Letterboxing 101

We tried something totally fun and different for father's day this year and I have to share it with you. Our Lettering Boxing Adventure!(Although I wish it had a different name). Letterboxing sounds like some kind of scrapbooking or academic reading strategy.

What is letterboxing? Its a combination of a treasure hunt, nature hike and collecting. All over the United States there are little boxes hidden on nature trails. If you go to this site you can find clues to these hidden boxes. I just did a quick search of where we live in West Des Moines and there are four hidden letterboxes nearby on biking and walking trails. Once you find the hidden box, it contains a stamp which you then stamp into your personal log book.

We uncovered a couple of them last Saturday.

Our Letterboxing adventure had something for everyone:

Me: I love being outside and active with my family
Megan and Lucy: The look on their faces when they reached into the hollowed tree stump and pulled out a box was something that can never be replicated.
Max:Is absolutely obsessed with finding "waver" (water), aaaaaaaants (ants), and mud. One certain trail was perfect for his two year old wonderment.
Dave: Anything map/direction related is right up his alley. Although it wasn't necessary, he had to bring along his GPS receiver just in case the printed out directions I had, suddenly got caught up in the wind and the Weis family was lost forever in the forest.

Fittest Executive Competition

Dave nominated me to represent Internet Solver in this yearly Business Record contest. It reminded me a little bit of high school PE with the testing items including how many sit ups and push ups can be done in a minute and the "sit and reach" to test your flexibility. They also did a three minute step test to see how fast your heart rate can recover. One different item from high school was the drawing of the blood. Did I even know what cholesterol and glucose levels were at that age? Definitely not!

If you want, read more about my interview here. There is also a picture of me with my bike (with what Dave calls my 4th child).

In reference to the bike Megan and Lucy do fondly refer to it as "big brother bully bikey" as sometimes it is left in our van and it may slightly tip over and gently konk them in the heads as we are driving somewhere. Ahh...teasing his sisters. That does sound pretty brotherly.

In Search of...

lazy summer days! I spot them coming around the corner soon!

I know I have been scarce on my blog lately. Thank you to all of you that said you missed it, but in the same breath said they understood why it had been difficult to keep up. I miss it to. I love writing and expressing myself through it, but have been preoccupied with triathlon training and the other consuming twists and turns of life.

I have been putting a few experiences up on twitter. Its easy to join and you can just read other people's stuff and never put anything up yourself. I followed Dave and a few other friends for awhile before doing anything else with it (although...I would love to hear your thoughts...it is so easy to use!)

This Sunday, will be the first time I get to put all the tri pieces together in my first sprint triathlon at Copper Creek in Pleasant Hill, Iowa. It will be fun and am anxious to work out some kinks and try it all out before the big mamoth one of all: The Hy-Vee Triathlon, which is an Olympic distance (1.5 K swim, 40 Kbike and 10K run).

They were putting up the spectator bleachers for it this week at Raccoon River. My heart gave more then a little jump...

New Obsession: Twitter!

Come on, check it out!
It is so much faster then blogging and less cluttered then facebook.

I love the ease in posting updates. And we all need a little more simplicity in our lives right?!
Follow me at:
http://twitter.com/sjweis

Dollar Days at Principal Park

Principal Park is sponsoring Dollar Days this Spring and Summer. It sounds like a lot of fun and a great way to get people down to the baseball field and cheer on our Iowa Cubs!

Here is what a Dollar ($) can get you:

General Admission Ticket - $1.00
Small Popcorn - $1.00
12-14oz pop-$1.00
Pretzel - $1.00
Inflatable Games in the concourse- $1.00

Tickets can be bought the day of the game

Thur 4/23 6:35pm
Mon 5/4 6:35pm
Thur 5/21 6:35pm
Mon 6/8 7:05pm
Mon 7/20 7:05pm
Mon 8/10 7:05pm
Mon 8/24 6:35pm

American Girl Getaway!

We took a mini Spring Break trip with friends to the Mall of America and visited their new American Girl Shop. What fun! Just girls allowed!

Lucy and Megan were so excited to pick out a new outfit for Kit and Kirsten, eat at the Rainforest Cafe, enjoy milk and cookies delievered to our hotel room and attempt to sleep in the oh-so-fun bunk beds!








What did Max do? I think he spent good quality time with Daddy and learned how to program on his laptop.

Here they come...

and go...

When did these long legs and matronly ways appear?!

I am currently working out some new ideas. See you soon!