Berries with a Borrowed Child

Finally!  It finally happened!

Now, I don't really know how to put this out there without coming across as a creeper, so I'll just say it and then try to fix it.  And you can judge me or not, whatever suits your fancy.  But I'm putting this up on a Sunday, so just keep that in mind when you're preparing to judge...

ASIDE:  Handsome always acts particularly ornery on a Sunday, after he's gone to church.  Like he has to make up for all that "being good" with some really atrocious doings. He's such a ... a... I can't even come up with the word.  He's something else.

So, what I finally got to do was borrow someone else's child and go on an adventure.  Now, before you hide your kids (hide yo wife, hide yo kids, hide yo wife...) let me tell you where I'm coming from.

I've got a family.  A large one.  And they're almost all up in PA.  A few have escaped to IN, and one to CA, but most of my brothers and sisters are in Pennsylvania, within 50 miles of my parent's house.  And of those bro's and sis's, (sorry, the bed intruder song is getting into my lingo, yo.), quite a few of them have children.  In total, I've got 4 nieces and 2 nephews, with another nephew set to arrive any minute here (C'mon Izzy!! We're waiting!!).

So I'm used to having my nieces & nephews around, hanging out, and going on adventures.  Handsome and I got to be the cool aunt and uncle up home, because we were the only ones close by who didn't have kids of our own.  So we didn't really have to pay attention to things like "healthy diet" and "staying clean" and "thats enough roughhousing".  Nope, we just had good times.  We took my nephew to his first major league ball game, complete with foam scabbard (Pirates, baby!) and hot wings and cotton candy and nachos and pretty much anything he wanted.  It was grand.  He may have been sick the next day, but, as aunt & uncle, we got to return him to his parents.

I also buy loud toys for them at Christmastime.  My bro's & sis's are just waiting to exact revenge.

But down here in the lovely South, we haven't really known many people with children, and certainly not well enough that we could take them for the day for an adventure.  After the first few years, I got to missing my nieces & nephews so much that I began volunteering in the 2-year-old room at church.  This way, I could play with other people's children without being the weirdo at the grocery store making faces and following you around waving.

Now though, I don't have to be the weirdo!  I will still be volunteering in the 2-yr. old room at church, because I love those kids now, and really enjoy that hour on Sunday morning.  But now, we've made friends with a few people who have kids, and Saturday I had my first Aunt-ish adventure!  It was a smashing success, if I do say so myself.  We went to a fruit stand, and then picked our own berries out at a farm.  When that got too warm, we sat in the shade on top of a wooden bear, and ate the berries we'd picked.  There was some pouting when it came time to go home, but I just consider that the mark of a wonderful day!

It was "will you take a picture of this one?"

"and this one?"

"and this one?"

"and this one?"

Needless to say, it took us quite a while to pick a decent amount of berries.  But the adventure was the point, not the quantity of berries, although in-between snapping pictures, I was picking berries as fast as I could, in order to get enough to satisfy my fruit-intake needs.  But my little charge kept exclaiming what a wonderful time she was having, and how she was so glad I had picked her up for our day together.  Balm to my soul, I tell you what.

I want to live here.

Not only was my companionship great, the place we went, Happy Berry, is awesome.  They have all sorts of fruit to pick, such as

Blueberries, obviously.
These also sort of look like grapes.  They have grapes there, for picking, too!

The fig season is just beginning, too.
I tried a fig for the first time last year.  They're... interesting.
Know what they remind me of?
Fig Newtons.
Go figure.

Sadly, the blackberry season is ending, and so we just grabbed a quart of pre-picked blackberries to go, since sweet girl was melting in the heat.  All in all, it was a wonderful morning, and went a good ways towards staving off the homesickness I get that sometimes threatens to drown me.

Going all Violet Beauregard on you,

TFW