It's Gonna Be a Bright, Sunshiney Week

And HOT to boot...90s all week. Which is fine...because it's summer now. And summer should be hot, Colorado is just confused sometimes is all. Or maybe it was God waiting so that the boxes of shorts two wonderful friends sent to rescue me had time to arrive. Maybe both. :)

Anyway, we're really enjoying ourselves today. And yesterday, actually. I'd mentioned how I took the boys to the cool park and they played in the sprayers for a bit. Well, in the afternoon, we took Easton to piano class and then Dalton and I walked right back over to that very same park for some more fun in the sun...and this time I remembered my camera:






Easton did really well yet again at class. I'm liking that he's been doing such a great job separating from me lately. Hope it continues when school starts again...and then when Wabie arrives too that he's not all shaken up and thinking we'll forget about him or something.

Anyway, today was forecasted to be another scorcher like yesterday. But it's also nearing the end of the first strawberry picking season here and darn it, I was determined to go. They're only open for picking on Tuesdays and Saturdays this summer and the last two Tuesdays we couldn't go. And I'm not about to go on a Saturday. So, right after breakfast (which we ate outside!) we headed over to the strawberry patch. The boys were very very excited. It starts with a tractor pulling a wagon full of people out to the fields...Easton decided to sit backwards for a better view:




Then we got out there...I couldn't believe how well both boys did with staying close by, picking (mostly) fully ripe berries, not eating TOO many so we'd have some to bring home. And Easton did a fantastic job helping his brother out, "Oh look Dalton--there's a nice red one!" so D could pick it. Or, "C'mon Dalton, let's go over here to look". He was even de-stemming the berries so his brother could snack on them. (Dalton has a tendency to eat the entire berry when left to his own devices.)

Sweet berry picking boys:


Showing off some juicy berries:




And can't resist tasting quite a few:






"Hey, can you put your arm around your brother for me?"

Um, not exactly what I had in mind but whatever. :)

We picked and picked and picked. I'm glad I made the call to go during this first strawberry season of the summer because dudes, it was hard enough with all that squatting and heat and my belly and such. In late August when they'll ripen again I will NOT be participating. :)

We finally got our fill of berries and headed back for a tractor ride back up to the barn. The boys checked out the farm a bit:








Poor Dalton's expression!


We paid for our 3.5 pounds of berries, stopped for one last picture (which I just LOVE)...

...and then headed for home. I was roasting out there and it was only, like, 75 degrees at the time. Hmmmm. Kinda sad. We drove home talking about the strawberry cake we're planning to make. Nummy nummy.

And again, even though it's nowhere near 90 degrees right now the boys were feeling a bit toasty too so we turned on the sprinklers for them to cool off in:






They ran around but mostly thought it was too cold. I made lunch and we ate it outside...of course we had a big bowl of strawberries with it!


Now the boys are in their rooms and I'll have to start on the cake. I'm a little afraid of turning on the oven on such a hot day but I think it'll be worth it later. Or I hope it will. AJ has highly recommended this Strawberry Shortcake Cake so we'll give it a shot. Let's hope my preggo brain allows me to remember all the ingredients this time.

Later this afternoon we've got gymnastics. Gosh, I love summer. The hardest part is thinking of what to eat for dinner and finding time amidst all this fun to go buy the food and time to prepare it!