Viv and Mike's Visit to Texas

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!