Weekend - Birthday, Geocaching, Rabid Rabbits - Picturtopia

We had a good weekend at our house. Eryn turned five, and we celebrated with a party at The Blast, Eagan's indoor play area. I bumped into one of the managers I work with there, and his wife, also a coworker, as their son was born just a few days before our daughter. It was a good place to party. Considerably cheaper than Pump It Up, and it came with a cake. The kids seemed to love it. We finished with an afterparty at the house, playing Wii sports with grandpa and grandma, and a whole evening of beer and Rabid Rabbits with Kyle. Perhaps it's not the best idea to teach your child to slap rabbits and hit them with hammers and plungers and hammer toss cows, but Eryn seems to understand that it's all in good fun. Racing warthogs can be very difficult.

We also went geocaching on Sunday, that glorious, warm, beautiful day that makes you wonder what the hell happened after about 4:00 p.m. today. Why couldn't it be all rainy and crappy and cold between 8 and 4 and sunny afterwards? We went down to Black Dog Park in Eagan, near the river, and found about six caches over several miles of walking. Exercise for the whole family.

And as part of our geocaching adventures, we rehid Eryn's cache, and it was accepted! It literally took 15 minutes from it being posted and accepted to three different cachers showing up at the site at the same time. Crazy! They have alerts set so that their cellphones/blackberrys alert them to new posts. No first to find for The Boss, although he found it today.

Someone rode out into Black Dog Park on their Suzuki and never made it home. It's all very Mad Max with Eryn starring as the little feral child.


The first time we tried to find this cache, it was incredibly wet and muddy and Eryn and I failed. Failed in many ways, because I took a tumble down a slippery hill and hurt my arm. That was the end of caching that day. I think the mud is still on that jacket. This time I walked right up to it and popped it open and found this. Apparently my brain had been mulling over what I'd missed for weeks.


Here's the fade shot with Eryn and her Webkin wondering why the cache isn't to be found where it would seem it should be.


Ah...you think you're sneaky, don't you Mr. Paklid. But we're on to you.


This is a geobug called something like Little Man, Big Head. You have to be pretty dedicated to be finding places to hide this monstrosity. It's huge, and heavy, meaning you can't crumple it up and stuff it into something smaller. We didn't take it - I just wasn't sure when we'd next be near an appropriate cache.


Eryn, strutting her stuff on Geocaching Sunday.


Eryn's a geo gopher. Seems like a not so sneaky cannibal was trying to catch a bit of lunch. Dude - deeper, more spikes.


A bit more posing.


Followed by acting like a ninja with a walking stick. I can only assume this is the fallout of Light Saber Aerobics at the school talent show.


Near where Eryn hid her first cache. That's right...where we were, the trees have names. Vulture and Kite aren't very descriptive, but they make for good clues for cachers. The official name of her cache, which included her first Tooth Fairy geobug, was "I Have a Cachity."


Here we are looking for good places to hide a cache. I did do a squirrel check with a stick before thrusting Eryn's face into the hole.


Birthday at the Blast. My niece, sporting the dinosaur babysitter shirt we got her for Christmas from Threadless and enjoying her cake and ice cream. She really covered some ground in the kid habitrail.


Eryn and her friend sharing a birthday hug.


Eryn reading Girls Can from Grandpa and Grandma.


Logan at the Blast. His mother is effectively hidden in this photo. Logan refused to crawl around the tubes without her. By the end of two hours, she was looking rather hot. In a sweaty, too much time in tubes that are too small for adults, sort of way.


Conner. He suffered the only real injury I know of. Somehow he managed to backflop off something, and there were red scrapes on his back that made him look like he was auditioning for Body Worlds.


Post caching. Eryn and the neighbor drawing chalk outlines in the driveway and playing golf. Those sticks to the right are geocaching leftovers. Pooteewheet's bumper stick proclaims her desire to have Edwards elected. I think the chalk outlines are a metaphor for her hopes.