Tag Archives: blueberries

July 31, 2016

IMG_8124Blueberries! Finn and I went on a Saturday adventure to another new-to-us blueberry farm, Berryfield, in Centerberg on Saturday.  It was the best place yet! They were picking Elliot, so a later season more tart berry, but look at them! The bushes were big and quite plentiful. We picked more than a bucket in a fairly short amount of time. And they had “helper buckets” for kids and Finn loved it – he filled his up numerous times and dumped it into the bigger bucket. The farm only had a couple other people there and they played music you could here while picking (Nora Jones and the like). They also grow bluecrop, blueray, and coville though most of those were well picked over.  We missed Daddy while he stayed home and worked on projects including cleaning out the garage – which he made great progress!IMG_8112 IMG_8113 IMG_8120 IMG_8121 IMG_8122 IMG_8125 IMG_8129This week on my day off Finn and I went to Zoombezi for the day and met up with my college friend Kim, her three kids Audrey, Ryan, and Landon and Audrey’s friend Sara and her sitter Sydney.  The older girls went off on the big slides so the boys, Kim, and I hung out and the family-oriented areas. It was super hot, the concrete burned our feet, and a great day to cool off in the water (although some of the areas the water was really pretty warm!). IMG_8073 IMG_8076 IMG_8078 IMG_8080 IMG_8081 IMG_8082 IMG_8086Earlier in the week we took dinner to the Howard’s. Chris’ dad has entered hospice at Kobacker so we took some yummy food and hung out with the Howard’s, Chad, and Nicole for the evening at the Howard home. Finn loved playing with their dogs and crashed with them on the couch toward the end of the night. IMG_8071Here are a few other shots from the week, including the new football Finn got at Culver’s by redeeming his “scoopie tokens”. He was super stoked. When Kevin and I have been going on date nights, he and Debbie often go to Culver’s for their “date” too 🙂 Afterward they stopped at the park to play with his new ball. IMG_8047 IMG_8048And here are a few others from the week: sprinklers and water fun in the yard, Columbus Commons kids fun day stuffs, art work, and a few from the Sunday concert (Honey and Blue) that I failed to include last week!IMG_8069 IMG_8072 IMG_8104 IMG_8105 IMG_8102 IMG_8106 IMG_8101 IMG_8097 IMG_8044 IMG_8042 IMG_8043 IMG_8034 IMG_8035 IMG_8038 IMG_8039 IMG_8041I’m loving the new album “Love Remains” by Hillary Scott (of Lady Antebellum) and the Scott Family. It is a christian album with traditional hymns and original songs. It’s really a great album! IMG_8107And many thanks to Mom for splurging for me, Amy, and Mom to get our toes “beach ready” this week. We had a fun time getting our toes done and then having ice cream and fried pickles after at Graeter’s and City BBQ! Yum! IMG_8103And now I”m officially caught up on blog posts – I thought this day would never come after being more than 2 months behind.  Whew.  Vacation ready now!!

