What a First Letterbox Looks Like

Today Catharine and I reached a new level in our relationship. Letterboxing! Seriously, this is a great activity--one which I originally doubted and am now converted to. It's fun, easy, and for the most part air-conditioned, which on a day as hot as today was (high 90s) has to count for something. I want to give a big shout-out to Skoticus and Tom Hansen for inspiring the day's activities thanks to their positive reviews of letterboxing. For those of you not familiar, here's the shakedown on what you do.

Step 1: Find a letterbox in your area so as to save gasoline. There was one right in Wrightstown! Connor helps. Here's the dialogue of the process:

Step 2: Solve the clue to what you're looking for. Here's what we were given:

Eight Sided School House

[14][17][22][12]//[28][16][13]//[13][17][15][16][28]//

[27][17][12][13][12]//[27][11][16][23][23][20]//

[16][23][29][27][13]//[17][22]//

[31][26][17][15][16][28][27][23][31][22]//[24][9].//

[14][26][23][21]//[28][16][13]//[12][23][23][26]//

[14][17][22][12]//[28][16][13]//

[10][26][17][12][15][13].//

[28][16][13]//[10][23][32]//[17][27]//

[9][11][26][23][27][27]//[28][16][13]//

[10][26][17][12][15][13]//[29][22][12][13][26]//

[28][16][13]//[26][17][15][16][28]//[27][17][12][13].

Not getting it? Here's the solution we came up with after some clever deduction:

Find the eight

sided school

house in

Wrightstown PA.


From the door


find the


bridge.


The box is


across the


bridge under


the right side.




We really wanted it to be a poem with rhyme and meter (a limmerick perhaps?) but we settled for vague directions!


Step 3: Make your stamp. Being resourceful, Cat and I decided to carve ours out of a rubber eraser. Catharine designing, me approving:



We decided on a C and A design, using ASL.

Catharine applies ink for the stamp's maiden voyage:

Even without the photographic proof, I can tell you it was a successful print.

Step 4: Find your letterbox. On the way over to the eight-sided schoolhouse (which, by the way, was pretty cool) I began to get very nervous that the box would not be where the internet told us it would. I doubted--visions of maurading deer stealing boxes, hobos making off with rubber stamps to sell on the rubber stamp blackmarket floated through my mind. Catharine did her best to assuage me.


Oh letterboxing! You came through in the clutch! The box was just where it was supposed to be.

Inside we found the tiny log of stamps as well as their own rubber stamp for our book.

Step 5: Use your homeade stamp to leave a record in the log of your visit. Be sure to write your names.

Step 6: Use the box's stamp in your book. This is getting kind of hard to describe--not doing the greatest job here--but let's just say they had a cool stamp that looked like an eight-sided schoolhouse, I inked it up, and stamped it on some paper we brought with us.

Three cheers for letterboxing! Seriously, if you haven't tried this it's a good one. It would make for a great family home evening activity, date, Eagle Scout project, Master's thesis, weekend getaway. Go to it.

What a Game Night Looks Like

Friday night=good times. The Lee family invited a bunch of people over for some games, some food, some convivial association. We're young, right? We get to do these types of things. Here's what went down:

The family Hansen emerges prepared to wage the good fight!

And by "fight" I mean eat "mexican-inspired" food at Taco Bell. Here, Tom looks on as Rachel's head explodes from trying his drink. The accidental touch of root beer made it taste like bubblegum.

Meanwhile, at the Lees, Rob was preparing for some serious Cranium action. The teams: Sofa vs. non-sofa. In other words: Catharine, myself, Rachel in the couch corner versus the tag-team combo of Brother and Sister Lee, Rob and Tom.

Some sort of Japanese dexterity test which prepares the mind to spell backwards and draw with your eyes closed.

In the end, the non-couch team would win. But that's really not the important part, is it? The important part is that Tom Hansen learned how to do a low five:

Actually, other exciting things happened including another game of Cranium. Sadly, my camera had run out of gas. Speaking of gas:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24ktdkw8z5s

What I look like Monday-Wednesday 9:00 to 3:00

What a Trip Down the Shore Looks Like

Sometimes people like to get all covered in sand and salt. When this urge arises, a trip "down the shore" is usually in short-order. Today was one of those days. As a result, a few good friends and myself made the trip across the Garden State to what I would consider a quaint little village on the sea. In fact, it's called Avon-by-the-Sea, New Jersey. Here's what we did when we got there:

Alex gave the universal sign for "I love UV rays!"



Catharine and Rob looked both natural yet wind-swept down along the water line. What do you think they're contemplating?

Take 1.

That's better.



At one point in the day a mad game of "Keep the Volleyball in the Air" broke out. Basically, it was a quest to keep the ball in the air 30 bumps. We did it! Action shots are kind of my new thing, so I'm pretty proud of these.

Either pre or post ball visitation.

I'm going to call this the shot of the day. What is she looking at?
These guys are my paddle ball heroes. They hit that little ball back and forth to each other 199 times while their children counted. Seriously, they were so amazing.

Rob Lee came! Rob would later win the award for "He who has gotten the most sun". Congrats, Rob.

Catharine and Camille did the best job of soaking up the rays though. Camille even did some sand angels.

Then this happened.

Alex invited everyone to cover him with wet sand, citing some king of theraputic result. We were more than happy to oblige. However, I do not look very happy do I?






These are a few of the activities people like to do when they are down the Shore. I tried taking pictures (action shots) of people diving through the rough surf, but didn't have much luck. They just looked like little dots diving through the surf. The waves were pretty rough thanks to tropical storm Bertha and there was a pretty good undertow. All in all, a seriously great day. Good thing there's a shore to go to round these parts.