Adventures in Letterboxing

So, a couple of years ago I read an article that mentioned letterboxing. I think it was in Family Fun magazine.

From letterboxing.org:

"LETTERBOXING is an intriguing pastime combining navigational skills and rubber stamp artistry in a charming "treasure hunt" style outdoor quest. A wide variety of adventures can be found to suit all ages and experience levels. Click on the desktop items above to explore this fast-growing hobby."

Basically, anyone can hide a letterbox, which would generally be a rubbermaid type container with a stamp and a notebook. They would then post directions online as to how to find the letterbox. Those who find the hidden letterbox would leave their own stamp in the notebook, and then use the stamp in the letterbox to mark their own "notebook passport" of sorts. It sounded fun at the time, but we never tried it.

Earlier this year, our Bishop challenged us to reread The Family: A Proclamation to the World, and identify specific principles we could improve on in our families.

We chose the two principles I have bolded in the following passage:

"Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities."

We determined that our family needed to work more together, and to find more ways to engage in wholesome recreational activities...together.

Thus, our desire to investigate letterboxing was rekindled.








And it was a blast! We did our first one last Saturday afternoon. Our baby-sitter, K, was already with us. It was a great set of instructions...taking us through a tunnel, near water, past deer, and we even had a frog leap out in front of us!


Searching for the hidden letterbox.


Smacking away a mosquito.


I love these adventurers!


And they love K! (I do too...she is such a great girl.)






Unfortuneately, we didn't find the letterbox at the end, but it was still a blast. And because we got too late of a start, our plan to picnic at the letterboxing site was thrown off, and became a basement picnic dinner instead. Fun anyway!