Last weekend we had so much fun in the little snow that came to us in Hull, East Yorkshire. Grabbing the sledges out of the shed that we had bought on offer last year it was time to finally use them… and what fun we had!
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utL3dvYAue0&w=560&h=315]
The Gilmour’s
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…
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQhzVhEfefg&w=560&h=315]
We have some blog posts ready to share so watch out for those coming out soon. Subscribe if you haven’t already so you don’t miss them.
Jen and the rest of the Gilmour’s
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.
Have a great weekend.
Jennifer
A couple of weekends ago we were super excited to try out our new tool for Geocaching. We had ordered it back in May and it had arrived in all of its glory a week or so ago and we have been itching to give it a go!
Our very own stamp with our Geocaching username in place. It’s actually for a letterbox hybrid Geocache.
Geocaches have different types as follows:
You can find out more about the different types of Geocaches here.
We didn’t go and find a letterbox hybrid this weekend though but that didn’t stop us from using it. We went on a small section of a larger trail and decided to log our finds with it.
This is the loop we did without the multi as it wasn’t part of the trail. Multi’s we have to plan when we have the children especially if there are a lot of stages to go and find clues so we will have to come back for that one.
We had a lovely time and the kids enjoyed it. The stamp came out to play and it is going to be well used in the future. Thank you to NE Geocaching Supplies.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otVUqZfv3-w&w=560&h=315]
The walk we did we had to take it in turns to use the stamp and I think the excitement was over our family name all over it.
One of the Geocaches we found Sophie wanted to be filmed finding and opening it. We couldn’t refuse of course. So here’s the video…
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xy35RJCTY6M&w=560&h=315]
Our aluminium coins are always complimented on and we leave our calling card in all Geocaches that they fit into. You can buy them here ETSY.
Right we need to get ready for our next adventure and will update you soon!
From us all
Sometimes Geocaching comes with planning and funnily enough the planning comes down to me, which I enjoy!
Yesterday we had planned to go on a trail that a fellow Geocacher we had met had created. We’ve been meaning to do it for a while but it was obvious with three children we weren’t going to be able to do it all in one go as the whole trail is around 7.5 miles long. Walking along could take us around 3-4 hours (considering Robyn’s tiny legs at times), if we were caching this could potentially double it.
For this outing I printed out the map so I could decipher what the cacher was explaining on his description at the first GC. If you read the description you can see what I mean.
See the first cache at GC4Z0J0 if you want to check it out.
This time I had informed my mum in law (2000SamJack) of our whereabouts in case for any reason we are in an emergency situation. Sometimes you can be out in the countryside without anyone else to see. I’m sure other walkers do this and so we have now implemented it into our caching days out. We also now have a travel first aid kit in our caching bag.
We decided to do the 3 mile segment as the weather wasn’t sunny and wasn’t raining and we could decide if it was going to rain. We also thought it would be a good amount for the children. We had set out at 10.30am and didn’t get home until 2pm so we did spend a while caching. Some were sneaky, we didn’t find them all- but that’s ok as we will return.
When approaching a cache I always sound out ‘100 meter warning’ so everyone knows we are getting close, followed by the hint for that cache we are approaching. If we can’t find it straight away I will re read the hint and on struggling caches we will go through the activity feed to see if a previous cacher has left another clue. I seem to manage and the rest find although sometimes I like to pretend it’s somewhere else and run to the correct location to be a first to find between us, nothing like a little competition.
We had a lovely walk and bumped into a few other walkers (not cachers) along the way. We often giggle because I’m sure people passing us are surprised we are out for a walk as a modern family and often stop and chat to us.
The kids even wore their Geocaching name badges, I love how they are so into our hobby.
Hope you have had a lovely weekend.
Jennifer
A bit of a different post today because we didn’t Geocache this weekend! We went on a walk over the Humber Bridge which is just down the road from us.
The walk was actually a part of Christian Aid. I used to do the walk when I was younger so I was delighted to reminisce and complete it again but with my own children (and husband of course).
The idea is to gain sponsorship for each crossing you complete, each side is a station in which you get your card stamped. I wasn’t expecting anymore than 2 (there and back) with the three kids.
With Robyn on her walking bike we knew this could take us some time! In fact Robyn insisted on completing 3/4 of the way on the first crossing to bike it at snail speed. How she enjoyed it and how everyone went on ahead. Robyn was determined.
This is on the other side of the Humber Bridge and with some of our Church family from Tower Hill Methodist Church.
It took us 2 hours to complete the 4 mile walk and the children enjoyed themselves.
There is a virtual cache on the Humber Bridge by the way.
