As soon as Becky (I mean, Vivian) and Mike got off the airplane from Utah, we drove straight to downtown Dallas to pick up Jared from work and then on to "the farm" (a 3 hour ride from Dallas, just past Crockett, TX and basically in the middle of nowhere). The farm is a piece of land where Jared's Grandfather, "Pawpaw", was raised. Currently, Grandmother and Pawpaw don't live there, but they make weekend trips to check on the cows and the property. We love our visits there and this time we heard that wild blackberries were blooming all over the land. I LOVE this picture of Viv...After picking for hours, it looks like she's on a commercial selling blackberries from some little country farm.
At one point we had to jump across the creek and climb up the hill to get to the next meadow. The blackberry bushes were just covering the ground! We picked bowls and bowls--mostly so Grandmother could store them and make blackberry pies all year long!
Here, first thing in the morning, Mike and George are waiting patiently to pick blackberries--grandmother (at the door) is insisting to me that we take sweaters.... And you can see that we are very ambitious blackberry pickers--Mike has quite the stack of bowls!
Near the end of the day, we decided to go fishing in one of the farm's ponds. Katie really loves to do anything that she sees her big brother or daddy doing. It's so cute to see her with a pink strawberry shortcake fishing pole!
George and Katie waiting for a bite at the end of their lines....
Pawpaw, who still has energy to make the fishing trips with the great-grandchildren.
Daddy, giving a little lesson on fishing. We'll see if the two-year-old listens!
Oh, I have to mention one more fabulous detail about the farm--besides the cows, the horses, the wide open spaces to play and work in--the best food you will ever eat is made by Grandmother! We arrived late on Friday and had the choice of chicken and dumplings or chicken and sausage gumbo. The next morning our day began with homemade biscuits, jelly and preserves, sausage and eggs. Dinner (what we call "lunch") is just a few hours later and consists of roast, carrots, salad, purple hull peas, mashed potatoes and rolls. And supper (or "dinner") is a continuation of the previous meal, usually after we get back from fishing or doing some work around the farm. Oh, and I don't want to forget to mention that dessert is served after both dinner and supper! Yep, you definitely could have rolled us out to the car!
Everything about camping was so new and exciting, especially for Katie, who had no idea what a tent, lantern or camping stove looked like. As soon as it got dark, the kids started asking if they could go to bed (they were really excited about this sleeping bag idea). Well, the temperature started dropping, so settling down for the night sounded quite nice. However, that was the beginning of the longest night of our lives! Little kids roll around SO much at night. Jared and I were up every 30 minutes, ALL NIGHT LONG, putting George and Katie back into their sleeping bags and under their blankets. They were freezing all night because they wouldn't stay put! 
When the sun finally came up, we decided to forget about "trying" to sleep. So we got ourselves dressed in multiple layers and ventured out. It was freezing! Pour little Katie's hands were bright red. We built the fire back up and that helped a little if we stood right up against it. The hot chocolate helped a bit too. We made pancakes and sausage for breakfast and the kids snacked on Smores Pop Tarts as a treat. We were all SO cold though. I felt a little unprepared--I should have brought the kids hats and gloves. Luckily, we brought a game along and that helped to distract us. Here George is pointing out his first win.
The sun finally started warming things up around 10:30 in the morning (we had been up for hours by then). Here, Dad and Katie are playing around.
We took a walk down to the river. The sun felt great! The kids wanted to get their swimming suits on, but the wind was still a bit chilly. Instead, we skipped rocks and enjoyed the view. The kids had fun collecting rocks, sticks and shells.
After packing up, we drove over to an animal reserve park called Fossil Rim. It was so neat! Most of the animals came up to the car to eat right out of our hands.
George reached out to feed one of the animals.
The giraffes were not shy! George and Katie were shocked at first when the giraffes leaned down to meet us. It was nice to have a sunroof and they reached right inside for a handful of food. 
This is my favorite picture! Katie stood half way out through the sunroof. It was an amazing experience to be so close to animals that are usually behind fences at a zoo.
