Holy Array: Blueberries for Memories

Today was a day for a first. Yep. First time I've ever picked blueberries. I washed my bucket and headed to Grants Pass to enjoy a day in the blueberry laden green bushes with my sister and her three boys. On the way, I dropped my "fine figure of a man" at work, a call was made to our oldest boy, Tanner. When our boys were little, I read to them, a lot. Blueberries for Sal was a favorite. I asked Tanner if he remembered the book. He replied "Of course I do, it was about fruit!" More than any other one of our boys, Tanner has always had an affection for fruit. Not just any fruit--good fruit. When we went grocery shopping, Tanner always wanted to pick out the fruit. When we bought lugs of peaches or apricots, Tanner always had his share right from the counter they were ripening on.

Going to my sister's house is always fun. Always lots to see and hear about. Had to take a trip to the pig pen where her oldest, Braden, houses two swine for the upcoming fair. This is his first year with this endeavor and I think dedicated, exuberant and informed are good words for this 4-H project.

Nice pig. Great kid!

Our two oldest boys raised swine for the Siskiyou Golden Fair. It was fun, challenging, and we made so many memories making pens, walking, loading them for the fair, and of course the whole fair experience. Wouldn't trade it for anything.

Okay, back to blueberry picking. We loaded the kids in the van and headed north. Off the freeway, down, around and by an old abandoned house, turn left on the corner of that house that is vacant and for sale, passed a beautiful place where the people are re-tired and raise a beautiful garden, take another left to go up a steepish road, make a right deeper into a canyon where you go past two ponds with a house on the right. Oh...there it is! So don't expect me to return next year without sis and her fam because, believe it or not, I'd never find it. Then my sister said "I sure hope they are open". LOL. Thankfully it is Fridays they are closed.

The blueberry grower was pleasant and helpful with her direction to pick down low. "The blueberries are getting short" she said. Despite her pessimistic attitude, we found lots before we all became so toasty warm we had to bail.

While we picked we shared stories of our departed friend. One story went like this:

Keaton was 5 or so when they were visiting. It was orange season. Keaton asked Sawyer (who was 13 or 14) if he could peel an orange for him. Sawyer said he could not because he just didn't want to peel an orange. Keaton said "you are a teenager and you don't know how to peel an orange?" We all got a hearty laugh.

The other was:

One Christmas we bought an indoor basketball hoop for Sawyer. The Pennington boys were visiting. Sawyer slam dunked on the indoor hoop and the hoop fell forward and he caught it before it hit the floor and he looked at the boys and said "yeah, don't do that".

It's always fun to share "we loved him so much and miss him even more" stories with those who share our affection for our wonderful boy. Thank you~

After a lunch at "Larry's"...no that's not right....that's the music store I was told. It was Jimmy's. A quick frosty burger type lunch, it was time for the return to pick my "a fine figure of a man" from his long day at work. (I had to switch from Hubby to "a fine figure of a man" at his request, LOL)