Life Is Beautiful.

Ian is a pretty persistent guy.

When he gets an idea, he really hangs on to it.

...And for the last two weeks or so,

he has been begging to make pickles.

[be still my heart!!]

But I've never made pickles.

So I did the most logical think I could think of:

I called my mother.

[A pickle-maker extraordinaire.]

And for the Veteran's Day holiday,

we drove up to Maine for the following reasons (in no particular order):

1. So Ian [and his mother] could learn how to make GG's pickles;

2. So Joe could build a treehouse and squeal with delight;

3. To spend some time with my grandmother who's been under the weather;

and 4. to give my family some Blake lovin', because

WhoCanResistThoseCHEEKS!?!?

PicklePalooza2010 began with hand-and-pickle washing

"Look mom! I'm washing-without-looking!"

Then it was time to gather all of the ice in the house

(which involved both my parents' and my grandparents' ice).

As an aside, here's how Blake spent the afternoon:

strapped to my chest in the Ergo.

I take Blake during the second and third hours of church these days,

and after quite literally pulling my shoulder muscles on Sunday,

I sent out a plea to the Facebook universe: "HELP ME FIND A SLING!!"

The advice was nearly unanimous: BUY THE ERGO. So I did.

And I'm pretty confident we're BOTH in heaven.

But I digress....

Mom took on the cucumber-slicing-duties, for obvious reasons.

But Ian was the Cucumber Transport Man from the counter to the ice.

Mom spent a second extolling the virtues of Kosher salt.

[which is why she is awesome.]

...And then they salted the heck out of the thing...

Mix, Mix, Mix

Ha! Ha! Ha! This might be my favorite picture of the bunch.

Ian licked one of the salted ice cubes.

He found out that it was awful.

And spent about 5 minutes cleaning off his tongue with his sleeve.

Fast-forward four hours after the cukes had time to brine...

Ian helped Mom make what he affectionately referred to as "the sauce,"

and Mom did the hot-and-heavy lifting...

Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnd....

I am now in Heaven.

The end.