Letterboxing and Guinea Pigging

This week, the kids and I decided to participate in the Urbana Park District's Wild About Parks Quest. It's a letterboxing treasure hunt sort of quest. Alice and Robert love a good mystery, so it didn't take much convincing. James kept asking about when we would find his part of the treasure. Matthew, well, slept through most of it.

We found four hidden boxes in about an hour and left our mark(s).

Alice signed up for a research experiment that's examining the connection between fitness and cognitive performance in kids. She went through her first series of tests on Saturday...FOUR hours of them. Holy cow. Most were cognitive tests and one was a fitness test where she got to jog on a treadmill until she just couldn't run any further. She had a blast! This girl loves tests. Loves worksheets. Loves feedback from adults that she's doing well or exceeding their expectations. It was like a party for this girl. Kinda reminds me of me. I did not get any pictures of her running on the treadmill, but she looked a bit like this with all the VO2 max measuring equipment on her face: