in search of huckleberries

We spent most of Sunday in search of huckleberries.

This was supposed to be a weekend camping trip and then it turned into just an overnight camping trip and by the time the weekend was here it was shortened to just day trip. By the time the day arrived we were all so tired from all the other summer's goings-on, none of us even got up till almost 10:00 in the morning. So, it was mostly an afternoon/ evening trip.  

Azia's pink-crackle fingernail polish, huckleberry-stained fingers

It still turned out pretty well though.

 It took us quite a lot of driving and searching before we found a patch that hadn't already been picked.

 Israel & Dev picked quite a few.

Lex figured out the picking part.

 But none of them really made it into any buckets.

In fact he spent part of the time wandering around telling other people to give them his berries when he'd get tired of picking them.

 For awhile he called them "blue babies." We convinced them they were berries, but then he insisted they were blue berries instead of huckleberries. I sort of liked calling them blue babies better than blue berries.

 Of course Zoran was obsessed with finding the biggest, best berries. He may have won.

 Since we were up in the area we got out & checked out the Dam. We haven't been up here in a few years. I don't think the little boys had ever been to the Hungry Horse Dam and the older two didn't remember it.

 It's such a pretty area. The kids loved exploring the hills and water.

Israel even found someone's geocache. . . without any sort of GPS device. He's very intuitive.

We stopped to swim at Blue Bay on the way home.

My kids have a new fascination with swimming places with docks.

I think Zoran likes them because they require a little less courage and swimming skill than jumping off the bridge at the Dam. 




 Azia's been learning to dive the last month & can do it pretty well off the docks now.

And Lex just sees them as yet another avenue to run away from me.

 The kids were so happy to be swimming they each even let me take a picture of them. (Well I only had about 1.5 seconds of their time, but with some of them this even meant I could take two photos!) They are never this cooperative.

Israel

Azia-Rain

Zoran

Lex

 Pretty great day overall.

And tonight we might even have huckleberry milkshakes.