Down the Ocean

The first time the Herg family ever spent a week at Ocean Pines in Ocean City, Mia was only four months old. Now she is six and has a one year old brother, Mason. She also has a one-and-some-change year old cousin, Caitlin. The pitter-patter of little feet around the condo this year was a pretty big (but welcome) change from years past. There is nothing more fun than watching a little kid discover waves for the first time; or curiously (and unsteadily) explore the sand. Waking up to the energetic grins of toddles never gets old. And it is always fun to marvel at the fact that Mia beats you at Memory (and most games for that matter) every single time you play. Even when you don't let her win.

With the addition of kids, came a certain element of tag teaming among the adults. This made it more difficult to carve out time for the long conversations we used to enjoy so much. It also made the times we did find all the more special.

Eric and I showed up at the condo (with four coolers procured from various sources) full of Maryland Blue Crabs (I'm salivating just thinking about them). We were greeted by one of Kelly's incomparable bear hugs, which are quite impressive considering her tiny stature. Eric got to meet Masoona Tuna for the very first time and give Mia a big hug for the first time in over a year. Once we made our way upstairs, we had to catch Caitlin, who had become mobile since the last time we'd seen her, for a quick hug & kiss before she was on her way again.

On the first night, we had a huge crab feast. Eric taught Mia how to pick a crab, and for the first time many of us could remember, we got to eat as many crabs as we wanted. Until we were stuffed. So decadent...

The rest of the week was a crazy blur of trips to the beach (both oceanside and bayside- below is a picture of how we traveled),  meals (to include a first birthday party for Tuna), and visiting with friends and family. Margo, Lee, and Levi spent an afternoon with us at the condo and at the end of the week we went to uncle Jeff and aunt Mary Lynn's house where we got to see a lot of extended family.

On our last night of vacation, we drove to Rehoboth Beach to go out and eat pizza for dinner. Afterward, we walked the Boardwalk and rode the rides. When we got home from that adventure, Eric's mom and dad agreed to watch the kiddos so the big kiddos could head out for a night on the town. We walked to a bar down the street and enjoyed an opportunity to catch up with each other. We had a great night, but decided that next year, we'd pull our all-nighter earlier in the week...we were all hurting a little when it came time to pack the cars and drive home the next morning. Overall, it was a fun-filled week that flew by way to fast (zilliions of thank yous to Jerry and Lourdes for making it all possible). Can't wait to do it all over again!

Summer of Celebrations

Eric and I went to Maryland a few days apart. When I got into town, my mom and dad were out of town on a trip to Italy. This meant I had the house to myself, which had the potential to be kind of weird, kind of lonely. Fortunately for me, girl Teri came to my rescue!! She picked me up at the airport and kept me company for a few days. Being my companion for the week meant she got to do all sorts of fun things, which included activities like watching several movies while I fell asleep next to her on the couch and being my wingman on a trip to get fingerprinted for my new job. Fingerprinting took far too long and required us to wait in a too-small, too-hot room with a zillion too-young and crazy teenagers. I don't know how I got so lucky to have such a wonderful friend.

We had more exciting, good times, too. Like when we found out Meg was in town and had an impromptu dinner/slumber party with whomever we could gather. A few of our BFFs were out of town/busy (to be honest I can't remember where), so it ended up being Meg, Amber, Teri, and Me. We sat on the outdoor patio at the Cheesecake Factory, our go-to when we can't come up with a "type" of food we all feel like eating. We are always thankful for any time together that we can get our hands on. That dinner ended up being the first of three very wonderful reunion dinners with friends. Later in the week, I got to have dinner with Destiny and Lisa. We met at a restaurant central to all of us and spent a few hours trying to squeeze in updates about everything that had happened between visits. The third reunion dinner was with Marc, Michael, and Annie. Annie and I took them to the famous Papermoon Diner in Baltimore to celebrate their recent graduation from college. Marc graduated from Boston College and Michael from Haverford College. I couldn't be more proud of all their accomplishments or excited to see what wonderful young men they've become.

Marc and Annie

Michael and me

Our newest collegians and my buddy Georg

I was fortunate that my trip home coincided with the BHGH graduation party. This year it was Durrell and Donte's turn to graduate from high school. These two guys moved into Boys Hope Baltimore just a few months after I moved in the house. Their graduation from high school was both a huge personal accomplishment for each of them and a wonderful and exciting close to one of the chapters of my life. (Oh, and it made me feel old as heck! Where is the time going?) I will always stay connected to the kids I worked with at BHGH; in fact, I still have one to go, he's a senior in high school this year. But as I enjoyed my time at the party, I could feel myself moving into the history of the Baltimore program. I could feel I was not so much a part of the present anymore. It was a bittersweet feeling, but I enjoyed every minute of the time I got to share with my old and very dear friends. I love the graduation parties, they are like huge family reunions.

