Cherry Time!

Every July we head to Rob's parents' place to help with their cherry harvest. They have around 3,000 cherry trees over 11 acres. We look forward to this yearly event, because it's a chance to see all of Rob's family. Cove is a beautiful place, nestled up agains a moutain. Grandpa grows the best cherries there!This year we had 30 pickers to keep up with. Rob is looking for more buckets to dump into the bins.

The pickers are paid by the bucket, so we have to punch their card for each bucket, and keep track of where they move throughout the orchard. I keep referring to the work with "we," when really I'm mostly down at the house trying to keep our kids entertained, or at least out of trouble.

Rob's sister Sena hard at work in the orchard- when she's not busy teaching swimming lessons or water aerobics at the local swimming pool.

Grandpa R. heading up for another load of cherries to take to the co-op. From the upper orchard they have an amazing view of the valley, and the mountains. Isn't it just beautiful?!!! Rob and Grandpa getting back from a trip to the co-op. They had 14 loads in one day (that's a lot)!Our kids' favorite thing to do is eat cherries. Sticky cherry juice mixed with the dark soil they have there, makes for really messy kids. Sarah would get so dirty that she had to get cleaned up before even getting in the tub.
Disgusting! Have you ever seen such dirty feet? Let's see... Oh yeah, last year at cherries. Nathan, my clean one, even gets messy. Matthew apparently likes eating dirt as well as cherries. He was very disappointed that he couldn't reach the cherries on the trees by himself.
More to come on CHERRIES...