Week 1 down...

This morning was work as ususal, but I (Erin) only had one official meeting, so I worked by the pool all morning. It was glorious.

After work, we headed for a hike I picked. I had read that it was exceedingly muddy no matter when you decided to go (much less after the storm of the decade), but the weather was glorious, and we needed some fresh air--so we went.

It started out with oohs and aahs, and somewhere those turned into tears and curse words (don't judge--keeping it real). Bret is going to tell you that it "wasn't that hard," but there were multiple times that my foot was so sumberged into slipply, slidey, ankle twisting mud that my shoe came off. Literally mud up to your calf kind of mud.

We made it to the first waterfall which boasted cliff jumping, but none of us partook. So we walked and slid and cried our way to the next waterfall. We could swim at the bottom, and it had a rope swing... and WE HAD IT TO OURSELVES, PEOPLE! Well, except for the bugs that ate Grace alive (despite the bug spray with deet). She looked like a contestant on Survivor, but the girl never complained (can't say the same for her mama).

The hike back out was better than the hike in. Perhaps it dried up some in the afternoon heat. Perhaps we just knew that death was probably not likely. Though at one point, Trent told me there was an upcoming dangerous part, only to follow it up with, "Don't worry. You've had a good run."