Strawberry shortcake, banana split...

No seizure tonight... 5 nights in.  Will is now 2 days off of his anti-seizure medication.  Apparently it can stay in your system for about 3 days, so he will only truly be "unmedicated" on Sunday.  Hopefully by then, things are more... "interesting."  The days are long at the hospital.  The space can feel like its closing in on you.  Visitors are a blessing, phone calls and emails are welcome distractions, and Will's laughs are really making the time a little more tolerable. 

Thankfully Will is in a better mood now than when we went strawberry picking this past Sunday.  The day was beautiful.  We loaded two sets of grandparents into vehicles and made our way to Vollmer Farm in Youngsville.  This is now our second year going to pick strawberries there.  We went earlier this year than last, and good thing too!  The strawberry season started early here this year.  And MAN, were there strawberries to be picked.

Papa and the boys enjoyed a bit of time together while the rest of us got ready to load into the wagon to take us out to the strawberry fields.

We loaded onto the wagon.  Luke was pining away at the tractor pulling us (Farmer Vollmer eventually let Luke sit in the tractor seat - I am sure, a highlight for Luke).  Will enjoyed a couple of moments of quiet before heading out into the field, and proceeding to cry the entire time.  We still aren't sure what was going on.  We just know that he wasn't happy and didn't want to be picking strawberries!

Once we got into the fields, we all grabbed a basket and headed off for our bounty.  It was amazing.  Everywhere we looked, the strawberries were bright red and beautiful!  While last year we really had to hunt through plants to fill just one basket, this year after about 25 minutes, each one of the 8 adults in our group had picked 5 pounds of berries.  We literally had to stop looking at the plants because we had to stop picking.  It was awesome.  Luke and Matt really got into picking this year, it was fun to see!

Luke and Matt even found some fun as we were loading up the wagon, jumping over the irrigation piping.  They were bummed when we had to stop.

Will's favorite time of day was after we all had enjoyed some local ice cream and he got to dance around with Grammy.  He was all smiles!

All in all, a fun and successful trip.  We all found some fun (albeit eventually for Will).  We loaded up the cars, drove home, and relaxed for a bit.  But that didn't last long... with me leaving the next day for Hopkins and not wanting those pounds of lovely berries to go to waste, I set up the kitchen and cooked up 8 jars of strawberry jam that very afternoon :)