I've been geocaching for just over a year now and love it more now than I did the moment I found my first cache. I've frozen in below-zero snowscapes, roasted in the high desert sun, climbed mountains and even found caches underwater. I've lost weight and gained muscle as the months have passed, and my TV and couch may sue me for abandonment. I've been to places of beauty I never dreamed of (some of them just outside my backdoor), and helped cachers I'll never meet do the same. Given all of the wonderful things that geocaching has meant to me, I was surprised to have the whole thing get dramatically better a couple of weeks ago through a simple change ... my wife and son started caching, and we go as a family.

My wife supported my geocaching from the first day I went out, but had no interest in joining me in my search for "hidden junk" in the woods. She liked the exercise I was getting and the enjoyment I seemed to get out of geocaching but was a little turned off by my stories of frozen feet, poked eyes, and boomeranging GPS signals sending me wandering around darkening woods. My version of geocaching didn't appeal to her; she needed something to help her define geocaching for her. It was our 3 year-old son's love of the "Indiana Jones" movies that finally got us out geocaching together.

We watch parts of the movies, and edit out other parts through a combination of distractions and fast-forwarding ... so our son Ben watches a "kinder, gentler" Dr. Jones adventure his way around the world looking for treasure. Ben came along on a Valentine's Day cache I hid for my wife and started calling the booty we found inside the ammo-can "TREASURE" (yes, it is all caps). Since then, he asks all the time if we can go hunting for treasure ... it's fun, we can do it together, it gets us all outside ... of course we can go.

Somehow, hunting for treasure at the end of short and pretty walks with our whole family sounded better to my wife than my version of geocaching (go figure?), and so now we are heading out whenever we get the chance. We've done a bunch of caches I had already found, but I still had a great time, and last weekend we scored a new find for both their caching team and me. I'm still going to enjoy going out on more physically challenging cache hunts, but my view of geocaching has certainly changed in the last few weeks.

Tips for parents of 3 year-old treasure hunters:

1) Always bring you own treasure just in case the cache you find doesn't have anything great/appropriate in it ... you can always slip your stuff in while inspecting the goodies.

2) Let them get dirty; Indiana Jones doesn't worry about muddy knees.

3) Bring plenty of snacks and stuff to drink -- tiny archeologists run through lots of calories on their adventures.

4) Cool-looking band-aids can fix anything (in a 3-year-old's world they're like duct-tape is to grown men).

5) If they take something, have them pick something from a trade-bag to leave ... it's good to learn to follow rules and to share what you have with others.

6) Stop when you figure they could still find another cache ... it's better to leave them wanting more than to push it and have an overtired and frustrated treasure hunter who may be less eager to go out the next time.

7) Your first few times out together, go for caches you've already found with easy terrain.