Alex is right smack in the middle of a new stage. A spy stage. He can't get enough of it. He wants to watch movies about it, read books about it and even found a you tube video on making a grappling gun. He loves it! He keeps asking for spy gear as everything that he makes just doesn't work. Carter is starting to get hooked too. Alex kept asking me to send him on a mission. A R-E-A-L Spy Mission. I racked my brain. What can I do????
And then one night it clicked. I remembered reading a post from a fellow blogger who happens to have 4 adorable boys and does a lot of fun boy things as a result. We both attend the same church and I came across her blog and have continued to follow it. Last Summer she introduced her boys to a National Treasure Hunt called Letterboxing. 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."
I checked out the website and I became so excited about taking the boys letterboxing! It was perfect. Sounded just like a real spy mission to me.
What you do is you select a location and then you select which letter boxes you want to go find. There are clues to help you find the boxes and they are all over the united states. In fact, when I narrowed it down to Salt Lake City there were plenty to choose from. There are over 5,000 letterboxes across the United States. Once you find the letterbox you open it and inside you will find a unique stamp specific to that letterbox and a "log book" to stamp with your own personalized stamp. You stamp your journal with the stamp from the letterbox and then date it. Then you stamp the "logbook" with your stamp and date it. You do this all very discreetly so that others won't accidentally discover the letterbox. You can browse through the log book and see all the different stamps and how many others have found it. Lastly, you hide the letterbox back where you found out for others to find.
I told the boys about letterboxing a few days ago and showed them the website. On the website there is a kids link that explains the entire process and even lets the kids go on a computer "letterbox search". Here are the boys learning all about letterboxing.
I told them we would go on Friday. The first day of their Spring Break. Friday could not come soon enough. In fact, I got a 6:30 AM wake up call asking if it was time to go letterboxing yet? We made our stamps this morning out of an eraser. Alex and Carter wanted a stamp that said "spy" and we made attempted to make a stamp in the form of a matroyshka doll for Nadya.
I printed off 5 missions. I wasn't sure if we would get to all five of them today, but we have all week to do as many as we want. So, we piled into the van and headed to our first destination: Gardener Historic Village. When we arrived, I started reading the clues. The first clue referred to a monument and had a picture of it. Carter could see the monument from the car so he yelled, "I found it" and they were off. They bolted out of the van. So much for the rest of the clues. They arrived at the monument and started searching it high and low.
You can see Nadya searching the monument, the boys are on the back side. I reminded them that we had more clues and we followed the rest of the clues until we arrived at a bench. Supposedly it was tucked behind the bench. Fingers Crossed!!!!!!! We found it!!!!!!
So, we exchanged stamps and put it back. The kids were ecstatic!!!!! The stamp was a picture of Gardner Village.
Their very first letterbox mission! We had to take a picture. I am glad I had my little camera in my purse! They are holding their journals for all the stamps they will acquire in the future.
We decided since we were already at Gardner Village perhaps a trip to the bakery was needed. So, we made a quick stop over to the bakery and picked out a treat. I took a few pictures.
Carter would not pose by the bunny. Instead, he wanted to find shade to eat his chips. So, he found shade under a table. It really wasn't too warm. I think the light was bothering his eyes. We gave snowball (the black cat that lives at the village) some lovins and then we were off to mission number 2!
Our clues took us the the Jordan Parkway. About five minutes away from Gardner Village. We found our letterbox within five minutes of arriving. Once again, the kids took off running from the van as soon as I read the first clue which told them to cross the bridge.
It was Carter's turn to actually "find" the letterbox. It was under a cement slab and he was able to retrieve it.
Part of the fun of letterboxing is exploring. The boys were excited to show me around as they have explored this park with Dad before. So, I followed. (and took pictures of course!)
We had time for one last mission before we needed to break for lunch. We were headed East about 5 miles. Once again, the kids flew out of the van after I read the first clue. (You'd think they would learn to at least listen to the first two clues!)
Unfortunately, it was way too muddy and the snow was covering important clues so we decided we would have to find this letterbox later in the Spring. Alex was not a happy camper, to say the least. But, would you look at their shoes..... And this is after we danced around on the grass for a few minutes. I've promised the boys we will go again on Monday. They are hooked and so I am! So much fun!
I do plan on making a few changes. The SPY stamp was too big for one of the log books and I am afraid it may be a problem for others as well. Plus, the kids really don't care about stamping. It's more about finding it and exploring and seeing what the stamp is. So, to speed things up, I think we will just come up with a family stamp and a family logbook. If you want to make a stamp or buy one I would recommend one that is smaller than two inches.
This sounds so fun and adventurous! I can't wait to try it once we move there. Your kids are so cute!
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