FINALLY!!! A nice weekend!!

We were so excited to see the sun and warmer temps listed for today. This is the first weekend that Matt isn't on call and the weather is nice...so, we were extremely anxious to get out and do some letterboxing. Our goal for the day was Princeton, IL. Thanks to Pitties & Shorty for planting the "New Orleans" series at Echo Bluff Park. They planted 11 boxes in this park and let me tell you...these are some gorgeous stamps!

We actually started our day at Buffalo Rock State Park to find a box by Matt the Rat. What a great way to start our day! We found the box, enjoyed a great hike and played at the playground (more on that in a minute).

Ready to hit the trail - notice the walking sticks - Katie made sure that everyone had one as soon as we got out of the van.

Maddie & Will waiting for Matt. He realized that he had left the clues back at the box!! So, he quickly hiked back to successfully grab the paper.

We are on a mission for 2009. A friend of ours has a goal of 52 slides in 2009...we took on that goal and raised it to 100. So, here is our first & second official slides of the year.

Leaving Buffalo Rock State Park, we grabbed some lunch and headed to Echo Bluff Park. This little known park is close to Spring Valley, IL. We were successful in finding 10 of the 11. We were reminded how well the kids do with hiking! The GPS that we carried showed us walking a total of over 5 miles while Google Earth shows it closer to 2 miles (between the 2 parks)! So, we are assuming that it is close to 3.5 miles of hiking on the prairie and bluff trails.

Maddie taking a break during while stamping in...she thought it was so funny that the bench was on its back!

The really cool High Rope Course - the kids couldn't believe how high up everything was. They thought it would be cool to have one of these in the backyard.

Will - ready to call it a day. This was at the #9 box. He plopped down and stayed there the whole time we stamped in.

It ended up taking a bit longer than we anticipated (at Echo Bluff). Of course, 3 snack breaks don't help matters! We got home in time for quick baths and sleep...ready for the Easter Bunny's visit and celebrating our Lord's miraculous resurrection on Easter Sunday. Thank you Jesus for making the ultimate sacrifice - we are not worthy!