Good morning!

We haven't been blogging (or caching) lately due to school starting and the craziness that goes with the beginning of the school year! Jacob started first grade and I have started another year of teaching first grade. Along with the craziness, we've had a few things go wrong this week (our basement flooded, we had a flat tire at the lake with our new jet ski, my dad was in the hospital, our garage door broke, Jacob was sick, our AC stopped working...oh, that was last week...) Hopefully we're in for a spell (a long spell) of good luck!

Last weekend we traveled to Iowa and we did 3 caches along the way...one in Kansas (Fancy Creek Resting Place...the only cemetery that I've ever seen with a picnic area), one in Nebraska (I Pledge Allegiance to the Flag..nice little park), and one in Iowa (Tannenbaum Cache). The Tannenbaum cache was our 150th find and it was memorable! It was located in a Christmas Tree Farm on the side of the hill. It was a nice cool night, with a few bugs out. All and all, an easy find.

While we were in Iowa, we set 2 caches (Grove Township and People's Park.) We drove out in the country with my father-in-law, Leonard, and brother-in-law, Craig, to an old cemetery in Manteno. We spent about an hour looking around. Leonard had plenty of stories to tell...his uncle was buried in the cemetery. Fred Brown had died from a hunting accident when he was 17. Leonard's grandparents lived about 1-1/2 miles from the cemetery and he'd grown up in the area. We walked around looking at the old grave stones. We found some that were marked with "GAR" stars, which stands for Grand Army of the Republic! These men fought in the Civil War. Some of the stones found have dates that would place the birth of the people in the 1700's. Lots of interesting history.

Our other cache that we set (People's Park) isn't as interesting...it's located in a small public park in downtown Dunlap. It's a quick park and grab right near the parking area.

During our busy and hectic week, Jeff did manage to do 1 cache and got a FTF (first to find for all of you non-cachers!) Since the weather has cooled down, we're hoping to do a few caches during the weekend.

Happy caching!
~JEN