By Friday, Eric had made it to Maryland. My parents had also gotten home from their trip. On Friday night, my mom & dad hosted a party at their house. A handful of our closest friends and family attended. It's not like we ever need an excuse for a party, but it was the best way we could think of to see a lot of different people. My mom and I made pulled pork and a few other favorite dishes. We had a bonfire, music, and great weather. Eric and I were so thankful to be able to see so many friends. This was the first and only picture from the night. I guess I found it impossible to pull away long enough to snap a few pictures of the crowd. If we ever move back to Maryland, we are hosting parties like this one, monthly. Mark your calendars.

The morning after the party, Eric and I loaded a car and left for a week at the beach with his family. I will write all about this in a totally separate post. On our way down to the beach, we had one, very important stop to make. We picked up Dave and made our way to Margo and  Lee's new house. We had to meet the newest member of our family: little man Levi. He is the first baby born to (this group) of our friends. And he is the favorite. We spent the afternoon feasting on crabs (I can't tell you how much we missed this), playing lawn games, and sitting by the pool. That evening, Lee's parents watched the pumpkin so we could all go out to Red Eyes. It should come as no surprise that this night was a great time. These guys played the most epic game of giant Jenga. They drew a huge crowd of spectators. The suspense was palpable.

After our beach trip, we were fortunate to be able to attend Kasie and Ryan's wedding. Kasie is one of my sister's and my oldest friends. She is like a little sister to us. Her parents, like second parents. We grew up together in what seemed like Pleasantville, where we spent endless hours a day running like wolves in a pack with our friends. Gila was also able to come to town for the wedding, which I was so happy about because it had been quite some time since I'd last seen her, too. All of us were very thankful to have been a part of their special day.

Kasie was one gorgeous bride (which should come as a surprise to no one) and Ryan the sweetest of grooms. I am happy to report that I saw Mrs. Debbie tear it up on the dance floor with my own eyes and Mr. Fred looked every bit the proud papa as he walked his little girl down the aisle. At the reception, we got to sit with other old friends and neighbors. It was amazing to see everyone all grown up. It was hard to believe how much had changed, but wonderful to see all that has stayed the same. Their wedding, with the exception of being, ahem, somewhat Steeler-themed (black and yellow), which Kasie claimed was only accidental, was the perfect ending to a completely wonderful trip home.

OKC ends with a BANG

Weekends away from Altus are (almost) always planned with the goal of killing two birds with one stone in mind. Any time you go, well, anywhere, there are at least a handful of stops you have to make while you are, "close enough to a [insert store name here] to go." After we finished our celebratory I-finally-got-a-job breakfast, we made our way to OKC. Our first order of business was to drop Eric's car off at the Dodge dealership for a few hours. When we bought the car, we noticed there was a tear in the window tint. At that time we didn't have the time to have it fixed, because we were picking it up on a different killing two birds with one-stone trip. In fact, we were about an hour away from hopping on a plane bound to Maryland. So the guys at the dealership just said to bring it back at our convenience (a word that has taken on a whole new meaning in the past year), and they'd be happy to take care of it. The Dodge dealership is conveniently located next to a large shopping center. Eric and I walked to the shopping center and, like kids in a candy shop, happily passed the hours by throwing money at a handful of different stores, which many of you have come to take for granted.

Once we got our car back, we made our way to the Sheraton in Bricktown where we had reserved a nice room by naming our own price online. If you haven't tried that, do it! We may be late getting on the bandwagon, but it is so, so cool! Exhausted from our shop-a-palooza, we closed the curtains, crawled into bed, and took a killer nap. When our growling tummies woke us from our slumber, we walked out into the city for our first night on the town. Meal #1 was consumed at The Wedge, a really cool wood fire oven pizzeria in Bricktown. They use super fresh ingredients (many of which are grown in the garden we saw outside) to make beautiful, gourmet pizzas. We tried the two pizzas the waiter recommended: Truffle-Shuffle and The Vedge. We liked our food so much that after we finished dinner, we ordered the appetizer the waiter had suggested and another round of beers. Thoroughly stuffed and happy, we walked back to our hotel along the riverwalk. As we strolled along, we poked fun at ourselves for being ready to call it a night at the ripe hour of 9 pm. We shamed ourselves for our epic drop in stamina and laughed at the fact that bed and a movie sounded much more appealing than a crazy night of bar-hopping.