July 17, 2016

IMG_7813It’s summertime, which means blueberry picking! We headed out on Saturday morning to a new place, Blue Sky Farms, in Marysville and met up with the Bethune’s. It is a 5-acre patch in the backyard of a family’s home and the entire patch is enclosed in netting! That’s the first time I’d seen that! It was a pretty warm morning, but we were able to pick just over 5 pounds of blueberries (Chandler and Draper varieties). I had high hopes of picking like 20 pounds which wasn’t really possible there as their plants are pretty young still. Although what we did pick were super yummy and pretty big! IMG_7803 IMG_7805 IMG_7806 IMG_7808 IMG_7809 IMG_7816 IMG_7819 IMG_7832Since I had high hopes of picking major quantities of blueberries, we carried on to another blueberry farm south of Columbus in South Bloomfield called Blueberry Valley. This one was entirely enclosed in netting too – and from the highway we were super excited that they would have more fruit to pick. We were sorely disappointed and didn’t pick anything! Most of the fruit wasn’t yet ripe and the workers were weeding the rows (tossing all the large weeds into the grass rows!). So we took some photos, bought a few things from the roadside veggie stand, and headed to Enon. We had a “roadtrip” on our summer bucket list, so we turned this day into that and on our way to Enon looked up other blueberry farms that we could go to en route to Grandma and Grandpa Armstrongs. It wasn’t meant to be though, as the three or four places I found were all closed to allow for ripening.  Booooo!!IMG_7841 IMG_7844 IMG_7839So we hung out with Grandma and Grandpa Armstrong and checked out the progress they are making on remodeling their new home. It’s looking great! Finn played some baseball in the driveway and we enjoyed a pizza dinner before heading to Young’s Jersey Dairy for some ice cream dessert. IMG_7850 IMG_7854 IMG_7872 IMG_7877 IMG_7884 IMG_7890 IMG_7891 IMG_7894 IMG_7897 IMG_7898 IMG_7903Sunday was a busy day too with a birthday party for Finn’s friend Owen, followed by a small group social day at our house. It was planned for a friends house, but she came down with a bug and rather than cancelling we just decided to host. I didn’t snap too many photos, but Kevin  setup the water table, mini pool, bounce house, and tee-ball for the kiddos to play. We were exhausted by the end of the night!IMG_7906 IMG_7910 IMG_7913 IMG_7921 IMG_7925During the week Finn and I headed to Zoombeezi on my day off. This time we arrived when they opened at 10:30 and were there until 7. Wowzer! We packed a lunch and got a nice chair in the shade this time so we could rest a bit. My plan was for Finn to fall asleep in the car on the way home and go right to sleep – but that didn’t work! He was a tired boy though as we had been in the sun and water all day long. IMG_7726 IMG_7775 IMG_7777 IMG_7780 IMG_7781 IMG_7785 IMG_7786 IMG_7787 IMG_7793 IMG_7796 IMG_7799Finn may turn into a fish – as he also got to go down to the Fountains this week downtown with Debbie. In keeping with the water theme he made “Nemo’ and a crab. Kevin and Finn also caught lightning bugs (see if you can find them in our video) and let our last two butterflies go this week. IMG_7744 IMG_7719 IMG_7718 IMG_7733 IMG_7731IMG_7723This week Millcreek exhibited at the Cultivate’16 Trade Show in downtown Columbus at the Convention center. It is one of the largest conventions for the Green Industry in the US. Lucky for me, the convention center is across the street from the North Market, so I was luck to meet up with Kevin for lunch. We had deliciousness from The Little Eater (http://littleeater.com), a vegetarian eatery that makes the most amazing and tasty dishes. I would eat there every day if I could…..
IMG_7716 IMG_7717

 

July 12, 2015

DSC_0586

FAMILY! This week was all about family! There was an Armstrong family reunion this week in Enon where family from near (Ohio) and far (LA, Texas, Seattle, etc) gathered for a tasty spread of food and fun at Steve and Cookie’s house. The kiddos played with water balloons and enjoyed watching Kevin fill them up all at one time with a fun kit we got at the store. Todd came to Ohio from LA and was able to spend a few days with us at our house too. Finn loved seeing and talking to him and we ventured to a Clippers game one night too. He has only seen him one other time, during the cruise for Brett and Missy’s wedding, which was a year and a half ago!  Plus, he loves that he can say his name and he’s pretty happy about it such that he constantly says “Todd, Todd, Todd” on a regular basis.

Finn and I made a blueberry pie one night and took it with us to the reunion. It was delish, and Finn was an excellent helper as his favorite tasks include dumping, mixing, and taste testing (see the video!).
IMG_20150707_195649564 IMG_20150707_200551045_HDR IMG_20150708_144537311

DSC_0448 DSC_0450 DSC_0453DSC_0461 DSC_0455 DSC_0462 DSC_0468 DSC_0471 DSC_0472 DSC_0473 DSC_0493 DSC_0500 DSC_0505 DSC_0522DSC_0612And of course there were plenty of family photos. Here’s where it all began, of course, the Armstrong siblings! Steve, Jim, Dave, Lora, and Mark.  And one with the spouses and a couple cousins included too. DSC_0616 DSC_0527

And almost all of the cousins. Everyone was there but Sean. Pictured left to right are Megan, Brett, Scot, Ashley, Jared, Kevin, Ryan, Todd, Jason, Juan, Carmen, Dylan, and Kara.DSC_0514 DSC_0510 DSC_0509

And then there are the cousins kiddos: August, Ora, Pierce, Quinn, Grace, Estelle, Griffin, and Margaret. DSC_0555

Here’s (almost) everyone who was there!DSC_0586

Here are the Scotts – Jessica, Juan, Lora, Jon, Dylan, Carmen, and Kara.  DSC_0477 DSC_0480 CSC_0482And the Armstrongs: silly Margaret, Megan, Mark, and Ryan.DSC_0489 DSC_0484

And a few photos from our trip to the ballpark to see the Clippers with Todd. IMG_20150711_180515849IMG_20150711_182949466IMG_20150711_183436965IMG_20150711_183550547IMG_20150711_192154566IMG_20150711_195253419IMG_20150711_203458466IMG_20150711_211540827IMG_20150711_215239594We ended the weekend with a family dinner at our house. It was a hot day, but a sunny one, so Finn spent some time playing soccer outside with Todd and Grandpa. And one more family photo!DSC_0003 DSC_0005 DSC_0012And Finn had a fun week with Debbie too with adventures to a fun play day down at Bicentennial park where he planted seeds, met Lou Seal, and had fun in the sun!photo(3) photo photo(2) photo(1)