Booker Fun

My family never had a lot of money to play around with when the three of us kids were growing up. Dad was a teacher and bus driver at our local high school, and we made the sacrifices so that Mom could stay home. We never lacked for anything, that's for sure. God always provided for our needs. And even if we did lack for a "want," we never knew it! For most of our growing up years, Mom and Dad chose not to have a t.v. in the house, so we never saw any of the commercials and t.v. ads for all of the new bells and whistles that everyone said that we were all supposed to have. We didn't know the difference, and we were happy as could be!

We never went to Disney, and we never travelled any further than the coast of our own state, but boy oh boy - did we have some doozies of good times as a family! Whenever we can all get together and whenever one of us would stop having a newborn, we always try to replicate our camping and canoeing trips - and both of my brothers and I always say that we would never trade our childhoods for the WORLD! We tented and canoed out in the boondocks with all of the cousins right along with us. And on warm summer evenings, we would hook the wagon on back of our four-wheeler and haul as many people as we could over every single dirt path that we could find - stopping to pick raspberries along the way and even go for a spontaneous swim in a river. More often then not, we would have a bonfire in our back yard, or at the very least a little firepit in our driveway so that we could roast a hotdog or marshmallow. Mom would play her guitar, the cousins or neighbors would always drop in, and we just hung out as a family. It was simple. It was cheap. But we were together, and that was all that mattered.

That's the kind of life I'm trying to recreate for my boys. Simple fun. Intentional time as a family. And building memories that they will want to continue long into their adulthood and that they will want to replicate with their own children. Good stuff.

Today's family day marked the beginning of the "Fall" fun tradition that we started last year when Ransom was just days old. He's our first fall baby, Daddy is an avid hunter, and the big boys love whatever Daddy loves, so thus began our "family heater hunting" expeditions. It goes a little something like this:

~ I pack lots of healthy snacks: M&M's, hot chocolate, you know - treats!
~ We drive until we find an old dirt road somewhere.
~ The two big boys hop up front with Daddy to scout out the territory.
~ I sit in the backseat, pull Rancey into my lap, and snuggle him to sleep.

It. is. glorious.
Truly, it rocks.

Daddy gets to scout out potential hunting spots. The boys think it's a hoot sitting up front and hanging out the window like dogs. They also love the treats. I love snuggling with my baby. We stop to pick raspberries and blackberries. I find lots of fun sticks, trees, and rocks to bring home to decorate with. Kev and I laugh our heads off and make fun of the boys' quirky mannerisms.....(does anyone else do that?) Just kidding. We don't really. Well, maybe we do, a little.

And, that's it. Simple fun. It costs zero dollars.



And on the way home, we hear this little conversation in the backseat:

Kaden: "It was a GOOD day!"
Jesse: "Yeah. High five!"

Mission Accomplished.