By the time we made it to our hotel, we were feeling pretty sad about how much life had been sucked out of us. Eric turned to me and asked, "how about one more drink a the bar?" It sounded like a pretty good idea to me so I took him up on it. We picked out two stools at the sleepy hotel bar. As we sipped fancy nightcaps, the crowd started to file in. In no time, we were talking with people about the haunted hotel next door. Story has it, the Skirvin Hilton in downtown OKC is haunted. I'm serious. Read about it here. After we heard a few stories about it from the patrons at the bar in our hotel, including the bartender's admission that he has served many a customer who purchased a room at the Skirvin only to get creeped and come over to the Sheraton to purchase a second, less ghostly room for the night. Eric's and my curiosity was peaked. Eric thought it would be a good idea to have one last nightcap (one nightcap is never enough anyway) at the bar in the Skirvin. And I agreed.

For starters, the hotel is beautiful, and I mean beautiful, both outside and in. We each ordered a drink and enjoyed listening to the piano player take request after request from the much-more-lively-than-the-Sheraton crowd. By the time we had finished this round of nightcaps, we had started to feel a little bit silly. We decided it would be a good idea to ride the elevator to the 10th floor. The floor rumored to be haunted, and take a lap to see if anything supernatural was going on that night. And to think, just a couple of hours earlier we were worried that we were getting lame in our old age. We were so impressed with ourselves. Needless to say there was nothing out of the ordinary going on on floor number 10. We rode the elevator back down, crossed the street to the Sheraton, and turned on a movie. We went to sleep happy that night knowing we could consider ourselves to be full of life, brave, and adventurous. At least for one more night.

The scary Skirvin.

Let me preface the next part of this story with the admission that I always, I repeat, ALWAYS leave something necessary at home on every trip. This time it was hair goo. Anyone who knows me, knows two things: 1. I cannot be seen in public sans hair goo, and  2. I always forget it on trips. Eric and I woke up and left the hotel on a quest to find a drug store and a greasy spoon for breakfast. Two hours after starting our walk, we had found none of the above. What we did find was the Oklahoma City National Memorial. We spent a long time there. It is a solemn and peaceful place. I hadn't planned on seeing it so I didn't bring a camera, which I ended up being thankful for. Sometimes experiences are more meaningful when you aren't behind the lens of a camera.

On the way back to the hotel, I saw a ritzy spa, which was clearly my only option for hair goo. Eric sent me in and, 40 dollars later, I came out with mousse and hairspray. Mission (expensively) accomplished. We never found any food so we had nibbles and coffee at the breakfast nook in our hotel. Earlier in the day, our post-breakfast plan was to go for a run on the riverwalk or around the city. But after our long expedition earlier that morning, we felt we had seen almost all there was to see. We opted for a treadmill run instead.
 


For lunch, we had a Groupon for at a burger joint. Ron's Hamburgers & Chili served the heftiest, greasiest, ooey-gooiest, most delicious burgers we'd had in a while (and we've had our fair share of burgers recently). It was a disgustingly delicious lunch, which we ate entirely too fast. After lunch we went to the Paseo Arts District for the annual Art Festival, a giant arts festival attended by over 60,000 people annually. There were artists from all over the country; masters of sculpture, every type of painting, pottery, and a zillion jewelery makers. It was totally awesome, but freaking hot. The combination of the heat and disgustingly delicious lunch was not doing me any favors, and unfortunately, we kind of zoomed through the vendors. Eric and I decided to set a goal of attending again next year, but with some stipulations: no greasy lunch, sunscreen, plenty of water, and prepared to purchase a piece of art for which we will have spent the year saving up. Sounds like a plan, right?

