Purple Raspberries

After 2 years of intending to go to our local berry patch but never getting around to it, we finally scheduled a family date, and went raspberry picking at Bellevue Berry Farm.  It was great, delicious fun, and a perfect activity for big families. I wish I had taken advantage of this gem of a place sooner. Bellevue Berry Farm offers strawberries in the Spring, raspberries in the Summer, and pumpkins in the Fall. We will most certainly be spending some time there this October when the pumpkins are ready.

Ivy was super excited to get out to the berry patch.

We did stop along the way for some silly photos.

Here they are! Beautiful purple raspberries.

Once we hit the patch, the girls and boys split off into two groups. Bree and Elle wanted to get picking right away, but the boys, being typical boys, decided to go off and find the "ultimate" picking spot in the patch.

Elle really picked a lot of berries!

When we finally caught up to the boys, they had harvested a good sized bucket of their own.

Sadly, my Lightroom skills are not advanced enough to make Grant appear as if he's smiling.

Here's proof that he had a good time.

Nona didn't pick any berries due to her finger injury(blog post on that later.) She didn't miss out, though. The kids were all very concerned about her, and with all five of them force-feeding her raspberries she had her fill about ten minutes in, and refused to eat any more. She found this lovely ceramic duck to play with, instead of picking berries. Highlight of her day. 

Nona was comfy and happy in her stroller when I pulled her out to try and get a quick pic of all six kiddos. She was not amused.

Bree likes to take pictures too!

Here are just a portion of the berries we picked. Amazingly, a  few of these cartons even made it home without being consumed! 

Couldn't have had more fun at Fun Plex!

 Our Police Welfare and Benefit Association throws an awesome summer picnic every year at Fun Plex, for Omaha Police families. We took Rylan, Bree, and Elle with us this year, and it was such a blessing to spend a whole day enjoying the one-on-one time with just our oldest kiddos. We ate so many hot dogs, hamburgers, and little bags of chips, we thought we would be sick. You know those little waxy plastic bottles of colored sugar water "juice" with foil on the top? Yeah, they had an endless supply of those...the kids were in heaven.

We spent much of the day hanging out in the lazy river and the wave pool. Didn't feel like risking dropping my phone in the water to get pics of that, but we got a few of the kids enjoying the amusement park part. I think this was the first time they had been somewhere where they could do carnival rides for as long as they wanted.

We spend a lot of nights missing Daddy. God's calling for him requires the kids and I to give up a lot of time with our husband/daddy that other families typically have with theirs. That's okay. We are incredibly proud of how insanely hard Aaron works for us, how he loves us, and who God has called him to be. We believe, as a family, that God created us for this lifestyle, and do our best to walk through it with joy. Obviously, there are hard days. There are tears at night when Daddy is not home.

It brought so much joy to my heart to watch Rylan, Bree, and Elle be free to just have fun - a whole day where we could love on them, and enjoy them. It was nice to be able to tell them that the whole day was to celebrate daddy's hard work, and to say thanks to them for all the things that they give up too. It's good to be able to tell your children that other people also appreciate what their dad does. I'm super grateful for all the hard work that goes into making this special day happen for us and other police  families.

College World Series 2013!

Aaron worked A LOT of hours for the College World Series this year, since he was on Riverfront Patrol. We missed him a lot, but it was only a week and a half, and I'm so glad he got to get in on some of the fun downtown. 

This particular day was the last day of the series. Aaron called me from work - he forgot his bike shirt at home and needed us to run it to town for him. We were happy to oblige. It's always fun for the kiddos to see what Dad is up to when he's at work, and it was a good excuse to see him a bit more that day since we had been missing him all week.

 Here are the guys, Aaron and his partner Ofc. Keenan, at the CWS OPD "headquarters" they had set up at the Century Link Center.

Aaron texted me this pic later that night at the end of the championship game when all the officers were lined up on the field during the award ceremony. So cool.

And here is our text conversation that followed the cool "I'm on the field right now, at the CWS championship game!" pics he texted me. 

(Obviously, me on the right.)

 How sweet is that text from him?? 

Now that is how you make a stay-at-home-mom feel good. 

Love my man.

Dairy Queen Fun!

The Plattsmouth Dairy Queen was giving a free mini blizzard to anyone who brought in a letter for a US Service Member, and Erin Purdy had the great idea of getting the kids together for a craft day and ice cream outing! We spent the morning crafting and fellowshipping at the Purdys house and then headed over to Dairy Queen. We haven't really been out for ice cream since starting Primal eating(we have eaten it at home for holidays and birthdays...I'm not totally mean), so it was a fun day for our kids. Bree asked me on the way over there, "Where does the dairy queen live?" I guess she forgot what a Dairy Queen was!

 Here are most of the kiddos with their cute letters!

M&M Blizzards....gone in like 2 minutes flat.

The girls table!