Huckleberries

As soon as Lainy was feeling better, we started making plans for the rest of our summer. We feel like we've been robbed of summer waiting for her to get better! On the top of my list was huckleberry picking for two reasons: 1. My kids have never tasted fresh huckleberries, and 2. We always loved blueberry picking in Massachusetts so I knew they'd enjoy this.

Brad was climbing Mt. Borah for High Adventure, so we met up with my parents and drove out to Moody. I'm not sure if Moody is an actual town or just a bunch of farmland. Either way, it's really pretty out there.

After a short hike, we found some berries!

Benjamin wouldn't let one touch his lips. Crazy kid. But he liked feeding them to Grandpa.

"It's delicious!" said Lainy after her first berry.
"It's kind of sour, but I like it." said Leah.
"It's great!" said Samuel.

 We foraged one spot for a while, then went deeper into the woods to find more.

The old trail has not been maintained. There were trees down everywhere and you could barely see the trail in some places. But that made it a little more charming.

Everyone picked for a while. When the boys got bored I took them back to the creek to play.

There weren't as many berries as we hoped, but we got enough to cover the bottom of our pails. Plenty to satisfy us!

This was the view on the drive back:

There was a forest fire and a storm brewing to the north. The dark sky against the yellow grain fields...so beautiful! We saw two whitetail deer--a doe and a buck-- eating wheat in a field. Then we got a flat tire. (womp, womp)

What's an adventure without a little hiccup? Everybody got out of the van to watch the storm while Dad changed the tire. With all the doors open on the van, a big dust storm blew in. We got the kids in the van as fast as we could and shut the doors, but there was dust everywhere! Yuck!

Luckily the rain missed us, Dad quickly got the tire fixed, and we were on our way again.

More than the berries, getting outside in the fresh mountain air felt so good. And huckleberry pancakes the next morning were the icing on the cake!