Awana Boys Trip to Bent Tree
September 12, 2009
We gathered for our traditional pancake breakfast before heading off to north Georgia. It is now the Awana boys since we have made the switch to Awanas. The boys accompanying us were Austin Hughes, Kaulin Brinson, Aidan Durity, Gage Marsh and Riley Brooks.
 | We drove up to Bent Tree's Lake Tamarack to give the boys some time to play in the water and fish. |
A lot of new sand had been put out on the beach, and Austin Hughes promptly covers Kaulin Brinson up with the sand. |  |
  |  The boys enjoyed playing in the sand and the water. During their excavations, they dug up several of the critters shown at left.
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 |  Hunter Rowland and Kaulin run in the shallow lake off the beach. |
 | The interest turns to fishing and we all move to the fishing dock. Johnny draws a crowd as he provides bait and help with the fishing tackle.  |
The boys concentrated on the fishing, and at least got some practice casting and baiting hooks.
Joe Burkhardt joins Johnny as fishing coach.
 Joe works with his grandson Riley on casting.  |
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Jon Rowland watches grandson Hunter casting. Aidan Durity and Austin Hughes are keen on watching the little fish they are trying to catch near the dock.
 | We took a break from fishing for our peanut-butter-and-jelly-sandwich lunch at the pavilion. Brenda's brownies are usually the favorite part of our lunches. |
 |  After lunch we headed around the lake to the spillway and the waterfall. The boys always like playing in the pool below the waterfall. |
 | Everyone climbed down to the rocks at the outlet end of the pool. |
What is everyone looking at?  |  |
 | This water snake had climbed up on a rock to sun himself after being in the cold water. He was reluctant to leave his sunny spot. I moved to within two feet of him, and even then he only moved because I tried to remove one of the sticks under him. |
Gage takes a jump into the pool below the waterfall. |  |
 |   Hunter dives in to swim across the end of the deep pool, under the watchful eye of Johnny and Stan. |
 A good time of jumping and playing around the deep pool in view of the waterfall.  |  |
We put the lifejacket on the boys one by one and Rod took them out close to the falls. This waterfall and pool turns out to be a great place for the boys to visit. This about used up our time, so we headed back to the other side of the lake for them to get dressed for the trip home. |  |
 | As we headed for home out of Bent Tree we saw this nice doe and fawn, but that fireplug surely did destroy the "wilderness illusion" I try to establish in my nature shots! |
The doe and fawn did stay around long enough to give us views other than the fireplug version, so we left praising the Lord for the experiences the boys had today.
| Pearl River activities |
2009