The word 'seek' means to go in search of, try to discover, try to acquire. It requires an active, assertive approach to life.

It's getting to that time of year again where we have a slightly better chance of sunshine and I'd like to think that we are taking full advantage of that. Our garden is looking the best it has since we moved into our home and the bright warm weather and long light evenings have been putting a smile on all of our faces.  The great thing about the weather being lovely is that we can take the home-schooling outdoors more, which for me, is what it's all about.

Last year we started Geocaching with the boys and the 4 of us had some seriously fun adventures. Many in lush weather like this but there were a few where we were out, hunting around woodland in the pouring rain and the weather didn't make it any less fun. We'd not been for quite some time but last week Opeie asked if we could go again. I had the perfect place in mind with Geocache sites scattered all over a huge piece of farmland and it meant that we could take the Micro scooters with us to get from cache to cache. Opeie named our day 'cowboy adventure day'.

Turns out you can't wear a cowboy hat while wearing a helmet, so we briefly discussed a collaboration with Micro scooters about cowboy hat shaped helmets for us both (we may have to pitch it to them at some point).

If you've not tried geocaching before it is a must. With thousands of hidden caches to find all over the country you can fit it in pretty much anywhere you go, using the geocache app which you can download to your phone. It's a great way to get the boys out and walking on a nice day and if you pick an area with lots of caches to find, the excitement of each one is a great distraction from the actual distance that you have walked (or in our case, scooted).

Hunting for hidden treasures is so exciting for the boys and some of the geocache sites really test your navigational skills and creative thought. You sometimes really have to look hard at a seemingly plain looking environment. We found this one inside the post of this road sign after removing the rubber cap, genius!

Some of the locations make us chuckle, this one was simply called 'cluck' and was located in a tree next to a chicken run. The list to sign, to say that we had found it was in a plastic cooked chicken. Full on entertainment in the sunshine.

One of the things I love the most about Geocaching is that we get to see places we would never think of going. Last week we found an old derelict mill in the middle of some fields and woodland. It's fascinating how many interesting places there are hiding in areas, not too far from home. We also get to see lots of lovely animals on our expedition. 

We couldn't scoot everywhere so there was a fair bit of stashing our scooters in some long grass or chaining them to a tree while we went off adventuring. At this point in our family days out we would be completely lost without our Micro scooters with us. They've opened up th world to the boys, taking them off of their feet and getting them moving about even more productively.

Opeie's excitement is contagious and with each find, there is more motivation to get to the next. From a home schooling point of view, geocaching is obviously great for map reading and learning about direction but is also great for learning higher numbers and counting backwards. Most importantly though is the learning from experience and being able to fully enjoy and learn from our surroundings.

Opeie loves how little things are often left inside by the previous finder and he takes a bag of small items to trade, every time we go. This little outing bagged us a new hat for rose the cat, so Opeie was very happy. 

This years Geocaching outings have also bagged us a new recruit and Opeie's friend Kiera has also been coming with us and has really been getting into the hunt. Its always great to have an extra pair of eyes too. While I was searching along the inner bank of a stream with one cache, close to getting soaked, Kiera found what we were looking for high up on top of the bank because she was being a little more creative with her search.

We're now looking forward to getting Kiera's parents involved too for a double family Geocache outing. There is so much adventure to be had.

"Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself."

Sometimes i write posts and forget to publish them, this is one of them...

Rain, rain and more bloody rain. We woke up and our 'what are we going to do today' discussion was under way. What could we possibly do that was fun and indoors? Mrs M had booked some time off work to hang out and see how us boys make use of our time together. Who'd have thought it would be Mrs M dragging us out into some muddy and wet adventure.

I'm feeling a little ashamed of myself now that while the rain thrashed against the window me and the boys (who claim to be adventurers) had already thrown in the towel and was planning a day of Lego, super heroes, computer games and craft, shame on us. Mrs M had other ideas and suggested Geocaching. We had planned to start last summer but for some reason or other we'd managed to avoid it. Thankfully at that shear mention our sense of adventure rebooted and we were ready for action (adding even more proof to the fact, we'd be lost without mommy!).

I knew what Geocaching was but as always no researching had occurred before hand so I didn't know what to expect, I prefer to just find out on the day. We downloaded an app, jumped in the car and headed towards an area rich in Geocache locations. We walked for a while following the compass and satnav on the phone which took us to an area where our first item was hidden. I disappointingly turned my nose up when I thought we had walked all that way to find a wooden post in the ground, until Mrs M told us we were looking for a camouflage covered box, instantly the hunt had earned my full attention again. Me and Seth investigated the wooded area until I heard Seth excitedly shout 'I've found it'. As he turned over a very well hidden pile of rocks there was the treasure we had been looking for.

Inside, items left by previous adventurers and a notepad with everyone who had been there before us well documented. The last adventurer had left us £1 so in return we left some snacks for the next hungry traveller. Seth was having the time of his life and honestly it was the most fun I'd had in ages (and we have a lot of fun). There's something so addictive about getting out and finding these hidden things that we quickly moved on to the next one. Which after walking around in circles we found well hidden under rocks wrapped in vines. Geocaching is like having your own 'national treasure' adventure virtually on your doorstep. It was exciting knowing I had been on walks and bike rides through this forest and had no idea that these had been hidden since 2009, I think we 're addicted.

Seth wanted an adventure and with mission three he definitely got that. The weather took a turn for the worse and the rain was really coming down we were trudging though wet sinking mud, because of Seth's limited mobility he was on my shoulders but we were not going to let that stop us. Mrs M was the only one not wearing walking boots so she was soaked through, she slipped over and landed in mud but wasn't bothered by it because her new found sense of adventure and adrenaline was keeping her smiling. Box three was a nightmare to find but we stuck together and didn't give up. We found the 'three pronged birch tree' and our days adventure was complete. All we needed to do now was remember where we had left the car.

We have been on many many more Geocaching adventures since and found some great hidden treasures...

Our best find to date was a disused fire extinguisher hiding in the forest with an official geocach tag inside, very exciting. Its been a really fun new hobby and something we will definitely continue wherever we go. Its been great for fill time when we have no plans and sometimes we use a quick hunt to break up things that we are doing the weekend. We've also started leaving our own so go hunting, If you spot a LEGO minifigure in one of your finds then there's a good chance it was left by the Gifts From The Pirates team.