Strawberries!

Our strawberry season was really short this year. I’m not sure if it was because of the weather or what – but it lasted barely over a week at two of the top u-pick fields near-by. I had the Friday, after the boys birthday, off so that was our plan for the morning – strawberry picking…until I woke up to down pouring rain. Lucky for us the down pour didn’t last long and we only get hit with a few sprinkles here & there while we were out in the fields. We met up with my parents and went to the same patch we went to last year. It was far less busy than it was last year, but I believe that was mostly due to the weather.

The boys were great helpers & lasted almost the entire time without complaints. Since we were near the end of the season, the workers were even more encouraging of the boys eating as many strawberries as they’d like – but I’m sure they ate well over their fair share of strawberries! Wyatt was a good picker and stuck with it. He’d eat some from time-to-time but pretty much stuck to the task. Colton on the other hand picked for a little bit & then mostly just ate…sometimes right out of the bucket until someone would catch him and tell him to pick his own “eaters” instead of stealing from the buckets! (It’s crazy to see the different things each of the boys do/don’t have patience for.) Grandpa called the first “big” strawberry they found a “dandy” and that is the name that stuck for the entire morning…we were all on a mission to find “dandies” (the strawberry version of a “whopper” when fishing). It was totally fun & not at all crowded. We even ran into my uncle “D”, who recently retired & we go camping with a lot, who had come out to pick strawberries before more storms hit.

After we paid for the strawberries & were packed up in the car, Wyatt asked me “Mom, guess what I have in my pocket?”. I could only imagine. Yes, it was a strawberry. So, I unbuckled him and got him back out of the car to retrieve the semi-squished strawberry out of his pocket – I just had to laugh. Then I explained to him that putting strawberries in our pockets wasn’t the greatest idea since they get squished and make a mess. (That’s why we wore “old” clothes to the strawberry picking patch!). They never cease to surprise me!

Starting the picking with Papa.

Wyatt's bucket.

Colton's bucket.

Hard workers!

Searching for the "dandies"

There is one!

Bringing some full buckets back to the end of the row.

Banana snack time - Colton.

Banana snack time - Wyatt.

Breakfast bar snack time too.

Mommy & Wyatt.

Papa, Wyatt & Colton with our final picks.

Cheese, with strawberries!

Goofy one!

A hard morning's work complete!