Blackberries and Anniversaries

August 19th was definitely a fun day! I called up my friend Jana, and planned to go blackberry picking. I was pretty excited because this place, Butler's Orchard, is awesome! That's where we go to pick our pumpkins for Halloween as well. I found out that they have strawberry, blackberry, raspberry, blueberry, apple, and pumpkin picking (I may be missing one or two). Anyways, it was $2.39/lb of blackberries, which turns out to be a great deal (at least the greatest I have ever seen for fresh blackberries). So, we loaded the troops into Jana's SUV and headed off to Butler's Orchard.

There were rows and rows of blackberries! I was reminded of my grandma and grandpa's house in Idaho Falls, ID. We would always help them pick raspberries. I have such fun memories of doing that, that I hoped Reed would enjoy the blackberry picking in much the same way. I know he is still young, but maybe he will remember.

The blackberries looked and tasted amazing! They were super juicy and plump! The kids were instructed to pick the black ones, not the red ones. I learned something new: blackberries that are not ripe, are red. I will have to remember that, so I don't think that they are raspberries.

We went at the perfect time! There were only a few people there, so we got 2 whole rows to ourselves! We went up and down filling our buckets until they were bursting with berries! Reed had a blast! He loved the fact that he could reach a lot of berries and could pick them by himself! He even wanted to carry the bucket until it really did get heavy! Jana's girls loved it as well. They filled up their bucket, put some in a bag, and even put a few in my bucket!

Eve just hung out in her stroller and ended up pulling her hat off and playing with that. By the end, we all (minus Eve) had blackberry-stained fingers and clothes. Luckily, we did not wear anything that needed to stay clean! We hopped back into the SUV, went to the store to pay for our berries, and got some pectin to make jam. (Oh, the pectin we bought is this special no-cook pectin by Ball. It calls for a lot less sugar, and I think it tastes like the actual fruit instead of the fruit plus tons of sugar.)

I bought almost 6 lbs. (5.92 lbs.) of blackberries! It was pretty exciting! I made 2 batches of homemade freezer jam and even had some leftover to eat. All-in-all a great experience!

Starting to pick the blackberries.

Jana and her 2 (almost 3) girls!

Reed showing off our bucket!

Picking, picking picking

Jana and her girls busy picking blackberries.

"Pick the black ones." That's what we kept repeating. Reed caught on quickly and did a great job!

Eve was just chilling the whole time.


At the end of our blackberry picking

Our bucket was bursting by the end! I had to squish on the lid!

August 19th was also my 4-year anniversary!!! It's hard to believe that 4 years ago, Tyson and I got sealed for time and eternity! It feels a little like a time warp - sometimes it feels like we have been married for much longer than 4 years and sometimes it feels like we just got married. But, 4 is the actual number.

Since it was a Thursday, we decided to go on our "Anniversary Date" on Friday. Tyson bought me some beautiful roses, which I always love! I made Tyson some fun cards and thought of some fun things that apply to us and the number 4. For example, in 4 years, we have lived in 4 different wards. Weird! Anyways, it was great!

Friday, the 20th, we went out to a new Thai restaurant. It is one of the safest places for me to go and eat. I can eat most things on the menu and don't have to worry about milk products at all! Sometimes there is some soy in a few items, but I can steer clear of them easily. The restaurant was called BUSARA and it was really good!!!

Eve was having a hard time (my dad was babysitting the kids), so we had to make a stop by home. She is teething again! Never fun. But, I fed her , put her to bed, and we were off again! We had to go with plan B (go see a movie) instead of plan A (walk around in downtown DC) so that we could stay a little closer to home in case Eve had another problem. We wanted to see Inception, but it was sold out by the time we got there. That's what you get on a Friday night, I guess. So, we went to see Eat, Pray, Love. It was a lot different than I thought it was going to be. But, it certainly made us think about some of the most important things in our lives.

I forgot to mention that Tyson also got me Hot Tamales (I have been looking for cinnamon bears, but cannot find them anywhere!) and printed off a few pictures of us in Florida for our Honeymoon. It was so sweet! Thanks, Tys! You are the bestest husband I have ever had :) I love you forever!


My cards for Tyson - I think the 4 turned out pretty cool.

The roses

So beautiful