Beating The Bama Heat

Alabama summers are hot.

Really hot.

Today....temperatures exceeded 100 degrees all across our state. 

The air feels like you have stepped into an oven when you walk out.

Leather seats get hot enough to blister your bottom.

Air conditioning units cannot keep up.

Dogs lie panting in the shade.

Babies are sweaty and cranky.

Heat waves are visible on roads and parking lots.

The whole state seems to be melting.

You basically have two choices when you are left to face the heat in Alabama.

You can be miserable and mope about it.

OR

You can play in it.

I like to play.

So......

I go for a run......and get super sweaty.

We create the most epic Redneck Waterslide ever......

and slide over and over squealing like little girls.....

We slide on our booty and on our bellies....

We slide piggie back style....

Then....

We go out for treats......

And let it melt all down our arm.....

We go to the water parks.......

We swim....

And we have swim races.....

Beating the heat in Alabama isn't so bad.....

All you gotta do is play!

Unless, of course, you are one of those unfortunate folks who still have to work during the summer. 

In that case....good luck with that.

Never Quit Playing

As a child, the summer days seemed endless.  My brother, sister and I woke up and spent all our daylight hours going back and forth from one creek to the other, roaming the woods behind our house and romping through the pastures.  Almost every single vivid memory I have from my childhood involves playing during the summer. 

 I treasure each of those moments I spent outside years ago, for those precious hours of playing in nature have molded me into the nature loving fanatic that I am today. 

I enjoy nothing more than getting outside to explore and play with my boys.  Spending my days with them outside during the summer make me yearn for summer all year long.  The rest of the school year is just so packed with sporting events and responsibilities that it is hard to manage to fit time in to just play. 

But, alas..... it's finally summer! 

We woke up and hit the road to Rickwood Caverns State Park.

 Today.....

we played.

We climbed.

We joked.

We were silly.

We discovered.

 We wondered.

We hiked.

We explored.

We sweated.

We talked.

We picnicked.

We enjoyed each other.

I hope that I am instilling a love for nature into my boys.....

as well as a love for life....

a love for family.....

a love for each other....

and a love for playing.

"Men do not quit playing because they grow old; they grow old because they quit playing."

                              ~Oliver Wendell Holmes