There was an old lady who swallowed a tick; perhaps she'll die

Me: Oh, no! I swallowed a tick and I can feel it in my throat as its latching to my oesophagus.  Its going to suck all of my blood!

This was 3/4 of the way through our Easter hike this weekend. You think I was complaining the whole time, but you'd be surprised to know our hike was absolutely amazing.

Day one was a beautiful dry sunny day.  We started the morning both worried about how the other would do on this trip.  So much so that we almost cancelled the whole trip.  He was stressing that I'd be bitching and moaning the whole time.  I was stressing that he'd be pushy and mean.

We started the hike with a happy picture and a kiss, waited for the arguments that would eventually never come. 

We hiked hard, but casually.  We stopped to see waterfalls, smell the flowers and to bend me over a sign.....

The best part of the entire hike though was when we set down our packs, took off our shoes and took a walk in the creek.  The sun was shining with a bit of rain, causing a small rainbow.  I took my top off to let the girls bask in the glory of the fresh air and the outdoors. 

He had a tea.

I fell asleep. 

When I woke up, we took the time to watch the birds and creep on the bugs.  We saw a spider hanging from its web, lower itself to the water, and raise itself back again.

We saw a bird fly down and eat an insect mid flight.  One moment the bug was there, chancing another bug and then POOF! a bird swooped in an ate it.  We had to keep ducking our heads as this tiny bird kept flying toward our heads.  The bird then flew away, after eating the bug, right into the spider web, knocking the web and all of it contents into the water.

We saw the beautiful blue skies and I almost sat down on another big brown spider.

As we sat on the rock in the creek, he held me in his arms and I realized this is the life I want to live.

Me.  PIB.  The great outdoors.  Did I mention Me and PIB??  Relaxed.  Enjoying the beautiful environment that God has given us. 

As we continued our hike, we ascended a massive climb.

Two K's outside of our camp site we took a last second break.  As we rested, we found a praying mantis.  A fleeting thought of is this a female who is guilty of eating the head off her partner after sex or is this a male who has as of yet, to get laid.  The answer soon came to us as we watch the bug dig around in the dirt.  I said, I've never seen one do that and neither had PIB.  She started to lay eggs while we were there.  We stayed a bit longer because I wanted to watch her finish; however, PIB was ready to get moving and I was tired of her taking her time to pop these eggs out. 

Although, as I think about it, 1st a human baby, then turtles, now a praying mantis-I'm wondering if I've missed my calling as a gynocologist.

haha-kidding.

Camping that night was great!  PIB made us dinner on his camping stove and the rains came as slowly as the night ended.

The next morning when the sun rose, the ground was damp and the birds were chirping.   We had a quick breakfast and a tea and started out again.

As the leeches attacked; I started to come undone.  Freaking out about being eaten alive, ticks falling into my ears and causing me to be deaf and the slight touch of every blade of grass freaked me out.  How can a leech attach themselves so quickly ?  AND they were the smallest leeches you could imagine.  Getting a tick stuck in any hole of my body freaks me out to no end!  DAMN YOU DR. HOUSE.  (If you haven't seen the episode, then you need to watch it ASAP).

Anyway; needless to say, PIB was so good to me during this emotional mind set.  He laughed at my freaking out, reminding me to remain calm.  He didn't get annoyed with my prissiness.    And all the way to the end of the hike, when we were both just ready to be done, his knee sore, my ankle hurting from falling into a hole and yet, we walked out of there holding hands.

Holding. Hands.  A smile on our face and a teasing remark that we will soon be doing a three day hike......