Here are the children upon completion.
Now collecting sponsorship for the two crossings. Get in touch if you want to sponsor Sophie, Riley and Robyn. Up to the 19th May 2018.
Jennifer and Co
Ps the cover photo of the blog is from around four years ago.
Yesterday we planned to spend the bank holiday Geocaching (of course)! The sun is out and it’s perfect weather for some caching fun.
However it just didn’t work out for us on the Saturday. We went out to the Brocklesby Estate and planned to get a good amount of caches since we had been there last year and had realised just how big the trail was! In fact you may recognise the name because we came here for the egg rolling event as well. It’s simply beautiful.
You can find number 1 of the trail at GC3KAC7.
We didn’t start at cache 1 but in fact at cache 10, in quick form our caching day looked like this: We found the first one easy, in fact it was Sophie who found it. The second we had no look. The third we bumped into a whole team of cachers who had set out to do the full 56 in one day! They found the cache for us and we signed the log 😉
We then sat and had some lunch as Robyn was a bit grizzly – to be honest she was very tired. The fourth cache we had no luck, it was more the inability to spend time on it with the three kids getting stung by nettles and shouting they had found it when they hadn’t. We just didn’t feel it and had spent a good few hours having a slow paced day.
Don’t get me wrong we had fun and it was the first time we didn’t mind not caching more, no frustration, we simply enjoyed the glorious sun.
And Robyn was way too interested in all of the mole hills, there were hundreds and she insisted in stopping at each one to investigate.
I better share this video of Rob who was trying to be the pied piper on the way back. The flute was some swag from a previous cache we had found.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aypB7kFe-ao&w=560&h=315]
So… if you ever aren’t ‘feeling’ it… it’s ok… embrace it.
Jennifer
Tuesday 17th the hubby and I were about to enjoy our first night out away from children in Leeds. We had planned to see Tokio Myers who we had personally dedicated ourselves to when seeing him on BGT last year, his first audition struck us and we had said how we would support him as an indie artist if he wasn’t going to make it. We had no idea that he was going to win BGT!
Right outside the venue was a webcam cache and it was our FIRST ever cache of this type so we had decided to go and get it! It was rather humorous been able to see ourselves on the webcam page as we were stood looking at our phones and trying to work out if it was us or not. We moved apart from each other and refreshed the page and then we saw it on our screen – confirmation!
All you had to do was post a screenshot of the image with you on it as well as the date/time etc.
An easy cache that will be remembered for an eventful evening.
A few pics from the concert.
Happy Caching
Jennifer
That’s right! We are certainly back in the game now.
This weekend was the best weekend we have had in a long time and that’s because we spent three days Geocaching.
On Friday, Rob and I went to do a few caches that were odd ones out on our map. Usually ones we didn’t reach with the kids on a day Geocaching because they are just a little further out. We found 4/5 caches and it was so nice to spend some quality time together doing what we love.
These photos are from one of the caches we found which was just at the side from a busy road in Hull. We have been past it so many times and had never noticed this old train station and it’s platform.
Isn’t it just beautiful?
This is cache- Permanently Sidetracked GC6KZ76
We would have never of seen this if it wasn’t for Geocaching.
I have to admit we had missed this so much. After having my slipped disc it has impacted our family so much. I am still quite in pain with it and on high painkillers but we are doing shorter walks for an hour rather then the all day 8 mile hunt. It has put the gage back up on everyone’s happiness levels, you would be surprised at how much.
We both had a well earned coffee at the end of our caching morning whilst the kids were at school.
Have a great week.
Jennifer
GilmourFamily
At the weekend we celebrated New Years over at our relatives in Cheshire it was a perfect opportunity to consider getting back in the game of Geocaching.
I then received an email to alert us that we would get a special souvenir badge for our profile if we found a cache on New Years Eve and another for New Years Day. Admittedly it encouraged us.
On New Years Eve we found a cache and a dash close to Nan’s nursing home, we were chuffed as it had been a while since we had cached.
This is the badge we received.
On New Years Day there were a couple in walking distance from Mums home, she had already told us as a converted Geocacher herself (2000SamJack).
We walked confidently to the near by caches and the kids were all excited. We couldn’t find the first which was expected as we noticed there was a few DNF’s (Did Not Find) before us. Never mind we thought going on our way to the next cache. Amongst the ivy it said, we hunted for 15 minutes and no luck, we decided ivy is one of our worst enemies.
Heads down we plodding back for lunch and unfortunately we didn’t have the chance to gain the badge as we had no time to do more caching.
Are we back in the game? Or not? That’s the question!
Jennifer and us all