Monster Cookies

July 24: Day Nine

Author: Amber

July 24, 2009
Day Nine – Winnipeg

Weather: WINDY!

Today our trailer was shaking and whistling when I opened my eyes. The sun was out, but so was the wind – in full force.

Despite the crazy gales, we headed out on our adventure of the day. Grandma had asked us if we wanted to try berry picking while we were here and I said YES!

So, into two cars we piled…Jon, Daniel, Joshua, Andrew, Claire and I into our van, and my aunt Cheryl, cousin Kyle, mom, and brother, Matt into my mom’s car…and away we went to the berry farm.

It was a beautiful farm. So clean and easy to get in there and get picking! There was straw on the ground to kneel on while picking the strawberries. I think we all kind of got carried away and before we knew it, we had picked seven baskets, overflowing with strawberries! The kids (and not the kids) got their fill (evidence on their faces) and we made our way over to the raspberries.

The raspberries were harder to pick. The season for picking them had just started and there weren’t too many that were ripe enough to pull off. It took a lot longer than the strawberries, but we eventually came away with three or four boxes of raspberries too. And what delicious raspberries they are!

Also at this berry farm, they have a few other things to see. There is a small house with a spinny thing in it that they call ‘the black hole’. There is a corn crop that will have a maze cut into it in the fall, and there is a petting zoo, complete with a mini-maze formed from bales of hay.

This petting zoo reminded me of what you would see in a storybook. There was a pony tethered near the maze, who wandered where he could, muching grass along the way. There was a lazy sleepy mommy cat on a picnic table, who didn’t even open her eyes to see who was approaching. And there was a fenced-in area, full of goats and chickens just waiting for some excitement. We brought them some excitement, alright, and they gave us some too!

There was a rooster with so many feathers down around his legs that it looked like he was wearing pants. The goats made it VERY clear that they liked the feed that you could buy to give to them by offering, no, forcing hugs on you. Those goats jumped right up onto your shoulders if you got too close! There was a baby goat and kittens too. We had so much fun with the animals that we didn’t even make it over to the playground before it started to rain.

More rain…another amazingly fast downpour. We felt the first few drops fall and called the kids away from the animals. We got their hands sanitized and started walking back to our vehicles. I RAN with Claire back to the van, and still, by the time we got there, we were all soaking wet. I’m still amazed and in awe at this…how it just comes out of nowhere, and so quickly!

We drove into the nearby town to take a look at a beach we might go to another day to fulfill Josh’s longing for a beach, and then stopped for ice cream. Delicious ice cream from a place that also sells things like cheeseburgers, POUTINE, and slurpees with or without soft ice cream in the cup. I’m thinking if we go back to that beach, we’ll be going back to that drive-in too!

We arrived back at the acreage right around dinnertime. At the prompting of my mom, Jon and I headed off for a date. We have not been alone together since March of this year – it has been WAY TOO LONG! We planned for dinner and a movie, but I was feeling some guilt at leaving my mom with all of the kids while she toiled at preparing the strawberries for freezing, so Jon and I settled for dinner at a buffet restaurant followed by shopping to spend some gift cards that Jon received for Christmas.

Our romantic date purchases…a belt for Jon, since he has shrunk out of his old ones; some Solarcaine aloe vera gel for me to rub on Jon’s horribly sunburned skin; and three bottles of Pic-a-Pop, which we searched earnestly in vain for while we still lived here. Apparently the company had gone out of business back then. But now it’s not out of business. I don’t get it.

We finished up the evening with some Timmy’s and a movie on our laptop in our bed (after we got the kids set up with Mr. Dressup DVDs in their sleeping area). Yup, sounds like a married couple with kids alright! We are planning a more exciting date night for next week…something that will last more than two hours and will include some sort of romance.

Tags: Vacation 2009

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