Grandpa!

My son and my Dad together = perfection in my book.
They each think the other hung the moon.
My Dad was the first person W ever kissed....be still my heart!

Decades ago, when my Dad and his manly friends all began their respective adventures in parenting, they had a collective vision of "Dads and sons"...in the woods and in boats...building fires and hunting and doing manly things...

So, naturally, they ALL had daughters - a giant flock of us! Life's funny, isn't it? Once recovered from the initial shock that they had daughters (and after leaving our Moms to handle the baby/toddler years), the Dads eventually said 'to hell with it' and threw us all in canoes and tents and pickups and dragged us all over Texas venturing out on river trips/primitive camping expeditions/ranching/fishing/gun shooting. We had quite a time. These weekends and school breaks out on the road with the Dads gave us the much needed ability to relate to our Dads and really get to know Texas. I'm still my happiest on the river.

So even though we girls were a relatively tough bunch, when it came down to it we still weren't sons ;) We could pack a dry bag, but you could bet there was nail polish in there. We could set up a camp, but we usually picked a few wildflowers to snazz it up. We have amassed gargantuan collections of sparkly river rocks. There was much eye rolling from the Dads over the years. Lately though, things have been evening out for our Dads. A brand new generation. Grandsons. Quite possibly even better than sons!

The first thing my Dad said to W (about an hour after he was born) was "We are going to go fishing." His eyes may as well have been made out of glitter. I will never forget it. They crack me up together - so moony are they. My Dad is even having a (much needed/long overdue) double knee replacement (prayers!!!) on April 26th and he has made his motivations for finally doing it no secret. He wants to be able to be as active for William's childhood as he was for mine. Unbelievable.

This time of year always reminds me of our childhood adventures with the Dads. I get ancy to hit the river as soon as the weather starts to warm up. Luckily, the first trip of the year is less than a month away - River Cleanup 2010! Cleanup is an entire day dedicated to removing any trash, scraps, old tires, etc that have made their way into the Brazos. This debris greatly affects the ecosystems of the area but - thanks in huge part to this annual event - the river is healthy and beautiful and is ready to host the next generation :)

More than a few of our adventures took place on the Brazos. It's a muddy green river. It's rocky in places. It's not in the Hill Country and it's not a tourist attraction like the Guadalupe. The Brazos is a slow old river that snakes it's way through the area just southwest of DFW. Because it's not a popular as other Texas rivers, it doesn't always get the conservation attention it deserves. Luckily, an awesome organization called "Friends of the Brazos" was founded a few years ago (by one of the aforementioned Dads, no less!) to keep the land and waters of the Brazos clean and cared for. They began the tradition of this annual Cleanup and the event has gotten bigger every year!

This year's Cleanup will be on April 10 at Tres Rios camp near Glen Rose at 9am. Free canoes are provided by a local outfitter to anyone who wants to help and the event is capped off by a free catered barbeque lunch in the afternoon. If you would like to tag along, please let me know - it's a total blast! I'll be there with my Dad :)

More info can be found at http://www.friendsofthebrazos.org/cleanup.html