It's that time again.....Strawberry pickin' time!!!!!

Friday morning, the kids got up at 6:30AM to go strawberry pickin' with grandpa and mommy.  Amazingly enough, they bounced out of bed with smiles on their faces!  They were excited!!!  On the loooong drive(only 30 minutes), Callie kept asking, "are we almost there?" over and over.  Upon our arrival, we were VERY enthusiastically greeting by a young woman frantically waving both arms holding orange flags.  It was very obvious where we were to park for there were very few cars there.  I'm guessing they'd not had much business yet that morning and were excited to see customers.  :)  We were told that it was open picking day.  We were not assigned a row.  We could pick for a little bit here and hop over and pick a little bit it another row if it struck our fancy.  Well, you know how the grass always looks greener on the other side.  My kids row hopped and row hopped.  They were ALWAYS thinking the strawberry looked better in the other row!!! 

Samuel checks out all the rows of strawberries as we first walk up to the field.

Discovering strawberries under those leaves.

Starting to get those buckets filled up.

Callie is eyeing the strawberries in the other row.  You see, they've always been told to stay in ONE row and pick.  Being told, by the people in charge of the patch, that they could pick anywhere was almost too much for them. 

Yep, she hopped over to the other side.

Grandpa getting a kick out of Callie all hunkered down trying to find some big, red strawberries.

Look at Callie's head....She's looking at the NEXT row now!!!

Samuel finding some big strawerries.

Now THIS was most interesting.  I'm picking away...trying to fill my bucket quickly.  I kept hearing a strange noise.  I glance over at an elderly woman.  It is coming from her direction.  I didn't know if maybe her hearing-aid was malfunctioning or if it was something else.  You see, she was bent over and let's just say her backside was way up in the air, pointing in our direction.  Just face it, when one is seriously picking strawberries.....it's just not a very attractive position.  I'm sure I've looked quite interesting myself....Glad I'm the one wielding the camera!!! :)  Anyways, my father-in-law told me a boy was blowing on a blade of grass(it was actually a blade of wheat...it was growing amongst the strawberries).  He decided to give it a whirl himself.  He had learned as a small child and hadn't tried it in years.  I was AMAZED at the sound one can get out of a blade of wheat between ones' thumbs!!!  I tried it, didn't work for me...:(  I had him do it again to get a little video clip to share. 

We saw this unusual site on the way to pick strawberries.  I asked to stop on the way back home to take pictures.  Here is piles upon piles of ground up blacktop!!!  

These mountains looked dark and dangerous!

At home, at last, with our 8 buckets of strawberries.