided to have Family Home Evening at the Temple this week, since we haven't taken the kids to the temple in a while.  This picture above almost looks like a painting, but it's an actual photo.

 

This compass star in on the sidewalk leading up to the temple.

Jacob wanted me to take a photo of Moroni.

 

We then went over to the temple grounds which is a park like setting, and Jacob gave us the lesson.

They tell us that this is the only temple that has a wildlife refuge on it's grounds.  We were witness to this as we saw the following animals just during the 30 mins we were there:

Geese...........

 

 

Deer...Can you see them? They are pretty camouflaged but they are right next to the road. There are about 5 in the photo.

 

Ants.........

 

 

And wild turkeys.