Lake Livingston

The second day trip that our family planned during the boys' fall break in early October was to Lake Livingston, a state park just over an hour's drive away. We were excited for the chance to spend some time away from the hustle & bustle of the city and to be outdoors together. Originally, we thought we'd borrow some Jr. Ranger backpacks (complete with binoculars and magnifying glasses for young explorers) and pick up an activity journal for the boys to complete and earn a Jr. Ranger pin. Unfortunately, we found out upon arrival that only the park store (not the main park office, strangely enough...) gives out those items, and they were closed on the day we visited. Bummer! We enjoyed plenty of other activities though, and it gives us a reason to visit again, I guess!

We started off our visit by walking along the hiking trails. Adley was not AT ALL happy to be in the hiking backpack, so she pouted in Daddy's arms for a while...

Soon enough, though, she was ready to hit the trails like her big brothers!

We also enjoyed just being by the water---

collecting special rocks and seashells,

and learning how to skip rocks. Daddy is a pro at this!

We had an absolutely gorgeous view of the water during our picnic lunch.

For the boys (and probably for Mommy too!), one of the most exciting parts of our visit was trying out geocaching for the first time. We loved it! For those of you unfamiliar with geocaching, here is a little summary...

First, using an app on Mommy's phone, we picked a geocache treasure to search for. There were several geocaches hidden throughout the park on various hiking trails. Each geocache had specific GPS coordinates listed, so we used my phone to get us as close to the treasure as possible (usually within 6-10 feet). My phone always buzzed at us when we were getting close-- so exciting! 

Once we knew we were close, the whole family started searching intently for the cache. Sometimes, the app gave us a clue about the geocache's location. Other times, the description was a little vague

It was always a golden moment when we spotted the hidden-- and often camouflaged-- geocache! As you can tell, each container was very different, so we never quite knew exactly what we were looking for.

Once we found the geocache, we'd open up the container and discover some sort of paper logbook and occasionally a small trinket or two. Our family signed our geocache name Schleich5 along with the date in the log. It was fun to see all the names of teams or individuals who had done the same thing before us!

Our last step was to replace the geocache exactly as we'd found it.

What a great adventure! We loved that the geocaching gave our boys something exciting to think about along our hikes. Team Schleich5 found a total of four geocaches at the park before it started to rain fairly heavily. Unfortunately, the rain also meant that we couldn't go canoeing or kayaking like we had been planning to try out that day too. So, our day at the lake was cut much shorter than we had hoped, but we still got a few good hours in, hiking and geocaching. We'll just have to visit this park again another time to try out the other great activities it has to offer! All in all, still a fun experience and a great family day!