Sunny weekend

Yay for a beautiful weekend here in Portland!

Yesterday we used a Groupon that we purchased several months ago at a nearby nursery. Plants and landscaping is so intimidating to us sometimes but we're learning that sometimes you just have to dive in head first and learn by trying. We picked out a variety of shrubs and flowers and I'm excited to see them planted. Emersyn had fun hauling the plants around on the cart.

We've also been working on our backyard and it's FINALLY coming together. I told Brett that if he had done this project last summer, I would have been so all over it and helping. This summer I have my own projects to attend to, including the one growing in my tummy. :) I've tried to be helpful but when it's blazing hot and there's a baby boy river dancing on my bladder, I lose motivation. :) (And yes LeAnna, 80 degrees IS blazing hot here in Oregon!!) :) :) Emersyn has been helping Daddy (as seen above) and I'm so thankful that he is the kind of dad that will take 20 extra minutes to do a project that he could do on his own in 5 just so that his little girl feels special and important.

Today we woke up to overcast skies and I wasn't sad one bit! We decided to skip church which disappointed me initially but we really have a lot of stuff to get done before having friends over tomorrow. I made breakfast (thank you Trader Joe's cinnamon rolls) and then we did a little work around the house before heading out to run some errands. One of the errands I wanted to run was picking some strawberries! The crops are finally ripe in Portland and hand picked berries are always SO much yummier then the store bought ones.

I had envisioned this fun family outing of picking berries. Instead I realized that I got super dizzy when I was bent over so instead I tried squatting and nearly busted off my knee caps from the extra weight I'm carrying in my belly. Meanwhile, my toddler gets freaked out by walking on uneven surfaces so walking through strawberry fields took a LOT of us insisting that she overcome her fear or hesitance. Also, my husband was a little on the whiny less enthusiastic side because bending over gave him a headache and I thought to myself, "if you want to hold my uterus for about 15 minutes, I'll do all the picking myself!!".

Despite the initial challenges, we actually had a great time. The sun wasn't out quite yet so it wasn't too hot and we got about 5lbs of delicious strawberries. I showed Emersyn how to find the really juicy ripe strawberries and she kept herself busy picking and eating. At first Brett wasn't a fan because he thought we should pay for them first but I told him that they include the weight of our containers in the berry price so really it all works out. Emersyn was hilarious picking and eating the strawberries, she totally kept quiet and was just stuffing them in.

Tomorrow we're making strawberry shortcake parfaits so fresh berries were a must!

Right now the sun is back out, shining brightly and Ems is napping; Brett's out getting barkdust and I'm waiting for him get back so I can *help*. We have a bbq to go to tonight with some friends and afterwards need to grocery shop for our dinner tomorrow. I'm so thankful for a three day holiday weekend and the freedom to celebrate our country's independance with our friends!

Happy 4th of July weekend everyone!!!