secrets, searching, and stamps

Knowing that the summer is more than half over, I sure wish I would have initiated this activity when the snow first started melting.

Has anyone ever heard of Letterboxing?

Well, we have just discovered it this week and I think we are standing on the precipice of addiction.

According to the official website, "Letterboxing is an intriguing pastime combining navigational skills and rubber stamp artistry in a charming "treasure hunt" style outdoor quest."

We follow clues to a hidden box (there are over 5000 in the U.S. right now). Inside the box is a journal and a stamp.

We stamp the journal with our personal stamps and mark the date. Then, we stamp our personal journal with the stamp in the letterbox.

We do all of this very discreetly and hide the box back where we found it.

So much fun.

Today we found two letterboxes in our town alone (there are hundreds within a reasonable distance of our home).

One was at our public library. A hollowed out book that masqueraded as a real library book. We're pretty sure that the library doesn't know it is hiding on the shelf. The clue helped us find it and we took it to the back corner of the library to see our treasure.

At one point, I asked Hunter why it didn't look like he was having any fun. He replied, "I am having a blast Mom, but I don't want anyone to be suspicious."

Our stamps: An "L" for me, a frog for Sauce, and a bow and arrow for Hunter. We carved them ourselves out of erasers just this morning.

Our next box was found outside. The boys were thrilled.

We added Rufus's stamp to this one "PC" for our little ski town.

We're heading to a week on Lake Michigan in a couple of days. Needless to say, we're bringing our stamps because we're sure there are some letterbox adventures to add to our vacation!