blackberry picking

Thursday the boys and I drove to Indiana to visit my grandparents. What a fun day it was!

My mom, two of my Aunts, a few of my cousins and their kids were there too! It was a really fun time! Aunt Becky with Micah


Grandma with Allison...she was such a good little baby!


It is so precious to watch my little boys with my grandpa! I loved how sweet he was with them pushing them on this tricycle that has been around FOREVER!

My grandma and her flowers...

So my grandma has really amazing flowers and a breathtaking garden! Her secret (well just one of them) is this...This is how she waters all of her flowers...she puts these buckets alongside one of the sheds and collects rain...then, when they are full she pours them inside these 4 large white barrels...and they were all full...
Now that is dedication!!!

Grandpa took the boys in his barn to see all the equipment and his...

They were both LOVING opening all the drawers and touching everything.

As I was sitting inside nursing Micah I was just looking around grandma and grandpas house and all these memories always come flooding my brain...good memories...sweet memories. I could almost hear us talking and feel the same emotions and feelings that I felt when I was a little girl. The tea parties, the fabric, the grape juice that was always in abundance, the candy cabinet that was always stocked to the brim...oh and I remember these...

And I remember rummaging through her drawers in the living room. They were FULL of fun treasures...linens, buttons, trinkets...just stuff that was grandmas and I loved it!

So one of the reasons we went out to visit was to pick some blackberries! Last Sunday we were in Indiana as well and Grandma was telling me about a special "secret" place that she picked blackberries from...and so we decided to go together.

Here we are...

Oh how I wish I would have taken a picture of how I really looked right before we started picking. I came in capri's, a tank top and flip flops. I think they thought I was crazy! They said that it was very thorny and that I needed better clothes to wear. So they got me all fixed up in Grandpas pants, his shirt and a belt. The belt was to hook the bucket on so that our hands were free to pick. They are so smart :)

We drove down a path in between two corn fields right up to...

We walked about a 1/2 mile on the tracks up to the patch...

It was absolutley...

We chatted the whole way there and the whole time picking. It was so special and I love having these memories with them!

So amazing that God created such beautiful and YUMMY fruits!

When we got home, Ethan and I washed them all and made some blackberry jam and then froze a bunch of them for cobblers and smoothies!

Amazing!!!

We had a great day with them and I really felt very spoiled that I got to spend such a fun time doing this with my grandparents. We picked a HUGE bucket full of blackberries and I was thinking I was going to take home a few ziplock bags or so. But my grandma insisted I take the WHOLE thing! I know she loves them very much so it was extra sweet to me that she wanted me to have them all ;)

My mom also kept Will for a few days and spoiled him. Her and Charlie just brought him back to us tonight and I think he misses them :) I know he (and all of our boys)will have the same special memories with their grandmas and grandpas as I do with mine...