Nate the Fireman

Yesterday Nate got a call asking him if he would like to play firefighter for the day. Confused? I was too. There is a fire that has been burning through the city of Bastrop all week that was threatening to burn into one of the largest scout camps in the area. He was asked to come volunteer as ground crew and hold the line as the bulldozer, helicopter, and other professionals did their thing. He raked and shoveled miles and miles of the line all day. He said when the helicopters dropped their hundreds of gallons of water from overhead anywhere near him, he had to cover his face and hold his breath while the blast of smoke nearly knocked him off his feet. He told me it's probably what it feels like to watch a nuclear blast....I told him that might be a bit of an exaggeration...

So it was a pretty crazy/cool day for someone who never plans on fighting fire or doing anything close to that in their life. By the way, I'm sure I smelled him before he even came in the door. If you thought you have had smelly clothes from campfires, you don't even KNOW! :)

We had the chance a few Saturdays ago to finally go to Barton Springs in Austin that is supposed to be so amazing because it is a natural springs that is usually around 68 degrees. While it was very pretty and we had fun, it was pretty much what every lake, river, pool, etc. feels like at home so it wasn't anything too exciting. Also, I have a thing with lakes and rivers and the creepy things that you feel all around your feet. Other than the rocks in this spring, it was absolutely covered across the bottom in ridiculously huge green growth of who knows what. For all I know mythical creatures could live down there and might eat my feet off....right? RIGHT?

After swimming we went over to an outdoor production of "Annie" which was really cool, but we had to leave at intermission because Taven was going crazy! The later it got the more slap-happy he was and he insisted on singing along (loudly) and fake laughing extremely loud just for the attention. We had a long drive home so we figured we would let the rest of the people there enjoy the last half of the show. All in all though, a great day to spend a Saturday.