The best thing that we do all summer is to go to "French Beach," as Alder calls it.
We load up the boat and usually with friends, hot dogs, shovels, buckets, some towels, a card table and folding chairs, a lighter, some wine, and the ingredients to make smores. As we speed along the river in the boat the boys scream with excitement, reach back to touch the water spray, count the wild animals we see along the way, and help Daddy drive. The excitement has built and as we reach the sandy bank, I can hardly keep them in the boat. As I lift them down into the shallow water, I watch Alder and Kingston race away down the shoreline giggling and embracing this authentic place, the freedom, and the sense of adventure.
The Black Warrior is full of adventure and freedom and is truly an authentic place to be "raising" our boys. It is perfect for them. They bathe in the mud, swim in the dark waters, start fires with Daddy, collect sticks, and learn of the place around them. It thrills me that "French Beach" is a place that they can really be boys. A couple of times now we have taken along the wonderful Smith family and cooked out our dinner over an open fire, watch the children explore, and bask in the soothing effects of being by open water.
A simple life...and young children.
What a blessing.
We load up the boat and usually with friends, hot dogs, shovels, buckets, some towels, a card table and folding chairs, a lighter, some wine, and the ingredients to make smores. As we speed along the river in the boat the boys scream with excitement, reach back to touch the water spray, count the wild animals we see along the way, and help Daddy drive. The excitement has built and as we reach the sandy bank, I can hardly keep them in the boat. As I lift them down into the shallow water, I watch Alder and Kingston race away down the shoreline giggling and embracing this authentic place, the freedom, and the sense of adventure.
The Black Warrior is full of adventure and freedom and is truly an authentic place to be "raising" our boys. It is perfect for them. They bathe in the mud, swim in the dark waters, start fires with Daddy, collect sticks, and learn of the place around them. It thrills me that "French Beach" is a place that they can really be boys. A couple of times now we have taken along the wonderful Smith family and cooked out our dinner over an open fire, watch the children explore, and bask in the soothing effects of being by open water.
A simple life...and young children.
What a blessing.
