Who's afraid of a few thorns?

This past weekend the family headed out to partake in some blackberry picking. Ashton's grandparents have many wild blackberry bushes on their land. Picking berries is a past time that Ashton enjoyed growing up, and this year we decided to go up and get us some berries. Berry picking sounds like a lot of fun until you realize that these particular blackberries have thorns!! You have to cover your body from head to toe to protect from these nasty boogers! We dressed accordingly even though it was going to be a 100 degree day! Lovely!

We (Me, Ashton, Grandad and Lulu) loaded up in the little gator and headed thru the pasture to find us some berries.

We had some company on the way down there and she ended up ahead of us.

It didn't take much to find tons of beautiful berries, so we started picking. Mae quickly grew tired of the berry picking and even the berry picking. Her great aunt came and rescued her on a four wheeler. Mae loves riding on any type of vehicle, so she was having a blast!

We ended up picking well over an hour and ended up with three gallons of beautiful berries!! And this is after we ate at least half the berries. "Pick one....eat one...and so on."

The only thing running through my mind was "what wonderful things will I make with these berries!! When I got home I decided to make two berry cobblers. They turned out great, and so delicious. The following day I tried my hand at jam making. It was a foreign area for me, but it turned out delicious! I think I will bake a couple more cobblers to freeze for the future.

Even though it was so hot outside we were able to sit out in Ashton's grandparent's lawn and it was very comfortable. It's nice to go up there and enjoy being in the country.

The whole time we picked, we were chatting and there were no cell phones ringing. How could it be any better? Of course, we didn't walk away without battle wounds. We all had our share of scratches, thorns stuck in our hands and stains on our clothes, but it was well worth it! Berry picking is a fun family activity and I look forward to it being a tradition that Mae will grow up with.