Finally Cache'n In

Well, after a couple of yrs of planning, one lost GPS, and a new GPS- we finally are Geocaching! (http://www.geocaching.com/) Using the coordinates found on the website, you use your GPS to find little boxes, or containers filled with little what-nots. It is like treasure hunting.
Josiah and Danny went on New Yrs Day and Josiah thought it was the coolest thing ever. SO, on Sat we decided to go and find a virtual cache. When doing a virtual cache, you don't actually find an object, but go to a site (in this case- a historical site) and find a piece of info to solve a riddle. We decided to go to Rodney, MS. It is off of the Natchez Trace, and about an hr drive from us.
Rodney (http://www.southpoint.com/states/ms/rodney.htm) (http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images?_adv_prop=image&fr=yfp-t-305-s&va=rodney+ms&sz=all ) was an old settlement that was once up for consideration to be the capitol of MS. It was a booming town in it's time, but when the Mississippi river shifted and moved about 3 miles over it was no longer along the route to New Orleans, and slowly dwindled. It is called a ghost town now. I don't think I would have personally deemed it that; Only because when I hear "ghost town", I picture lot's and lot's of old buildings still standing. Here there are only a small handful. It is also not completely remote, although it definitly off of the beaten path. There are lot's of rather junky looking deer camps around it which sort of ruin the effect. Nonetheless, it is SO cool. There are a few old churches, one with a canon ball stuck visibly in the front which was from a civil war squable when some Union soldiers were attending a service at the church. They had been on a boat coming up the MS river and were invited to attend a service at the church because the pastor there was a northern sympathizer. The captain was going to speak at the service. WELL, the confederate soldiers got wind of it, and surrounded the church. There was a squable and the Union army said they would not destroy the town of Rodney, MS, if the confederates would let their soldiers go. They did, and that is why there are some remaining buildings from pre civil war times. some are falling in...but like I said earlier, there are only a few left to look at.
We didn't get to finish finding what we were looking for (this virtual cache wanted you to go to the grave yard up the hill that was behind the church, and find the name of a certain woman, and where she was born) because it was pouring down rain by the time we got there.
We did find 2 other caches that day- one back in the woods- one right off of the trace. We took an old country road back to the trace that showed up on our GPS, and it was really neat. It crossed over some extremely steep hills (yes, MS does have them), and there was an old church on top of one of them. There were creeks, and open grassy meadows all along it. It was SO beautiful. We saw several deer and Danny saw a big buck. It ended crossing a low concrete bridge over a bustling creek. It was such a fun day and I am really looking forward to doing it again.
If you are wondering why I am have no photos, it is because I no longer have a camera. (boohoo) When Josiah and Danny went geocaching, he stuck ours in his back pocket, sat on a stick, and busted the screen. He thinks he can replace the screen but I think I have about convinced him to fix it, and just keep it for his own back-pocket camera. He is sort of rough with stuff like that and he uses it just as much as I do.
I have decided to sell our little yellow camper in hopes that I will get enough money to get a nice camera, plus a little to save for vacation. Our digital camera was nice. I loved it, and if that is all we can have then I am thrilled. BUT- I cannot say that I wouldn't love to have a camera that I could learn to take some awesome pics on. I don't want to be a professional or anything. But I would like to learn to take some cool pics when we travel, and just day to day with the kids. I don't want like a SUPER dooper one- only super. ;>) SO, we shall see how that comes out.
In other news, I am very excited about how Josiah is doing in school. He is learning so much and it feels good to see the progress. He has been learning to add and subtract small numbers, and is working on reading some easy sentences. He is also practicing writing one sentence each day in a journal. When I look at him, I am blown away by how big he is getting. I can still see him in his walker running laps around the church with his tongue hanging out, while we all sang on Sunday nights. It was so cute. Sometimes I just wish I could squish him up, and make him little again so I could hold him on my lap and let him grin and laugh at me. It seems like kids are only little for such a short time, and no matter how hard you try to soak up every minute and hope to hold them in your brain, memories are still only memories. You cannot make them the "present" again.
Of course, what good is something if it never grows? I cannot wait to see what he grows into. That is the neat part about change. He is growing into something that God is going to use mightily one day. I know that. What a privilege to watch it all unfold!