Blackberry Picking with Cousins

We were able to spend the afternoon with Anna's kids Juddah and Zion. To pass the time we walked down to our neighbor's pond to pick some blackberries. Juddah has the most amazing blue eyes and a cute dimple.
Zion wanted to ride Abby's bike.
Everyone had a good time playing and picking berries. Our dog, Bingo, had a great time (we should have named him Blackberry!). He enjoyed eating the berries from the vine and from the kids bowls. We only ended up taking home about 4 cups of berries.

Cristine liked picking the berries, the thorns didn't seem to bother her.
Zion didn't bother with a bowl, he just ate all the ones he picked. Crissy held onto a bowl, but all of her berries went straight to her tummy.

We had a fun time playing with the boys and look forward to spending more time with them.

1 Berry 2 Berry Pick me a Huckleberry

Looking for otters at Otter Lake. This picture was taken just before Michelle got her foot stuck in the gooey mud.
What a cutie!
whoops sideways

That's what we're looking for.
Do you see the little huckleberry.
Rick's feeling a bit tired after picking berries all day, maybe he's feeling old since yester day was his birthday.

cheese
I'm your Huckleberry.
Hana actually let me take a picture of her, usually I'm only able to take pictures of her back.

Yesterday we decided to head up to the woods to pick some huckleberries. The berries were plentiful, but small. We had a fun time romping in the woods trying to fill our buckets. I've been waiting for these berries-can't wait for huckleberry pie and huckleberry milkshakes and huckleberry pancakes.....maybe we should take another trip to the woods and get more!

What's Baking?

I worked a few hours on Sunday, but managed to leave early. Sundays always seem like a good day to bake, a tradition I picked up from my dad. He enjoys making desserts and often made fudge on Sundays. That sounds SO good right now, how I'd like to have my spoon ready to scrape out the bowl. Instead of fudge, I decided to make cherry pie. It is Rick's favorite, plus my freezer is full of pie cherries.

Today I mixed up a double batch of zucchini bread. My garden is full of zucchini, we've eaten it bbq'd, steamed, fried, cooked with bacon and egg plant (also from our garden). I've frozen some to make bread with this winter. But everytime I look there is more. So tonight when it cools a bit more, I've got to put the batter in the oven. My mother-in-law makes a zucchini relish which is the secret ingredient in her potato salad. She's made a batch or two, but I think it is time for me to get over my avoidance of canning. Until then I am in great need of zucchini recipes.

Highlights from the Last Week

Read and Finished Harry Potter-now want to start the entire series again, but not sure if I can survive long with only 4 hours of sleep a night.

Entered aprons, kids drawings, pears, cookies and veggies into the Hood River County Fair. The kids made $10 each. I made a piddly $2. We went to the Fair last Wednesday night. Rick had a church meeting, I asked if he would take Cristine, but he declined. Why did I have to take all of them to my Primary Meetings? Anyway I took all four. We had a great time, met up with some friends, they watched Cristine so I could go on a few rides. The fair is small but fun, same rides, same exhibits, same scary ride operators and great food! Love the taco stands!

Friday I decided to change the sheets on our bed. I think we must be the last people on earth to still have a water bed. While lifting the mattress to tuck in the sheet, the seam split and water poured out. Rick helped me drain the mattress, then we threw it out the window. Later that day we went to Portland to pick out a new mattress. We decided on a Sleep Number bed. We are now sleeping on an air mattress and awaiting the arrival of our new bed. For now we will be using our old 70's style frame, but the plan is to eventually upgrade to a newer bed, preferably one with storage under it! It is exciting to get a new bed, but it wiped out my kitchen flooring money. We are now going to go with bamboo flooring instead of the more expensive hard-wood we've been looking at.

Also in new furniture news, we were given a new futon for our family room. Our old old couch finally found it's way to the burn pile.

This morning I asked Peter to drink the last bit of milk left in the plastic gallon. I handed him a glass and the almost empty jug. I turned back to see him drinking from the jug. Once finished, he wiped his hand across his mouth and exclaimed, "I drank that just like Daddy drinks orange juice." Glad we're teaching our kids such good habits!