It's a tradition universally acknowledged within my family that if there is a fruit to be picked I am frantic to get there. Even if my immediate family isn't a cherry eating family, I never pass up the cherries. I've frozen them in the past but never ended up using them... One year a Kiwi came and ate the lot which was pretty cool. But this year we picked for my father, a real cherry fanatic.
Now this year the early spring frosts put a hurting on these poor little cherry trees and so the start of picking season was delayed... as was the crop. Whereas in the past you could see the trees just covered with cherries, this year you had to search a bit... Just putting my farmer hat on what can I say? Turned out it was a good thing I was so frantic to get there because the season only lasted two days!
My mother and my sister were unable to join me on this particular day due to a combination of grandmother-sitting, working, a nap, and my inability to wait for anything.... and they were missed. I was joined however by my sister-in-law and niece Mikayla.
Letty took right to the ladders and started picking the real dark ones she knows her Poppop likes as if she was an old pro. David stayed cautiously on the second-to-bottom ladder rung and held open my bag, refusing to so much as pick a single cherry. Dominic sat contentedly in the umbrella stroller munching away on his goldfish. Until I gave him a cherry and then it was Sunday bloody Sunday all over the place. Mikayla wanted so very much to climb up and join her big cousins on the ladder... but had to settle for taking cherries from the adults and placing them into her bag.
It was hot in there.... and so after we looked down at our bounty and decided we had enough we left, six pounds between the group. I think you can tell what photos belong to me and what photos belong to my sister-in-law by this point...
We had packed a picnic lunch and headed towards Pine View Dairy to do some baby cow watching and get some ice cream afterwards. The cow part was great, some of the calves only two days old (so sweet!). I braved up a bit this time and let the bigger kids pet them and I myself even got a handlicking. The day took a sharp turn to negative town during lunch when something (who knows what?) greatly offended my youngest past the point of no return. The poor calves had to endure quite the show of hysterics unlike I've seen heretofore. Or else I just forget the real negative? Anyways in the scheme of the entire day the fifteen minute tantrum shouldn't overshadow the rest.... But I'm sure glad Ashley was there all calm and cool and took him on a walk to bring him back to zero.
And yeah, I let him have a lick of my ice cream even though he certainly didn't deserve it... and I did let him cart around the cone then too after I got most of the ice cream out. Because I'm a sucker and hashtag third child.
