We have just gotten back from our annual pilgrimage to the Swift Creek Berry Farm in Chesterfield! We had several great days of blueberry picking and even got to squeeze in a blackberry picking evening up the road from Mimi and PopPop's house! There were soooo many berries to pick, it was unreal! It was a little hot, but we were saved on the last day by some drizzle and overcast skies! I don't know how many blueberries we ate along the way, but I assure you, it was a lot! Emma made it out with us one morning and was a great picker!!! She considers herself a blueberry connoisseur and sampled the berries as well as collecting them! It was a great trip, and we had a wonderful time visiting- Auntie Kimberly made it for the "harvest" this year, and we were even able to manage an afternoon visiting with Uncle Maffis and Auntie Chelsea. Emma and Mommy had a wonderful time!!

Getting set for Emma's day at the blueberry field, starting out in the backpack

A glimpse from the 3 minutes she spent in the backpack... she wanted to get out and pick!!!
Helping Mommy pick berries
Picking with Auntie Kimberly
Mimi and PopPop in the bushes
Adding her collection to the berry bucket
You want a blueberry??? I have a bunch in my bucket!!!
Enjoying some of her "finds"

Cooling off in the shade, airing out the curls, still munching away at the berries!

Helping to clean at the house, please note, this took no prompting!

We spent Sunday afternoon in Richmond at Maymont park. Mommy hadn't been there in *forever* and vaguely remembered certain parts of the park. It's an amazing place, incredibly beautiful and HUGE!!!! We'll have to go back, since we didn't have time to do the tour of the old mansion, it's unreal! We walked through the children's wildlife area and Emma had a great time. She even got to feed the goats a little handful of oats:
Checking out some of the animals... some sort of odd deer I think??
We brought the "off road" wagon and pimped it out for Emma to ride in, which she loved, but I was amazed at how much she was willing to walk- she did amazingly well!!
Checking out some hawks
Looking at the owls
Stopping for a little snack break- how's this for a "cheesy (cracker) smile?"
Emma was playing with a little switch that had been trimmed from some plants... we're leaving out the picture showing her whipping it forward and yelling "Yah, mule!!" PopPop was an awesome wagon driver for the day!
On the stepping stones at the Japanese garden Koi pond. The fish were amazingly huge and so colorful, and they came really close!
Dancing with Mimi in the little rotunda area in the Italian gardens, so gorgeous there!
The fountain and stairway up from the Japanese garden to the Italian garden... if you look closely you'll see Mimi with Emma near the top on the left side... PopPop and Mommy were hefting the wagon up the steps! (Not as bad as you would expect!) :)
We got lunch at Banditos Burrito Grill up the road from Uncle Maffis' house in Richmond. Emma was very open to hanging out with Auntie Chelsea while we waited for our food, they had a good time drawing with crayons,
and Uncle Maffis even tried to get her to buy into the iPhone concept... :)
We had an awesome trip and came home with tons of wonderful berries to last through the year, (and several chigger bites too, which unfortunately seems to come with the territory... thankfully Emma escaped unscathed!) and lots of good memories. Hope next year's berry picking excursion is this great!