Dirty Test Tubes...

I thought that title might get your attention, but despite what you may be thinking...it's not what you're thinking. :P

You see...Dave had this great idea. I know right? But it DOES happen occasionally. :P We have been doing a lot of hiking, and he thought it would be cool to mark this moment in time, and preserve some of the dirt from all of the various trails that we have hiked with Caiden. This way, long after we are gone, Caiden can look at all of the hikes he went on when he was a young lad. :)

Dave told me about the idea to take a bit of trail from our hikes and put them in test tubes with labels of the month and date. He talked about making a wooden case, or buying a wooden case to contain these vials of dirt. The idea has evolved a little bit further in that we are going to include a photo book alongside the display so that you can see the ages and time pass as we hike with Caiden. We may also get the display engraved with some meaningful words (feel free to provide your ideas of what we should engrave).

This is the finished wooden block that Lance, Dave, and Caiden made

Here Dave and Caiden are making the labels for the hikes we have already completed

Anyway, I thought this was a really good idea. We went online immediately and bought the test tubes and wooden corks. Dave, Lance and Caiden then made the wooden display case that the test tubes will go in. So far we only have 6, but hey we just started. This has inspired us to find hikes in different places, with different textures. This way we will stop going to same old hikes, and venture out into the world in search of new adventures!!!

Hikes we have already completed...at least since this idea.

Caiden is really excited about this project, and is already talking about showing them off to his friends. In fact, at Caiden's birthday party today they became quite the topic of conversation, and we already have a play date to go hiking with another family. :) See...who thought that dirty test tubes would be bringing people together :)