After regrouping and resting at the hotel, we met up with a few friends for a little bit of night life. We started at an awesome tapas restaurant in Bricktown called, Bolero. After dinner, we did some bar hopping and ultimately ended up at Coyote Ugly. You know it's a good night when you end up at Coyote Ugly. We joined a bachelorette party by befriending a stereotypical "mom" person who caught our attention while dancing on the bar. So impressed by her confidence and commitment to partying like a rockstar, we bought her a drink and told her how cool we all thought she was. We danced and celebrated with the best of them until last call. Eric and I parted ways with our friends (new and old) and began to prowl the city for late-night eats. We stumbled (literally and figuratively) across a gourmet sausage stand, ordered some gourmet sausages, and took a seat on some steps to chow. Midway though our midnight snack, we saw a crowd rushing out of a bar and into the street  They were all watching something going down on the other side of the riverwalk. Eric jumped up to assess the situation; I proceeded to enjoy my gourmet sausage. Next thing we heard was, "Oh my god they hit him with a car!" and then, "Oh my god, they hit him with a car again!!" And then we heard a boom. A shot. Like, from a gun. And then another. The next thing we knew, bouncers were shoving us, along with the rest of the crowd, into a building. Others hung around to watch. Eric and I escaped through the backside of the building. We ran in the complete opposite direction of all the commotion straight back to our hotel. That night we went to sleep, thankful NOT to have been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Oh, and this was just depressing.

We're still here!

This isn't the first time I've neglected my blog and probably won't be the last. The pace of our life has changed drastically over the last couple of months as I've started a full time job in Lawton, which is about an hour from Altus. The commute has sucked up a lot of energy as well as writing time. Even though things are different, we've still been keeping pretty busy with our travels & adventures, which I will get to, but for now, let me rewind a bit....

The week before our trip home to Maryland (in June), I had an interview at a foster care agency. The interview went well and I was called in to take a test and answer some follow up questions. I stopped in the office on the way to Oklahoma City (where Eric and I were going to spend the weekend before he took me at the airport to fly back to MD). It was a Friday. Eric dropped me off for the interview, went to Starbucks (52.9 miles from Altus, yeah, that's the closest one) to get some coffee & breakfast sandwiches, and returned to pick me up. By the time he got back, I had taken and (likely) failed a written test on Microsoft Word & Excel, and was waiting with the good news: they had offered me the position! We got back in the car, drove back to the Starbucks, enjoyed our breakfast on the outdoor patio, and celebrated this long-awaited accomplishment. An accomplishment I had started to allow myself to believe was not going to come (at least not in SW Oklahoma).

I am now a youth and family specialist/therapist at a therapeutic foster care agency and I am loving it. The team I work with is great and very supportive. And the children, well, of course I think they're wonderful. I get to work in Lawton three days a week and from home two days a week. I've been there a little over a month now, and so far, don't miss all my free time at all. I was always afraid that if/when I finally found a job, I'd mourn the time I had at home to do whatever I want. Well, I don't. At all.

As for all our adventures...if I updated you about the past two months in one entry...your head would be spinning by the end of it. That and you'd have to schedule a good hour of blog-reading time to get through it and I can't ask that of any of you. not even my biggest fans!

That being said, here is a list of "coming attractions," if you will.



OKC ends with a BANG
Summer of Celebrations
Down the Ocean
Berrey Bash 2K12
Pie in the Eye
Blindfolded in the Backseat

Now that I've promised them, I have no choice but to deliver! I've always written better under the pressure of a deadline, anyway. Peace & love. 

"It feels like a tracker jacker!"

It's true. Yet another friend was crazy enough to visit us. I picked Caitlin up at the OKC airport on Friday, April 27th. She had planned her trip out to Altus months ago in order to be here for the Rattlesnake Derby in Mangum, OK, a festival, which I have hear through the grapevine, is on some sort of list that compiles awesome experiences. "Things to do before you die...," "Best festivals in the USA...," something along those lines. Either way, Caitlin certainly had her choice of fun things to do while in southwest Oklahoma. I like to say she hit the visitors of Altus jackpot...

Here were some of the options on the table: the Carson & Barnes Circus, the Mangum Rattlesnake Derby, visiting the Wichita Wildlife Refuge (which was featured that weekend on CBS Sunday Morning's Nature Segment), visiting the Yellow Rose Firing Range in downtown Altus, and hiking in Quartz Mountain.

We had a full itinerary, and, as expected, were not able to accomplish all of it. We did check several things off the bucket list, though, and had a wonderful weekend!

It all started when I picked her up at the airport. As a pulled up to the gate, I saw a woman standing there with huge, platinum blonde hair. As it sunk in that it was Caitlin, I found myself wondering how she'd managed to maintain that level of body during her several hour plane trip. As she approached, it dawned on me that she was wearing her Kim Zolciak (from the Real Housewives of Atlanta) wig. Girl is CA-RAY-Z,  but it definitely made her easy to spot! She got in the car and as we drove away from the airport, she turned to me and said, "do you really drive all this way only to turn around and go straight home?" To be honest, I hadn't really considered any other option. I was sort of in mission mode. Realizing it was close to lunch time, I suggested we stop somewhere cool in OKC for lunch. I told Caitlin I thought I knew the way downtown. I was wrong. We drove on the highway for 30 good minutes before I suggested she pull out her smartphone.

