My solo trip to procure cherries :0)

This was before the harvest

 A few weeks ago when we were at Cherise and Kiel's we knew the cherry harvest would be falling right around the end of school/graduation/ Garrett's birthday/ Father's Day time. It turned out that the cherries ripened a tad earlier and the pickers came in for 4 days of very early mornings. I asked the kids if I could come and get some cherries after the pickers had gone through assuming that there would be some left to glean. Reesie called and said that they had bing cherries that weren't quite ready when the main picking happened and that they had one Rainier cherry tree that was loaded.

I was able to drop Cam at school on Tuesday of his final week, abandoned the rest of my family and responsibilities and drove east.

 I packed along the exersaucer that has been used by several other grandkids. It was now Quinn's turn to use it.

 Henry and Anabelle showed me their new books that they got on their first official Family Book Night at Barnes and Noble. I love that our grandchildren love reading so much!

 Snuggle time with all three on the couch :0)

Anabelle graduated!

 The day I got there was the last time that Anabelle was going to be visited by the Occupational/Speech therapist. Bellie will soon be three and no longer in this program. They had a gift to commemorate her  achievements. Cute hey?

A picture taken for my Har

There is something about this scene that makes me lonesome for Goldendale and made me think of Harlan's roots there. 

Out into the orchard 

 Cherise wasn't kidding when she said that this Rainier tree was loaded! Beautiful fruit.

Cherise picked a little over a half of a pail full and I got a grocery bag about 2/3rds full. We didn't want to spend too much time out there and Kiel said he'd take me to pick the next day on some trees that the pickers had missed.

 Some of the bings :0)

Morning with these cuties

Henry was glad that I brought my "grandchildren's iPad" so he and Anabelle could each use one at the same time. Quinn just loves to watch faces. He lights up when he sees people. Especially his mom!

 He was appreciating the exersaucer and looks so much like his Uncle Hayden did doing this same thing!  Quinn now has a rocking type chair, an exercise play mat and this exersaucer.

Quinn's 4 month check-up

 We bought Anabelle a new dress that has a bow on the front of it that looks sort of like butterfly wings so she thought it could fly. She was making a flying gesture when she noticed her shadow. 

Funny Bellie-girl. She, Cherise and I went into town to take Quinn to his 4 month check-up while Henry rode around on the gator with his dad checking on the final picking of the bings.

Since Anabelle likes shadows I snapped this of the two of us.

Picking cherries: day two

Kiel drove me down the road to the other orchard to pick some amazing tietan variety cherries. They are huge! I had a great time picking and taking pictures. Kiel arranged some cherries around a quarter when we got home to so how big these cherries really are. Amazing!

Henry and Anabelle got to share a sample of the new pickings. You can tell how much juice this fruit contains. YUM!

Packing up to head back to Portland

Har and I bought a bed from the kids. We are so excited to get a comfy bed again. Harlan was concerned that I wasn't going to be tying it down well enough for the trip. He sent me with a bunch of tie down straps and bungees and a tarp to use. He didn't have anything to worry about. I handed the task over to Kiel and he did a superb job of securing everything and there was nary a ripple in that tarp along the gorge.

Leaving is always the hardest but I took this photo in their front yard and kept it in my mind along the way. Reesie and her family are thriving in their little corner of the world.

There were happy times and more memories made.

It was well worth the trip :0)