That familiar conviction

"And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees, just as things grow in fast movies, I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning again with the summer."
-F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby






One of our most cherished and highly-anticipated things to do in the summer is spend evenings on the river. We dream about it all winter long--thinking about the cool breeze on our faces as the little fishing boat whips across the water, fantasizing about trading in the feet of snow for sand between our toes, and devising plans to make the biggest sandcastles. Sadly, our dreams were delayed this year after flooding caused the Mississippi to rise to unsafe levels. But, finally, this week it became a reality, and it was probably better than anything we daydreamed about in January.






Wednesday night we picked up take-out food and met Dave at the boat landing. The supper plan was pizza, but since Ashton informed me that he doesn't like pizza and wanted a chicken nugget Happy Meal from "Donald's", I threw my usual rules out the window and catered to their individual tastes. We parked the John boat on a sandbar and munched on Luke warm pizza and nuggets, feeding crusts and fries to the birds, before we explored, played, splashed, snapped three million pictures and relaxed.







One thing we discovered on our first river trip of the season is now that the boys are a bit older, we don't need to hover as much. This afforded us some downtime to ourselves, soaking up the experience with a detached view.








Another important lesson learned is that Spencer does not enjoy a smashed sandcastle, even if his was smashed in retaliation after he demolished mine.






Our Summer Bucket List earned another check mark this week. But I'd like to check off the little box next to River Dates a few more times yet this summer. The first of many evenings on the river.