We eventually ended up in Bricktown where we walked along the canal (or whatever it is) for a while before stopping for lunch at Toby Keith's I love this Bar & Grill. Here, we made the first of the many difficult decisions we would go on to make that weekend like, "should we get frozen margaritas in the Toby Keith collectors mason jar or just cold beers?"  Life is tough.

We made our way to Altus after a yummy lunch. I treated Caitlin  to the driving tour of Altus (down Main Street) and then took her back to our house where we had to make the next difficult decision of the weekend, which was whether or not to attend the circus. After much, MUCH hemming and hawing, we opted not to go. I was getting the distinct feeling that I might have been the only one interested in attending anyway (I have to admit, I would have forced everyone to go had I not known I will probably get a second chance to go next year). We opted instead to invite friends over to grill out and play corn hole.

Unfortunately, it was at this point that Caitlin really started looking kind of rough. She had a headache when she got here and it seemed like it was getting worse and worse. She was trying to be a champ and stick it out, but I could tell she needed some shut-eye. I suggested she lay down for a while. She agreed. Well, "a while" turned into all night. She slept straight through the party and didn't come back out of her room until after midnight. She must have been arisen by the smell of the Tombstone pizza that Eric was cooking in the oven. Caitlin, Eric, and I stayed up well past 3am, munching on pizza and catching up on each others lives.

Saturday was the day we had all been waiting for. The day of the Mangum Rattlesnake Derby. After a hearty breakfast, we all piled into our friend Chris' jeep and left for Mangum.The very first thing we did at the festival was visit the Rattlesnake Pit, which was full of probably hundreds of live (obviously) rattlesnakes. Most of them were piled up and laying still with the exception of their rattlers going a mile a minute. But there were also a good number of them that were slithering around...like snakes. In addition to the snakes, there were two men in the pit. One was educating us about rattlesnakes while the other was making himself busy either by doing his best to agitate the snakes or by carrying them around so the audience could get up close and personal.

After the pit, we made our way to the Butcher Shop. This was, hands down, the most quease-inducing portion of the experience. Here, we watched two men butcher and skin a live rattlesnake. Disclaimer: faint-hearted readers and members of PETA should skip the remainder of this paragraph. Here was the process: the live snake's head was removed by chopping it off with an axe. The snake was no longer alive, but its body continued to move as though it was. In fact, the head even continued to bite and shoot venom. Next, they hung the writhing snake's body from a hook, peeled it's skin back, removed all the ooey gooies from inside the snake, and placed the still-beating heart on a table for the audience to marvel at. Then, they placed the skinned snake's body in a clear plastic box where the audience could observe it continue to move around. The final step was to sell the snake to people who paid $20/pound for the meat and to sell the skin to people who paid much more than that. The only thing that made watching this spectacle tolerable for me was the fact that I knew all parts of these snakes were going to be used and it wasn't just for show.

 

After the demonstration, we ran into some other friends who were watching the Miss Rattlesnake Pageant. The competition part of the pageant had taken place the night before. At the Derby, the contestants were simply introduced and then the winners were announced. We stuck around long enough to see Miss Derby get crowned before we all made our way to the local watering hole on the square.

We spent the rest of our time at the Derby checking out the vendors. To the left is a picture of the most interesting jewelry we found. Unfortunately neither Caitlin nor I could think of an appropriate outfit to wear them with...

 It took about an hour for all of us to purchase commemorative T shirts because the eighty year old gentleman who was assisting us kept forgetting our requests on the way back to the printing station. He was sweet and was trying very hard to do a good job. Or at least he seemed sweet until our friend Chris tried to haggle with him a little, at which point he bit Chris' head off...he was more vicious than the rattlesnakes!

I talked to my sister at the end of the weekend. She asked, "so did it seem like something one should do before one dies?" My response was that it depends on how much time one has. If the answer to that question is still undetermined, sure it is an event worth attending! If you have been told you only have weeks or months, I suggest checking a few other things off before getting around to this one.

