Berry Pickin'

It's a little hard to be spontaneous when you both work full-time jobs and have 2 kids... but somehow we managed to pull this one off! We had decided that we would go berry picking in July on a Saturday that we blocked off (the same place we went in the fall for apple picking--Mercier Orchards). For whatever reason, I woke up Sunday morning with this question in my head--did they do berry picking on Sundays?! Quick research, short conversation and we had decided that we would, indeed, sneak off after church and haul on up there to get some berry picking in. It was, after all, a gorgeous summer day that was unlike many of our June days so far-- a mild mid-80 degrees and sunny (not a blazing hot, humid day in the mid-90s like we've had).

The boys were so excited! Jonah absolutely loves blueberries and blackberries so he was elated that we were picking those. Nolan has recently acquired a love of both as well, so he was thinking it was awesome too. Just seeing the tractor and riding in the back was a fun time!

[And we're a Keen wearing kind of family, too]

We arrived about 1pm and spent the next 3 hours riding the tractor to and from the fields, scouring the fields for delicious blueberries and blackberries. The boys were really quite good and helpful too. Nolan had very little interest in picking the blackberries, but Jonah was my scout. He found some awesome blackberries.

The opposite was true when we moved on to blueberries. Nolan found he could grab a low branch and just pluck them right off. We busted him just snacking away off the bush! Jonah decided he wanted to lounge in the shade of the bushes for a while and guard his beloved blackberries and be the central location for dropping off blueberries into the basket.

 

[Here begins Jonah's impromptu photo shoot all on his own doing--I just snapped the pics]

By the time we finished filling our half-gallon of blackberries and half-gallon of blueberries, we were all pretty wiped out from being outside for 3 hours straight and happy to pile into the a/c to ride on home.

Totally a great time, we will very likely do it again next year (with our new little one in tow). Now, to keep my kids from eating a gallon of blueberries and blackberries in the next week will be tough.