We got home from our Summer of Family and had a couple more fun visits and activities to squeeze in before school started. (Tomorrow is the big day...) We got to visit with Spence for a couple of hours before he went off for his surfing trip. Can you imagine anything colder than the Oregon coast? We were so excited to have him that we forgot to take any pictures. What? A moment in my life not digitally recorded? How is this possible? Alas. It happened...and I can't prove it. But we did get some pictures of our visit with Hillary Hippen and her girls. I can't believe how long it has been since we've seen her. Her girls are so sweet and just beautiful (just like mama.) Serenity, the oldest, taught all of the kids some crazy, complicated dance from a Hannah Montana movie. Even the boys were learning the moves. It was fun to watch them play together and catch up with Hillary. Come again soon!

Cadence, Hillary and Serenity.


And then, to polish off Summer, we went blue-berry picking. Ethan and Alaina were all business and although Austin got the work done, I believe he shoved more berries in his mouth than in his basket. We spent the next week making blueberry shakes and topping off ice-cream. Now, yesterday we went to a different U-pick farm and actually started talking to the farmer. He is mostly organic using only minimal pesticides on a couple of plants. He talked to us about how many ways you can naturally protect your plants (like spraying them with clay instead of pesticides.) He was also talking about how much some of his neighbors spray with toxic chemicals, citing one neighbor especially. He didn't name him except to say that everyone calls him Mr. Chemicals. At the end of the conversation (about an hour later) I asked who that was. Yup. The same guy that we picked all those blueberries from. Farmer Ray (not a crazy, by the way...college educated and in the family business that goes back 4 generations and used to be an farm inspector for the Oregon Agriculture Coalition.) did tell us, though, that many of the pesticides are the same that you will find in frozen berries at the store. (Does that make it better or worse?) He also added that his neighbor was sometimes forgetful and didn't always spray regularly. I think I'm still going to eat the rest of our cancer promoting berries...maybe if I spread them out we won't die immediately :) It does make you think though. Also...just to further bum you out. Those perfect potatoes that you buy...huge without any blemishes, are covered in chemicals that are saturated into the skins. So eating the skins is actually the worst part you can eat...not the best. Sorry Mom. I'm not eating the skins anymore.

Toxins or no toxins...we did have a good time picking those blueberries.