The Eastern Shore

On Friday we drove out to the Eastern Shore - a string of islands along the eastern coast of Virginia and Maryland.  You have to go across an amazingly long bridge (17 miles) to get there and it feels very remote, but I love it!  We went to a farm and picked blueberries.  It was a small but nice place and blueberries are only 75 cents a pound (instead of 2 - 2.50 a pound around here).  While there we ran into our friends who told us about the farm.  It was nice to visit while we picked.  We then headed back towards the bridge and stopped at Kiptopeke State Park and went to the beach for the afternoon.  It was a small, but nice beach.  The kids had a blast.  I had fun going to the beach without a baby for the first time ever!  We then drove back across the long (and expensive) bridge to find some dinner and then headed home.  It was a really fun day!  The next morning we woke up to backed up kitchen pipes.  I know, all you read about is our plumbing woes.  Mike spent a lot of time troubleshooting and trying everything we could think of (and making a huge nasty mess) he climbed under the house, figured out the problem and then the real work began.  After 3 trips to Lowes and a trip I made to another hardware store and hours later it was fixed!  It was a very nasty job and I was so glad Mike was able to figure it out and fix it so we could avoid another large plumbing bill.  While he did that I cleaned and froze over 10 pounds of blueberries and then ate, baked or stored the remaining 7 pounds for now.  That wasn't easy without a kitchen sink!  We had blueberry pancakes for breakfast, blueberry pie for dessert and I made blueberry muffins for breakfast today (and froze some of those for later).

In other news, we also been having fun swimming in our pool, playing with the chickens, working in the garden, canning tomatoes, peach jam, peach syrup (peach jam that doesn't set up makes delicious syrup for waffles!), and peppers.  We've had missionaries and friends over for dinner, been to the dentist and orthodontist, as well as the library!  One day after we'd been to the park we stopped at the grocery store to get a couple of things on our way home.  While herding everyone into the check out line an older gentleman in front of us asked me if those were all my kids.  I smiled and said yes.  He said God bless you.  He told me a little bit about his family.  As he was getting ready to leave with his groceries he took out his wallet and handed me some cash.  I said Oh no sir, I can't take your money.  He said you don't have to, it's for the kids.  Go buy them some ice cream.  I started crying.  I was so shocked.  I'm not sure why he did it, I think he was trying to be nice and helpful.  I asked Mike if we looked homeless or something.  It was very touching.  Most of the attention I get in regards to my family is negative and it's so refreshing to get some positive attention.  Later that afternoon we met Mike at Steak N Shake during happy hour and had half price shakes!  They were delicious and well appreciated!

Picking blueberries!

So I'm actually eating a blueberry and smiling - that's why it's such a weird expression...thanks Mike.

The girls with our friends we ran into

Kiptopeke Beach!  Aren't these fun chairs?

That's Lilah way out there by herself, she is fearless.  She did ask me if there were any boats (you could hear motors) sharks or alligators.  Once I told her no, she was good to go.  Those old boats in the background were set up in a ring around the swimming area, I guess to block the big waves, they were very cool.

Eating ice cream

Later in the afternoon, these guys showed up so we stayed out of the water

My kitchen for most of Saturday

Lilah with her chicken Molly Mae