BUTCHER JONES CLEANUP

This past weekend we as a family volunteered to a clean up hosted by Natural Restorations.  They're a non profit organization based out of Gilbert that hosts these clean ups all over Arizona throughout the year.  There was a total of 160 volunteers, 28 of which were minors, and endless bags of trash. I have been wanting to volunteer for so long so I'm glad we finally did it!  Plus I think its super important to teach our kids to give whether its time and/or donations.

We woke up early Saturday and had to wake all three girls.  We stopped at Dunkin Donuts for some breakfast and much needed coffee and then we were on our way.  We watched the sun rise behind the Superstition Mountains on the beautiful drive there.  This is the first of any event we've done so we weren't sure what to expect.  Everyone was so nice and there was plethora of donated water and food to fill our fruit snack hearts.

We surprisingly had such a good time.  Weird, I know.  How can you possibly have fun climbing through muck and down water banks to pick up nasty trash?  Welp, we did.  It was such a fulfilling event to see so many people come together for such a great cause.

We found the typical beer bottles and cans, water bottles, hundreds of straws, styrofoam cups, shoes, fishing string, cigarette butts (gross), the most surprising find though was huge roll of carpet.  How does that even happen?  It's extremely disturbing that so many people don't care.

When we first got there and before the sun had peeked over the mountain we were freezing.  Once we had a quick safety meeting and a group photo we were on our way and warmed up fast.  The scenery was so beautiful! We took a few breaks along the way as we were either carrying Reece or a large bag of trash.  Plus we couldn't take advantage of our surroundings.  The beautiful mountains, the still water, the wild flowers blooming.  Shawn had never been before so he was just amazed this place even existed.

We loved this experience and it felt so great to spend our morning doing something productive and selfless for "our world" as the girls would say.  We also decided that we need kayaks in our life and will definitely be going back!

We were proud to make a change and do our part, but truth be told it changed us more than anything.  I can not wait to volunteer again!