One Berry, Two Berry, Three Berry, Four...

You can learn a lot about someone by the way they pick blueberries...

Oh I know, I'm sure you are wondering, "Now how in the heck is she going to make this connection?", but it's true. Today we had the luck of hitting up Hatcher's Pass with some friends for some early season berry picking. The weather was perfect (not too hot and not raining) and it was to be the first time my kids had ever gone in search of the perfect blueberry. We didn't have to go far. The bushes were thick with clumps of the tiny berries, so we quickly found our spot and started collecting.

Now I happen to be the type of berry picker that instantly starts picking any berry in her path with the mindset to "fill the pail" as fast as one can. Big berries, little berries...ripe berries, green berries...all of them into the bucket in the race to the top. Leaves, too, for if they are in my way they are getting tossed in. It is overwhelming to say the least when you look all around you and see nothing but berries just waiting to be picked! I found myself jumping from bush to bush to pick berries here and berries there and pretty much ended up walking in nothing but circles. I was grabbing berries left and right and in my haste actually dropped more on the ground than I had make it into the pail. Yes, I was the careless ADHD berry picker.

My husband, on the other hand, happens to be a "Virgo" berry picker. That is a very nice way of saying he is a perfectionist and very detail oriented. He'd never admit it, but I know he was checking circumference and color tone of every berry prior to plucking it from the branch. Do you think there were any leaves or twigs in his pail? Not on your life...only the most delectable and mouth watering blueberries on the hillside. All 10 of them. Yes, my husband was the anal berry picker.

And then there were the kids...my son was a champion berry picker and would've had the fullest pail of us all if any of them had even remotely made it into his pail instead of his stomach. He popped those tiny suckers into his mouth faster than any of us and then couldn't quite understand why it was that his pail was so empty. I would call him the smart berry picker.

Of course Sienna was along for the ride and for the first time her aversion to any fruit came in handy. We could count on her to NOT eat any of the berries. She did pick a few, but instead had fun insisting that we dump our berries into her bucket so she could also appear to have some. My daughter soon tired of anything berry related and settled down with the other kids there to play in the bushes and eat the "safe" snacks.

The dog? Well we couldn't leave him at home and I will just call him the annoying berry picker. Kula would plop his retired butt down in the middle of the bush I would be picking from and start plucking blueberries with his lips right out from under me! Stinker!

So despite our different methods, we were successful. We all had great fun and it was a wonderful way to pass an afternoon with friends. The conversation was light and the tone was exceptionally peaceful in the gorgeous valley thick with berries. My kids were introduced to a new experience and my son is already talking about how many berries he'll get the next time we go picking. I'm thankful that we live in a truly amazing place and I want my kids to soak up all that it has to offer.

Not only us but also our freezer. You can bet that we'll be enjoying these delightful little treats all through the dark winter months yet to come. Little bites of summer in a perfect blue package.

Yum.