Up a Creek....

I have been working on this post on and off for the last week. Its a long one and things that take a long time these days...are well, taking a long time. Life with 3, 3 and under, is busy and chaotic but we are having a wonderful time adjusting. We love our new little addition. 

We traveled to Aliceville, Alabama last Tuesday to a little mysterious place called "Shark Tooth Creek." I had heard about this place from a few who had been there and was curious to explore with my little ones myself. The man in the picture below owns a large amount of land that has a creek that runs quite a long ways through some of his property. In this creek, you can find literally tons and tons of shark teeth. "Really?," you ask. Yes, really. These teeth are supposedly from (according to what you believe about Creation its different for everyone) a really, really long time ago. (Can anyone tell I am sleep deprived? I think I have used the words really and long way to many times thus far into my telling of our adventure. Sorry...my brain can not find a whole lot of new vocab. words at the moment.) You can find all along the creek about 16 different species of shark teeth as well as many types of fossils. Supposedly this area was (in very simple terms) the ocean and the coast was around where Birmingham is today. So you can (and others have) found shark teeth in other creeks around the lower south, but his property was apparently close to an island or was an island where shark congregated or breed or something like this (ok, really, I did not hear everything he told us at the beginning since I was trying to chase down Kingston who kept disappearing and also soothe Hudson to sleep. Yes, I just called him Hudson. The name game may be over...I think we have settled on Hudson.) All I know was that we got into this trailer and rode across his property flying at speeds not completely fit for a group of children (and a newborn in a stroller) up and down hills, onto the highway (THE HIGHWAY!!!), and over to another part of the property with more hills and bumps, finally arriving to the creek we explored. 

My boys thought they had died and gone to heaven. They kept looking at me like, "Mom, where have you taken us? You mean to tell me we can splash in mud and water and pick up rocks (and shark teeth) for the next two hours? "Yes, my children," I said to them. "I am a wonderful Mom to bring to this place." Kidding, Kidding. But it did feel good to know that all my efforts of corralling them out of the house early that morning, packing a picnic, toting a newborn, and being gone all day was worth the effort. They were in heaven. 

We had an absolutely perfect day weather wise and the creek was just beautiful. The shark teeth are literally all up and down the creek. All you have to do is look down. Alder was really into hunting for teeth, Kingston loved the rocks/water/mud, and I was super into it.  In fact, I was so into looking for shark teeth myself (after all I did have a bag to fill with my name on it) that I wasn't watching Kingston at one point and he, well, went swimming. Bless his heart. 

We had a great time with our friends from our co-op home school group and other ones who came along too. I highly recommend going to Shark Tooth Creek and finding some teeth yourself if you live close by. I mean afterwards you could make some pretty sweet shark tooth necklaces. :)     

 This is Mr. Ken talking all about the creek and how the Natural HIstory Museum sends people down here to study the teeth, the creek, and the land since it is such a unique place and so on and so on (but I missed a lot of that), but it looks like our friends were listening well. 

A picture of everyone piled into the cow trailer and Kingston trying to escape. I don't blame ya buddy. 

Alder loved hunting for the teeth. 

Oh, and sticks. Kingston loved the plethora of sticks all along the creek. 

And as seen in the picture below, poor Hudson had no idea what was going on.

And you may be wondering, "is that a breath right strip on Kingston's nose???" No, its a butterfly closure band aid. He fell the night before on a toy in his room after bath time. It was awful. I have never seen so much blood. It was gushing out everywhere. We almost went to the ER (that would have been twice for Kingston in less than a month) but our dear friend and neighbor who is a nurse practitioner came and helped us apply surgical- grade super glue to it and butterfly band aids. It still looks awful and I will have to diligently apply Mederma to it for the next many months so he won't have a horrendous scar on his nose. Any other recommendations for helping to prevent scarring? Oh, my Kingston. He is a complete hand full.

My older absouletly loved the whole cow trailer part of the adventure. I had to talk Alder into getting off it once we arrived at the creek. Conrad Hudson sacked out in his car seat, that was attached to the jog stroller, pushed deep into the woods and lifted down a steep bank on the creek bed. Bless his little heart...thank you for sleeping in your car seat Hudson. You are my first child to do so. Thank you! 

Our treasures.

Our adventure: super fun