A Night in the Life of a Cherry Picker

Reilly and I started work at Cherry Bay Orchards this week. We have been working the night shift and amazingly it has been way more fun than I ever imagined it would be. Here is a brief illustration of events throughout the 12 hour shift. Enjoy!! and be thankful you are sleeping right now.


The Cooling Pad


Reilly doing routine maintenance on the trucks- What a HUNK!





The trucks come from the orchard with 8 tanks full of
beautiful cherries... Now the REAL work begins.




Flushing water to clean the cherries



Weighing and Grading Cherries




Yes folks, Rachael drives a forklift... Bet you thought pigs would fly before this day would come.



When we aren't busy, the real fun begins 'behind the scenes'

Things get a little loopy around 3 a.m.

Shenandoah National Park

Reilly and I have been planning a backpacking trip for our 2 year anniversary. We couldn't have imagined a better way to spend our time together. 4 days unshowered, Hail Storms in a tent, every meal out of a saucepan, bears, treacherous, waterfall hikes,rock climbing, dachshund puppies in the campground that made me miss Lucy, up hill climbs that last for MILES!!! and, an unbelievable amount of quality time together. Praise God for His beautiful creation and the opportunity that we had to explore just a small little bit of it. Enjoy just a few of our pictures.

I Ran A Marathon!!!!!!!!

The Most AMAZING and Humbling day of my LIFE!!!!!!!!!

The BAYSHORE MARATHON
May 24, 2008

6:00 p.m. 5/23 The night before the race- Renae, Jared, Steph, and I went to pick up our race day packets.

6:20 a.m. I am looking Cool, Confident, and Collected... In all honesty, I was shaking in my pants.... Waiting on the bathroom line.

6:30 a.m. Feeling nervous about being at this very same spot in 4 1/2 hours!!!! Only probably not looking quite as spiffy :)

6:58 a.m. The gun is about to fire!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

7:00 a.m. And, They're OFF!!!


The Incredible Fan Club.... Having so much fun!!!!


Lucy and Aunt Mindie


Mile 10 - Still looking strong

The fan club decided to go out for breakfast while I had run 10 miles.... Thankfully they got there just in time to see me run by-I gave a very dorky wave

(Not at all what I had practiced Steph :)







Reilly calls Mom at Mile 23.... MUCH needed encouragement at this point....
LOVE YOU MAMA!!!!!!!!!

Lucy ran the victory lap to the finish line with me.... I couldn't imagine a better way to have completed my lifelong goal!





Overcome with Emotion!

I know... horrible picture. VICTORY SMOOCH!!!!!!!