March of the Puffins

Christophers First Trip to the Zoo

We saw elephants, sea lions, penguins, hippos, gorillas, and all kinds of other animals. Chris had a good time. He really liked the penguins and puffins. I will post a video of that as well. Tried to find 3 geocaches and only found one. Oh well. After a nap, Chris is ready to play some more!

Team Banks Discover Geocaching

The Banks family has discovered a new hobby. It is called "Geocaching" Here is a Geocaching.com's description, "Geocaching is an entertaining adventure game for gps users. Participating in a cache hunt is a good way to take advantage of the wonderful features and capability of a gps unit. The basic idea is to have individuals and organizations set up caches all over the world and share the locations of these caches on the internet. GPS users can then use the location coordinates to find the caches. Once found, a cache may provide the visitor with a wide variety of rewards. All the visitor is asked to do is if they get something they should try to leave something for the cache."
Basically it is a treasure hunt. We have been wanting to do some more family activities and wanting to walk more. This combines the two and is a lot of fun. Here are some pics from our Tunnel Hill cache. Tunnel Hill is an old steam train tunnel which is now a state trail. The pic of Shawn is once we found the cache, which is the plastic box on the rock. You sign the log book contained inside and take one of the treasures inside called "swag." You then leave your own swag for someone else to find.
We are really enjoying it. Christopher seems to really enjoy himself unless it gets too hot.
We will try to document some of our geocaches here but put more on our travel log.

Herrinfest Italiana Part 2

Daddy's friends from high school came to the Festa with their kids. Christopher got to see old friends like Jordan Cox and make a new friends with Nolan Schulz and Jacob Clay. Chris says he can't wait to go see his buddy Nolan this summer in California.

Herrinfesta Italiana Part 1

Herrinfest Italiana has been so much fun! Christopher won first place in the Festa Photo contest for 0-12 months. He got to march in parade. Much more to come...

This is how Mommy and Christopher spent their first Mother's Day together. Daddy got mommy crystal photo cube with Chris' picture in it. It is really nice. Then they took a nap, played, and took another nap. It was a nice day for the whole family.

Christopher's First Encampment

Christopher got to make his first trip to Fort Massac for the Illinois Territorial Rangers May Garrison at the fort. He had a ball. He was intrigued by fire and jumped at hearing his first muzzle blast. It was truly an enjoyable day. Of course he was always the center of attention!