Treasure Too Great to Measure!

Ahoy there mateys!

Getting ready for our adventure

Last weekend we visited my parents, partly to celebrate my birthday early, and also to fulfill some plans we've made for a while. Through the years, my parents have enjoyed doing simple treasure hunts for cousins and foster children, just as a fun time, with a little map and goodies at the end of the searching. In the past, they have been simple. However, in the last few months, Mom and Dad got the idea to plan a big-time treasure for Isaac and Abigail to find. We've been building excitement in the whole idea by mentioning things in casual conversation everytime we're at Mom and Dad's - there are rumors of treasure in the Decatur area, that Dad's heard something about pirates that used to travel the Tennessee River, he is sure there's a map around somewhere, if we could just find it... Mom got a great, wooden treasure chest, and we've had friends and other family members on the lookout for "booty" to add to the chest. By last week, Mom had a great assortment of jewelry (some antique, and sentimental), stones, beads, brass figurines, crystals, coins, rhinestone encrusted figures, etc., compiled by her from various sources - old jewelry and coins, stones from a weird shop in town, and some even mailed by my aunt in Hilton Head. Dad created an incredible map, and we laid our plans out Fri. night to really make it a believable story. We headed out Sat. morning, taking the path behind Mom and Dad's house, and before long, spied a bottle in the culvert, with a message inside. You should've heard their shouts when they realized the map was in there! The kids had to study the map, and read a rhyme that gave us clues. They figured out "Turtle Pond" was the pond behind my parents' street, where the triangle near the X was (the 3 sweet gum trees in a corner by the pond), and then we had to find 3 Xs on the trees which let us know in the middle was our spot to dig. And, lo and behold, under the pinestraw we brushed away, there was an X marking the spot! We were all so giddy and it was really awesome to see their excitement and anticipation as Dad dug down, and finally, hit the treasure chest, wrapped in burlap. We loaded it on the wheelbarrow the kids had ridden in while we followed the clues, and took it back to their driveway to unload the plunder. The whole thing was all we'd hoped for, and we are still enjoying going through our chest, looking at all the amazing loot. I have such a precious family, and they're so creative and really outdid themselves this time!

Digging up the chest Treasure!