After the Derby, Eric took a nap while Caitlin and I went to downtown Altus to bust some caps at the Yellow Rose Firing Range. I had only shot once before on my grandparents' farm a long time ago and Caitlin had never shot before. She walked in and told the shop owner that she wanted to, "shoot with something big." He showed us his selection and Caitlin selected the Glock. My heart immediately started to race and I could feel the butterflies fluttering around in my stomach. We grabbed our eye and ear protection and followed the man into the range. Thankfully, we were the only two shooters (is that what you call them?) in the range at that time. This allowed us to be as nervous and goofy as we wanted/needed to be. The shop owner took the first shot to show us what to expect in terms of kick back and sound. After I heard the boom, I made the announcement that I wasn't quite sure I was up to the task. Caitlin bravely stepped up and shot the first round. She looked like a pro! She assured me that it wasn't too bad so I gave it a...shot.

People who know me know that I am not a huge fan of guns. I have to be honest, though. It was a pretty exhilarating experience. People are going to bust my chops for this, but I have to say that it was really a lot of fun! Caitlin and I made complete fools of ourselves; tripping over ourselves with excitement and nervousness, but it was a great time. I think the shop owner had fun with us too. He got a kick out of the fact that I jumped out of the way of every shell that jumped out of the gun after each shot and he was thrilled that Caitlin looked like a Charlie's Angel; his words, not mine!

After leaving the firing range, Caitlin saw the City of Altus sign on the main square and wanted to take a picture next to it. Sometime between both of us posing next to the sign and getting back in the car, a bee landed on my arm and sunk its stinger right into my skin. Immediately expletives begin flying out of my mouth and I started flailing around. My car stalled out and I jumped out into the street. Once Caitlin figured out what was going on she went between taking pictures, laughing, and asking if I was okay. It had been quite some time since I'd last been stung. Let me tell you, it is a whole heck of a lot more painful than I remember it being! I got a welt the size of Mount Olympus on my forearm that is still visible today. Once the whole ordeal was over, we looked across the street and noticed a man eating an ice cream cone and watching the whole scene unfold. At least it was entertaining for someone...

On Saturday night, Eric, Caitlin, and I went over to Chris' house for more grilling and more corn hole (can you tell this is a favorite pastime?). We had what at the time seemed like a pretty intense tournament, but I really couldn't even tell you who won. Chris and his brother, Charlie, grilled up a ton of delicious food. Charlie planned for each person to eat a brat, a burger, and a steak! Needles to say, there were more than a few leftovers. Chris told me yesterday he's been eating burgers all week... At one point on Saturday night it started looking like we might get a great thunderstorm so we all sat in Chris' apartment waiting for the show (his apartment faces a huge crop field; he has front row seats to the best storms). Unfortunately, it either changed direction or fizzled out before reaching us so we called it a night.

On Sunday morning, Caitlin and I went to Quartz Mountain to hike the New Horizon Trail, a favorite of mine and Eric's. I was amazed at how different the mountain looked from the last time I'd hiked. Wildflowers and other greenery covered much of the face of the mountain, I could hardly recognize it. I had a great deal of difficulty following my normal path and got turned around several times. Despite this, everything was going well and Caitlin and I were slowly making our way up the mountain. She was leading the way. She hesitated for a minute and said, "Oh, a cactus, I better not fall on that." And what did she proceed to do? Stumble a little and ever-so-lightly tap her booty on the cactus. It looked like she had fallen in slow motion. All I can say is that I'm glad she didn't all out fall on the thing, because for as brief as that body to cactus moment was, she sure had a ton of needles in her hind parts. And everywhere. At first the was calm, but then she started to feel the prickles everywhere and it was painful. She yelled, "it feels like a tracker jacker!" Then it was my turn to shift between laughter and concern. I could hardly believe that this had happened to her. I told her it was up to her whether we finished the hike. She said, "let's keep going." And we did, despite the fact that she said she, "felt like her body was going into shock," we made it to the top of that mountain! And back down.

Bruised, bloodied, and broken, we went home to do our best to recover. Recovery came in the form of a three hour nap that afternoon. After our naps, we made dinner and spent the rest of the evening catching up on our Bravo programming; a passion both Caitlin and I share.

When Monday morning rolled around, I could hardly believe it was already time to return Caitlin to the airport for her trip home. I was still trying to get used to the idea that she was ever in Altus in the first place! Goodbyes always come too soon, but I am so thankful she made the trip (and I hope she is too). Eric and I really loved being able to show her around Altus and having her as a guest in our home. It certainly was an exciting and memorable weekend. We have the scars to prove it.