jamberry jitterbug

Everyday 3 Comments »

We rallied the troops this past weekend and journeyed to Berry Patch farms to preserve that summer taste through the dead of winter. While our garden is doing quite well, we just aren’t getting the number of strawberries we need to make enough jam to last us until next summer. Too bad zucchini jam is no good; we are drowning in squash! (any takers?)

Left, left, left right left…

troops

Brinley is a pro at spotting the juicy goodness.

nohands

Picking them is another story. She usually delegates that task to Drew, who eagerly sinks his hand deep into the plant to pluck the berries.

delegator

Drew was pretty selective with his choices…although I do blame him for the rotten or 1/2 eaten berries that somehow made it into our buckets! In his mind, if it’s Lightning McQueen red, it gets picked!

hmmm

I can’t complain though, he is a pretty darn good berry picker. 3+ years of training have paid off!

selective

Wait! Stop! Are these USDA certified organic?

tastetester

Yup, they’re organic. How can I tell? They’re extra juicy!

drip

Brinley hearts butterflies and strawberries.

 iheartberrypatch

1.5 flats of berries: $22. 1 hour at the farm: sweaty. Getting hands on experience: priceless. Now the jam for jam begins!

haul

high on the mountain top

Family, The Outdoor Woods 2 Comments »

This is the last post from the vacation files. Promise! We will get back to posting about our regular old humdrum lives soon enough!

During our Tour De Utah, we stopped at the JJ&B Acres reunion site on Cedar Mountain. The fam gathers here every July for a good old fashioned family reunion.

Like all family reunions, this one involved many different kinds of torture. Like this…

torture

And this… Yeah, we had it rough – I know!

binnieswingsunset

At least we made the kids work for food. Cornhusk airplanes are fun, and good for the environment. Double points!

cornhusk

The main purpose of the trip was to insulate and sheet-rock this building that will become a Grand Hotel. Ryan didn’t enjoy it at all. Nope! Saws, drills, hammers and screws are just not his thing.

menfolk

Rowan had it pretty easy. She took a sizzling hot bath in the boiler…don’t let that face fool you! She was one dirty little rugrat!

rowansoup

Brinley stayed pretty close to camp while Drew wandered to unbeknownst locations. The camera wasn’t brave enough to follow Drew, so Brinley bore the brunt of the mamarazzi.

binners

The hardworking kids were rewarded with smores and the privilege of staying up WAY too late.

trance

How do you say snarf in Utahnese? mmmmmm…

fingerlickin

Are your humdrum campfire treats always the same? Feel like trying something exotic? Try roasted starbursts!

starburst

Two Sheldons bonded near the warm campfire. My Grandpa and my boy…awesome!

namesake

Then Great Grandpa busted out the big guns…Its no wonder he is a legend in so many ways!

gganddrew

Great Grandpa found some loose screws on Brinley’s ribs and gave them a good turn. Classic stuff, right here…

greatgrandpa

Elvis has left the campsite. And so has Brinley. Adios amigo!

asleep

Next morning Brinley was up and at it again. She collected a wildflower bouquet and hand delivered it to Great Grandma Laverna.

specialdelivery

Great Grandma taught us the names of all the flowers. The pretty purple flowers are flax…who knew they grew in the wild?

flax

Ro-dog enjoyed all the modern conveniences that we managed to cram into the van, high chair included. What’s for breakfast? Cheese, oranges…

modernconveniences

Every year there are improvements and changes made to the reunion site. This year it involved moving a lot of dirt.

leisurelyride

Or maybe it was moving a bunch of dirty cousins. Aaaaaa!

dump1

Looks like this load of cousins made it out OK. They may not all be from the same generation, but they’re all related…somehow.

cousins

Thank heavens for this sturdy little park. It entertained the littlest cousins from dawn till dusk!

swing

We were pretty vigilant with the sunscreen, I didn’t realize until it was too late that bum-screen was also required. Bummer!

bumscreen

Drew became an expert tractor operator with Grandpa’s help.

tractor

You’d pull over for a looker like this one too, right?

hitchhiker

Drew made sure to get in some quality four-wheeler time. Ryan took the paper strips from the sides of the drywall and made Drew the most awesome helmet-hawk ever!

fauxhawk

And that’s all folks…

walk on water

Brinley, Drew 1 Comment »

I’ve watched Mommy & Daddy and all the other big kids ride on the skis and wakeboards. It looks like lots of fun to glide across the water behind a speeding boat. Grandma borrowed this funky contraption from our neighbors down the beach and thinks it might be my ticket outta here.

Are you sure this is gonna work? I think I need a pep talk…

speech

Alrighty, here I go. Hey! It’s working!!!

drewgoes

Woohoo! See you slackers on the flip side!

drewback

Brinley says anything I do she can do better. We’ll see…

binnie

There she goes! Lean into the turn Brinley! I learned the hard way.

brinleyback

Ahh, she’s a natural! My turn again!

binleyfullcurcle