This past weekend we had a chance to enjoy a tradition that I have had since I was a little girl. It happens in the spring time, when the frost is gone and the weather is on the verge of summer when the humidity is starting to climb, the days are getting longer and all the bugs are fully out. If you guessed, car washing, you’re close. If you guessed flying a kite – good guess, but not quite. It’s picking strawberries!

Growing up, we would go to Little Farmer just outside of Fond du Lac when they still grew strawberries. They had a huge red wooden tractor out in the fields and a wagon ride that would take you from the car out to the fields. I remember picking strawberries by the pail full and eating as many as you could without mom and dad watching.

This weekend, that’s exactly what we did before the storms and the heat rolled in. The berries haven’t been the best the last couple of years, but it was enough this year for Maddox to help eat our ‘profits’. The thrill of pulling into the parking lot and hearing how excited he was to see the tractor. He was so excited to pick strawberries and eat them in the field. He kept finding the biggest ones so we all could have some to eat. I love these kinds of traditions and thankful that we are able to have these memories.

Now, I know what you’re thinking; I thought this blog was related to Maddox’s CF journey. That’s cool that you guys went, but why in a blog post? I write it because we are so fortunate that we are able to have these adventures. There are CF’ers in this world that have never had a chance to enjoy these types of experiences. My Facebook news feed is full of other CF’ers his age that have endured pain, frustration and suffering that they are thankful that they can finally go home from the hospital.

We have our constant reminder as we have to plan all of our adventures around his treatments. We had to rush home that night and keep him awake long enough to rock out his treatments yet. It is so easy to have the mentality, eh – what’s one night if we skip it. One night, he will survive, but that’s how it happens. The routine is broken and the enforcement loses confidence and taken advantage of. We want to keep his treatments to a zero tolerance of missed treatments. We know and have been warned that during the rebel teenage years that missed treatments can really add up. We know that this will be a struggle so we rock as many of these as we can. Fortunate for me, he loves strawberries right out of the field.  Yummy!