Toward the end of last year we were out Geocaching and Robyn found her FIRST Geocache. Robyn was super excited and it was unexpected as this Geocache was hidden in plain sight. Usually Sophie, Riley or Daddy end up racing towards it and taking the victory but not on this occasion as they raced past in excitement as to who was going to find it. Robyn stumbled over and picked it up, she was so excited and felt that sense of Geocache achievement.
This Geocache was a part of the Wilberfoss series (GC52P7T) which is a lovely walk around around Wilberfoss not far from York in East Yorkshire.
We are yet to go back and complete the whole series, it had gotten a little chilly that day.
This blog was prompted by The Geocaching Vlogger, his video on declaration of an appreciation week for Geocaching HQ. We wanted to join in somehow and so the least we can do is write a blog post. In fact it’s the first one of 2019, we need to get back in on it. The Gilmour’s have done plenty of New Year Caching after all.
I’m going to try and not be so sentimental but I think it’s unavoidable. Here’s my message to Geocaching HQ…
Thank you doesn’t cut it for us because Geocaching has brought a lot to our lives. We have been caching for almost 2 years, in fact as soon as we discovered it we went out to cache. At first we enjoyed it, we couldn’t believe this was across the world and around us and then after time went by we realised what a difference it’s made to us. The time we went out caching was a way of escaping the reality of our lives at times, a way to get healthy and a way to spent time working as a team in our family unit. I used to laugh at those shirts that said ‘Geocaching is my therapy’ and then I came to realise that we could even relate to this. Escapism from my reality was important and still is at times, still recovering from an abusive relationship from some years ago. I do love nature and used to go walking a lot but it became difficult as it ended up thinking over situations etc all the time. Geocaching gives you a focus. Not many people know about my connection with Geocaching like this, so it’s quite personal. Thank you again HQ.
Our three children growing up with caching, this photo was from a couple of weeks ago.
This was a first family photo on our first Geocaching trail back in 2017.
Find out more about the Geocaching Appreciation week from Joshua himself…
Today we visited the Beverley Minster and because Abbie’s Fund led us there.
Four years ago on Christmas Eve we went along to our scan hoping to find out if we were having a boy or girl- to share the news on Christmas Day. We did find out we were having a boy but he had passed a couple of weeks before. Words cannot describe the pain and upset. Katy Cowell was by my side virtually as I went through the process, all the way of Christmas and late into the night, she showed her passion to help others.
Harrison James Gilmour was born on the 28th December 2014.
You can see Harrison’s bauble on display on the top left of the tree. Here is our rainbow baby – Robyn Laura.
The Christmas Tree festival was beautiful with over 85 trees decorated by local organisations, charities, businesses, community groups, schools and more. Theres not long left until it finishes but we highly recommend going to have a look if you have some time. £3 entry for adults and children are free, there’s also a competition for the children to enter and you can vote for your favourite tree.
One of our other favourite trees here:
Here are the times for you:
We also couldn’t refuse finding a nearby Geocache- Church Micro 8380.. Beverley- Minster (GC63G9D) Daddy found this one without looking at the clues and it was no effort at all. A quick cache find and a picture of the beautiful architect.
At the Flemingate Shopping Centre there were lots of festivities including these oh so cute donkeys, Sophie and Riley loved to give them a stroke but Robyn wasn’t so sure.
Hope you are having a great Saturday and are enjoying the festivities as we approach Christmas.
Friday 30th and the Gilmour’s set out into Hull City Centre for the Urban Legends: Northern Lights. It’s only on until the 2nd December and so we thought going on a Friday may be quieter, especially with three children to walk around and get good views.
A FREE event to enjoy on an autumn evening.
We started at the Hull Minster which was indoors and a mesh like screen which made the display look 3D, I have shared some of the footage in the video if you keep scrolling down. It was fascinating but our three year old found it scary and we didn’t stay long, there is also a one way system which you don’t realise until you try and get out. It wasn’t a good start to our evening but we persevered and it was worth it.
An interactive walkway proved popular for our three children and it was rather impressive as you walked almost the whole length of Parliament Street. Rob and I rather enjoyed it as well, the sound effects and change in the walkway, it was a beautiful and colourful display.
A teepee in the Queens Gardens with a projection from the inside out and I was delighted to see a signer for the hearing impaired.
A colourful pattern display in King Edwards Square was again lovely to watch but our favourite has got to be…
Oh the night!
We were very excited to see a fox feature in the story and the older children were able to follow the wording of the story. An amazing choir that brought it to life even more and lasting around 15 minutes. Check out the video below.
