Berry Pickin'

Yesterday, Claire and I took a much needed day off and spent the day with Grandma and Adele. We took a drive out to Monmouth, a quaint little town about twenty minutes outside Salem, and home to Western Oregon University. Gary is working on an insanely gorgeous house out there and I had been waiting quite some time to see it for myself. I wanted to take some pictures while we were there, but there is still so much equipment lying around, it wouldn't have done the real thing any justice. Hopefully I'll have another opportunity to visit and post some pictures. Anyway...the little gravel road leading up to this mini castle is lined with blackberry bushes, which surprisingly in mid-October, still offered some yummy berries. Claire had never tried blackberries, so we had to get out and pick some. She wasn't quite sure about their taste, but she sure enjoyed squishing them and making a purple mess! We also stopped for some lunch, and despite all my efforts to keep Claire 100% pure and organic, she had her first ice cream cone. She put those two teeth to work and seemed to like the cone more than the ice cream! I think we need more days just like this one...