Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Simple Pleasures

Who knew a trip to the post office would be so fun? We just had to run in to mail the garage door opener to the new owners of our old house. (Yes, we SOLD our house and it officially closed July 25th, after being on the market since last August! Whew!) Outside, there were some lovely mud puddles in the gravel driveway, and Elodie was sporting her new rain boots that we scored from garage-saleing over the weekend and Xander had just gotten a new little boat at library story time, so we really couldn't help but spend some time splashing around. The boat did not float, but Xander didn't seem to mind--he had fun just throwing rocks and making huge splashes. He was even able to skip some rocks in these giant Alaskan-sized puddles. It has been raining for about 2 days, after all. While we were playing, the sun came out and it was one of those moments of simple pleasure that made me wonder, "how could it get any better than this?"
Well, Hazel started to realize that she was being ripped off because I wouldn't put her down to let her splash in the mud puddles and taste the rocks, so she and I started chasing Xander around to distract her from her woes. As Xander ran over to the edge of the forest (forest is pretty much everywhere in Delta Junction), he shouted, "Ooooh, strawberries!" We've had lots of fun discovering and picking wild strawberries around here, so Elodie ran up to get in on the berry picking action. Then Xander said, "No, raspberries!" And he was right. These were the first wild raspberries we've discovered, and it was actually quite a jackpot. After we picked all the ripe ones off of the first little bush, we meandered a bit deeper into the forest and kept finding more and more. We spent the next half hour eating and collecting raspberries in Hazel's bottle that I found in the car.
There were actually enough raspberries that Xander and Elodie were able to save some to bring home. Elodie thought of the yogurt we have brewing here at home and got pretty excited about having fresh wild raspberries with homemade yogurt for breakfast. Xander and Elodie both declared that it was the best, BEST day! Does it get any better than this?

11 comments:

The Dahle Family said...

I composed this post at home, while Hazel was taking a nap! Woohoo! We are trying out wireless internet, which is very slow, but does kinda work. Our speed right now is 153.6 Kbps. Which means it took 6 minutes to upload one picture. But it worked, so that's a start!

Karey said...

Woohoo! Internet from home! That sounds like a great day! How fun to have wild berries growing all around. Love you!

The Dahle Family said...

Well adding one picture worked, so I tried adding one more, to make the post a bit more interesting to look upon, and that one took more than 10 minutes to upload. I have so many pictures of our drive up here and our house and fun stuff and I really want to share them all with you, but Hazel's naps only last so long, and with these internet speeds, it took FOREVER for this one little post!! So we'll see how it goes!

merathon said...

of course it gets better... when you're with US!

Mirien said...

We'll take any pictures we can get. One is better than none, so keep them coming! That does sound like such a great day (and so different from my day yesterday! PTA meeting, visiting teaching, eye dr appointments, driving kids here and there, back-to-school/greet the teachers, ward adult social, etc. I was barely home!) Enjoy the simplicity and this season of life.

Maryann said...

What a fun adventure and exciting that you actually have wild berries to pick! (I was excited to see that this post even came with pictures - glad the internet thing is working, although it is VERY slow!)

Ana Chang said...

Sounds like a great day. You're going to have to start keeping a container in your car at all times for impromptu berry picking.

Jan and Colleen said...

You are some lucky ducks to find those luscious berries for the picking! How great for you all! Nolan says hello!

Rachel Sorber said...

How fun! We've got wild berries everywhere here, too. What great memories for the kids. They'll love you forever for making this a part of their childhood. I'm so happy you have internet at home! And thank you for persevering and posting even though it takes a long time. We love hearing how you're doing.

Danny,Vycci and Kids said...

Just wanted to say hello! Fun berry picking.

Tara said...

What an amazing adventure you're living! I'm so glad you're able to post - it's wonderful to peek in at your life now and then.