Blackberries Galore!

Greg has been wanting to go berry picking all summer, and the blackberries were finally ripe last weekend. Carolyn and Amit met us at a U-Pick farm and we picked (and ate our fill of blackberries)!The berries were HUGE! And pretty tasty, too...for Idaho! :)


Maren and Amit were picking buddies...she got to know if they were ripe by how hard she had to pull. She would give it a little tug and if it didn't come off easily she would say "not ready!" then "keep going!". It was really cute.

Joel bounced around and picked berries with all of us. He loved finding the really big ones.
The rows of blackberries were so overgrown that it was like trying to move through a jungle! Luckily, they were a thornless variety so it was much easier!

We love spending time with Carolyn and Amit!
Taking a break from picking berries.
Who's been eating all the blackberries?!?

I think we ended up with 11 pounds of berries! We ate some, froze some for smoothies and...

I made my first berry pie! It turned out REALLY good!

Wedding/Vacation

This past weekend Greg and I got to go to the Napa Valley in California where Greg performed a wedding for his good friend Chad and his wife Leah. We had three whole days away and it was WONDERFUL!

This is the second wedding Greg has done and he did a GREAT job with this one. Every person at the wedding (including the videographer) complimented him.

It was fun to get all dressed up and have a night out. (I loved being able to spend as much time as I wanted getting ready!)

The wedding was beautiful - every detail was taken care of, and more! They did a great job and everyone had a wonderful time.

The day after the wedding there was a brunch at a vineyard nearby. The views were beautiful and we got to spend more time with friends and family from the wedding.

One of my favorite parts of the weekend was when Emily, Violet and Brian came to see us! They live about 2 1/2 hours from where we were so they came for a couple of hours (they spent 5 hours in the car for 3 hours with us - true friends!!). We sat by the pool the whole time, ordered lunch and talked and laughed a lot! We didn't get a lot of pictures, but there are a couple more on the McCutchen website (link on the left). Thank you for coming McCutchen's...it was SO fun to see you!!

Oh, and did I mention that our rental car was this BRIGHT yellow little compact?! Just so that everyone in Napa knew at first glance that we didn't belong...we definitely stood out among the sleek Mercedes and Audi's. We thought this was pretty funny.

And last but not least...these two are the reason we were able to get away for a whole weekend without the kids (the first time in over 4 years!!). Mimi and Del came from Portland to watch our kiddos and it sounds like they had so much fun, despite the 100+ degree weather. They went to the market, did projects, played in the fountain, had good meals, spent time with Carolyn & Amit and played outside in the morning hours when it was cool enough. They were also here a day before we left and two days after we came home, so we all got to spend time together and it was SO fun. Thank you Mimi and Del for all you did! (In addition to keeping the kids entertained, Del even fixed our air conditioner and the front seat in the car!!) The kids absolutely loved having you here and they miss you! (We all do!).

Friends Visiting

A couple of weeks ago my good friend Rachel and her family visited from La Grande. It was a quick trip, but we had a lot of fun catching up and our kids had a great time together.

We went to Municipal Park for a picnic and the fish hatchery for a walk.

Rachel's three kids and Maren...Joel got stung by a bee so Greg took him back to our car where we had some ice. :(

All the kids loved playing together...it was so much fun to watch them!

A new Look

Well, it probably goes without saying...but I found this awesome blog called LeeLou Blogs (see the sidebar for the link) with really cool templates you can use for FREE! There are so many neat ones that I may change it every once in a while to experiment...maybe I'll do this instead of getting drastic hair cuts like I have done in the past! :)

Inspirational Blog

Hey Everyone, I just wanted to point out the new link on my sidebar...I found this great blog that features a new creative blog every day. It's really cool - lots of great ideas for projects, decorating, scrapping, etc. Check it out!

Gifts from India

Amit just got back from visiting his family in India and he brought the kids presents!

The highlight for Maren is this beautiful dress that little girls wear in the village he is from. It fits her perfectly and she LOVES it. It has little bells around the edges so it jingles when she walks.

Joel got these birds, which we hung right above his bed...Carolyn and Amit have these hanging from one of their windows and Joel plays with them every time we are over there...so he was really excited to have some of his own!

The kids also got some carved wooden elephants to play with, but I don't have pictures of those yet.

THANK YOU AMIT!!