Cherry Harvest

June brought my folks a great cherry harvest - and we were in the right place at the right time. We picked buckets of the sweet red fruit for our family and friends and still left a feast for our winged neighbors. The tree has become so tall that 2/3 or more of the fruit is unreachable.

The kids kept busy picking what they could reach and then learned how to operate a small cherry pitter. With the pits gone, we enjoyed cherry cake, cherry crumble, dried cherries, cherry fruit leather, cherry lemonade, cherry muffins and have gallons of cherries waiting in the freezer for future use. Working and eating together was a sweet experience.

Our Trip West

So I'm writing about it a few months later, but we had a really enjoyable trip west in early June. Having finished grad school and my teaching appointment during the snow semester, we packed up our home and headed west for who knows how long. On our trip we visited dear friends in Nebraska and loved the small towns, friendly gas station attendants and beautiful and productive countryside we passed through. Of course young children's bathroom breaks aren't as easy as when traveling the freeway with its regular blue rest stop ahead signs. Thankfully much of the roadside grasses were as tall as the kids.

The top image shows us attending my cousin's wedding at the Mt. Timpanogos temple in Utah where we stayed a few days to enjoy family. Anna had some great ideas for keeping the children happy during the drive with the anticipation for new activities each day.