We didn’t however take advantage of the 3 shop windows on Whitefriargate due to having the pram for our youngest and not wanting to fight the crowd. If you get a chance to go and you have children, try and get there earlier in the day and check out Whitefriargate first, considering to not take a pram may be the best option for viewing on this area.
OK. So we thought we would share some of the YouTubers we watch because over the last year we have some YouTubers that we watch weekly (and even daily). Some are as a family and some individually.
Click on the pictures to be taken to their channel.
We probably have to mention the Geocaching HQ YouTube channel because of our love for Geocaching and with this been an official channel.
As a family we watch the following YouTube channels:
The Geocaching Vlogger (in fact we are also Patreons of his). Watch Joshua as he caches all over the place, going to some of the most favourited and unusual caches. Joshua usually posts weekly, I think our favourite video to date is the Unicorn Farts video.
2. The Tim Tracker. We discovered this channel when watching some Disney videos in preparation for our trip to Florida and of course Disney World. They got us excited and we enjoyed watching them on the build up, we still try to keep up to date but it does tease us a little 😉 They usually post daily and have done Q&A’s over live streaming, a couple who have got the perfect balance on their updates.
I recently completed the two series of ‘Haters Back Off’ on Netflix, it follows Miranda Sings who is trying to become famous initially with her talent of singing. Miranda starts her own YouTube channel, when I went looking up for a series three I came across an actual channel for the fictitious character (genius).
Rob is a football fan and watches this channel which is for the team he has supported for many years, Liverpool FC. They show news, previews, interviews and more on The Redmen TV.
Sophie and Riley love watching the new Mickey Mouse cartoon episodes.
Robyn absolutely loves Blippi which we came across randomly one day, now he is a known channel in our house. Blippi will go around play areas, childrens museums and points of interest and incorporates childrens learning in his episodes. He has catchy songs and introduction.
What YouTubers do you watch? Do you wait for their next upload?
We also have a channel but just for fun and we don’t have a schedule, you will see some of our blog posts linked to a video.
Enjoy tuning into these channels and we hope you enjoy them as much as us.
You all know we went to the US! You all have been waiting for us to tell you about some of what we got up to! BUT… We have been waiting for the edition of UK Cache Mag to come out with our article in it. Its a jam packed one and this will expand a little on it.
Isn’t this a great spread? You can read it online right away as issue 38- Pocket Magazine– Or check out UK Cache Mag for a paper copy.
I thought I would share our Geocaching Virtuals in Disney World here with you all because you can read our logs for each one. We didn’t complete them all but we did get a lot of them as you can see, we found these fun virtuals as we had to collect information for some of them.
It added to the fun doing Geocaching in Disney World, it makes an imprint that we were there. Like a stamp in your passport in a way.
Do you feel like this when caching somewhere abroad or poignant?
The week before our Disney World madness we were on Anna Maria Island and hosted our first ever Geocaching event and I have to say we all geeked over meeting other cachers in another country. It was a small event as we had a small time frame but we enjoyed every minute of it, we certainly were enthusiastic. You can check out the event with some photos and attendees logs here GC7T0XN.
Our favourite traditional cache was at the Anna Maria Island Historical Museum GCHKA1. The instructions were to ask for the ‘Jewellery box’ and you also had to answer a question about a sperm whale that was washed ashore in 1974, the answer is of course in the museum. It was a very exciting cache and the children’s face’s held excitement over this find. The museum also had a scavenger hunt and so the children took part in that as well, double the fun. We found the Geocaching treasure and earnt a treat for the scavenger hunt.
We had a great time caching in another country and we have now got the bug. We are planning next years holiday, I wonder where we will go.
Hi, my name is Riley. I am 6 years old and I like marshmallows.
We only had 8 caches until we got to 300!
We went to Brantingham and our first cache find was next to this war memorial (GC7GW1Z).
I found the Geocache at the well, it was fun and I liked it because it was a magnetic cache (GC7GVC9).
There was a cache in this telephone box which was now a place to find out information. It was a fantastic cache but unfortunately we didn’t find it, so we will come back another day and try again (GC7GV8N).
We went for a drive to find some cache and dash Geocaches because it had started to rain, we still got to our 300!
I had to share this with you- As I sat on the sofa heating my back for some relief, Daddy went to make the kids tea.
20 minutes later and there was a loud knock at the door. I invited the kids to answer the door with me, they all rushed not knowing what to expect. Daddy was stood there with three deliveries of his very own pizza! Gilmours Pizza! The kids rushed to the living room as it’s Friday we have a chilled out evening. They enjoyed the difference in their tea this evening. Some fun and laughter along the way.
Daddy used some packaging from our home business OuTFox, specialising in metal printing.
Cheap to do and fun, I loved how my hubby enjoyed creating it for the kids.
