Thursday, July 4, 2013

Dances with Ticks

We had family in town last weekend, and we have family in town for the next two weekends as well. Considering that both our families live 8-16 hours away, we're incredibly stoked to see our loved ones again!


Last weekend, Levi's brother, David, came to visit with his wife, Jessica, and their amazingly awesome little baby girl, Colby. She was born this past January, and since we haven't been south since Christmas, this was the first time we got to meet her. Needless to say, we were giddy with excitement to finally be able to hold our precious niece. And see David and Jessica, of course!

We spent the entire weekend chillin' at home, playing with Colby, and cooking up a storm. Levi made some rockin' stir fry and some seitan, which is not for the gluten-free or faint of heart, while David and Jessica prepared an incredible meal of beef brisket tacos. I made a cheesecake with a gingersnap crust, lemon curd and blueberry syrup. You'll be getting the recipe for that super soon!

Our big outing for the weekend was a trip to Camden State Park. It was a lovely day, and the wind wasn't too terrible. David and Jessica were in awe of just how green everything is up here in the middle of the summer, and Colby was enthralled with her first hike.

There was a slight problem, however.

There were ticks. Everywhere. And by everywhere, I mean on us. Every sixty seconds one of us would look down and there would be a tick or two making its way up our pant legs (or up our bare skin *shudder*). I took lots of pictures while we were on our short little hike (it was only about a mile or two), and I am sorry to say that I didn't get any pictures of the ticks. I know you were hoping to see that gross sight.

But here's the thing. Those of us with the cameras were ready to snap pictures of the ticks. But if you've got a tick crawling up your legs and heading for your waistband so it can burrow itself into your underwear line (Oh, the horror), you're not as willing to hold still and let someone come in close, focus, and snap a picture of the little guy. You're mostly thinking, "Oh-gross-gross-gross-get-it-off-get-it-off-I'm-gonna-die." More or less. So, if you're the kind of person who'd have been willing to sit still while a tick slowly advanced on your nether region while someone else took a picture, props to you. Cause none of us are that brave.

Either way, here are some pictures of the fun time we had!


When I tell Levi to smile and that I'm going to take a picture of him, this is the best I can get. His real smile is a stellar one, but posing for a picture is most definitely not his thing. But we really were excited to go!



It was so wonderful to see David and Jessica. They're totally our kind of people. And it's even more awesome that they're family, too. And Colby is so stinkin' cute in her little hat.


She smiles non-stop. It just slays me. And Levi is definitely her favorite of the two of us. Just seeing his face makes her break into a huge grin.



These pictures almost do justice to how green it was. Levi and I are spoiled because we're actually used to it by now.


The river that runs through Camden was rushing along at a steady clip. It sounded beautiful.


This is where the ticks began to get us. You see those oaks on the right? Walking along the tree line was awful. Seriously, at one point Levi had six or seven ticks crawling up his leg in one, big mob.



These are the best pictures I get of Levi. Him walking into a place of beauty. I really enjoy these shots.


I took a panorama of the prairie scene, and I just happened to catch David and Levi hanging out on the trail together. I really like this picture.


We really like each other.

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Also, we don't always take great pictures the first time. We took two or three pictures before this. Here's our proof:


We're just a couple of regular kids, you know.

Hope y'all have a great weekend! 

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