Monday, June12th. As it's the only day of the week that no one works, Sundays are fun days at our house and we try to pack a lot into them. We certainly managed to do that yesterday, which means that I'm packing a lot into this post too.
Chapter
1. We spent Sunday morning in
Levering Orchard
at the foot of the Blue Ridge picking cherries
with our friends Timmesa and Sam. I've got
more info and photos from Chapter 1 in our Cherry
Orchard Gallery. We had an awesome time and the only thing sweeter
than the cherries is the time we had picking them. But as much as I'm
already looking forward to
next year's cherry picking, I'm also looking forward to when this year's belly
ache ends. I think I ate a few too many cherries.
Chapter
2. After leaving the orchard and dropping off Timmesa and Sam, Amy mentioned that she would like
to visit my grandmother. I said "why not?" and drove straight
to Hama's house with two cherry stained
boys sleeping in the backseat . Following a delicious lunch that included Hama's
famous chicken and dumplings, the boys and I took a stroll that led us to the
creek. I didn't see any reason to let a trivial thing like not having shorts or a swimsuit
keep us from a good time, so we shucked the boys jeans and walked right in. Besides, going
commando in this creek is a
bit of a tradition for Ben. Jackson was our butterfly whisperer as one
butterfly thought his orange t-shirt was a giant flower and kept landing on him. Amy and Hama came
out to sit under the umbrella and talk while the boys worked on this summer's
first dam project. Unfortunately I forgot that my niece Isabelle's
graduation was Sunday afternoon, but we had a really nice time visiting with
Hama. The boys didn't
want to leave and are going back one afternoon this week to work some more on
the dam.
Chapter 3. We left the farm, stopping at our
house just long enough to change
our clothes before hitting the road again, this time to Greensboro for Dinner Club. The hour
long drive gave
the boys an opportunity for the day's second nap. This month's Dinner Club
hosts, the Hunts, reserved a picnic shelter in Greensboro's Country Park.
We found the park, loaded up the stroller and started the trek down a long
winding hill to the picnic shelter... with a big bowl full of cherries of
course. Everyone was having a great time, the kids had tons of room to
play, the brats were delicious, but it
was hard to ignore the threatening sky and thunder booming in the distance.
It didn't take a lot of persuasion when the park staff stopped by to warn us
of an approaching hail storm. Everyone threw their stuff together and
hit the trail running. I sat Jackson in the stroller, put Ben on his lap, told
Jackson to hold onto his brother, then started back to the van in full sprint.
Amy followed in hot pursuit, but in flip flops and a big bowl of cherries in her
arms. Remember that big hill we went down, well it was really big on the
way back up. But the bottom fell out of the clouds along with a few lightening
bolts, so stopping wasn't an option. The kids and Amy jumped
in the van while I was left standing behind the van, trying not to die from
running up the hill and breaking the stroller down in the middle of a downpour. But at least I got to see our friend Keith doing the same thing
across the parking lot. Ben had just started to pull out of his nap
when we left and was disappointed that we were leaving. Jackson too.
Ben said "Landon is coming to my house!"
Chapter 4. So it worked out perfectly when Landon's dad, Mike, called to
ask us if we wanted to stop by their house in Winston-Salem so that the kids could play some
more, since we had to cut the cook-out so short. It also worked out
perfectly that Mike and Brooke offered us dry shirts when we got to their house.
Thanks guys. Jackson taught Landon how
to play Ben's pushing game. In that game, Ben pushes Jackson, who then
pretends to get knocked down. Ben and Landon played trains. The
grown-ups got to visit. And Amy and I got to see Ella take steps all
over the house.
Chapter 5. Once back home, we closed out the day by piling into bed together to watch part of a movie before falling asleep exhausted.
