Strawberries!

We drove up to Barthel Fruit Farm early one Saturday in mid-June to pick strawberries with Jonah for the first time. While we have been regular visitors to Barthel's, we did not pick last year, as Grandma Gregg's strawberry patch was quite abundant and she was able to provide us with an incredible supply of berries at no cost to us.

Thus, we were excited about sharing the picking (but not jam-making) experience with Jonah, giving him a lesson in what to look for on the drive to the patch. "What color berries do we want to pick?" "Red." "That's right. Don't pick the white ones." As we pulled into the patch, we noticed all sorts of things that are super-interesting to nearly-two-year old boys, namely a couple of tractors, a couple of convertible cars, and moving-type trucks from which employees distributed baskets for picking. To his credit, Jonah did take initial interest in the berries.

Surveying the situation.

Sampling a berry. This tastes pretty yummy!

It turns out that our lesson in picking strawberries was really unnecessary. While he picked one strawberry right away, Jonah quickly figured out that it was much more efficient to swipe them from the baskets into which mommy and daddy were picking. One smart boy he is! He wasn't terribly secretive about it, however, as he did ask us to remove the stems from them for him.

Stealing a berry from the box.

After a bit, however, Jonah lost interest in eating the berries as well. I can't blame him: we were picking a fair number of berries so that we could make up several batches of jam. And the two-year old attention span is notoriously short. He entertained himself for a while climbing up onto our backs while we were down on the ground picking, and then he started running up and down the field, between the rows.

Climbing on mommy's back while she picks.

Running off down the row.

After a while, we determined that it would be much more effective for one of us to continue picking berries while the other entertained Jonah. Ben took him to see the various aforementioned vehicles and they had a great time while I finished picking.

Look at all of these yummy berries!

We look forward to more strawberry picking in years to come; hopefully Jonah will be a bit more "help" next year!

The Apple of My Eye

I'm woefully behind on blogging this month. There seem to have been just too many other things going on of late, but I'm going to do my best to get caught up in the coming days.  My apologies in advance for all of the posts coming in fits and starts; that just seem to be how things work of late.

We had the pleasure of a visit from Grandma and Grandpa Gregg earlier this month.  It's always nice to have them come out for nearly a week each October. The weather is almost always gorgeous and we have the opportunity to do some seasonal activities instead of being confined indoors all the time. During last year's visit, we went to Barthel Fruit Farm and picked out some pumpkins as a family; unfortunately, Ben was not able to join us this year.

It's amazing what a difference a year makes! A year ago, we skipped picking apples with Jonah due to the time constraints of our trip (I ended up nursing him while we were there anyways) and the other things on our docket for the weekend.  This year, I loaded him into the Kelty and had him "help" me pick apples. 

Holding onto my apple. I like taking bites, but not really eating them.

Snack break at the car.  Jonah was rather distracted (see below).

The main reason for Jonah's distraction.  Wheels, wheels, anything with wheels!!

And unlike last year, Jonah was able to walk around the pumpkin patch on his own accord.  He wasn't terribly interested in the pumpkins, though they tended to jump out at him, tripping him with their vines and roots.  He was much more interested in the freedom of walking, and walking, and walking throughout the patch.

What is this?

Look, a pumpkin! And a bunch of vines to trip me up!

I'll be cute and pose for just one picture (too bad Mommy didn't pick a cleaner pumpkin).

Grandpa, let me down. I want to walk around!

I fell down right next to this pumpkin.  Guess I'll check it out for a minute.

Walking the patch with Grandma Gregg.

We ended our visit in their store, where I picked up a bushel of pears to can and we attempted to get some photos of Jonah amongst the prepicked pumpkins next to the barn.  The results weren't quite as desired, as someone was not cooperative:

These pumpkins are a real obstacle course!

I do not want to sit on top of these pumpkins in this bin, Mommy!

Okay, maybe I'll stop crying for a few seconds.

The barn. I love this shot.

What a beautiful morning! Grandpa Gregg did his best to keep Jonah awake on the drive home from the farm, but it was a losing battle. (I was hoping to keep him awake until we made it home and had lunch.)  He was asleep within a few miles. Guess all that time outdoors was exhausting!