Take note of that sling Jase is wrapped in–it’s going to be important later.  And those closed eyes are Libby’s new picture thing–she does it in every single picture she takes, unless I fuss.  The struggle is real, y’all.

If you aren’t from around these parts (as in, North Alabama), you may have never heard of the Big Tree.  We live near the Bankhead National Forest and about three miles in is, you guessed it, a big tree.  It takes about eight adults combined to wrap their arms around it.  Justin and I hiked out there when we were dating with a  group of friends, but as of our most recent hike, we are 0 for 2 in attempting to find the big tree again.

Not only are we failures at locating the big tree, but on this latest hike, with Jase in his sling–I bit the dust.  My foot caught on a broken limb.  There was no stumbling, no attempt to catch myself.  Somehow, on the way down, I was able to twist just enough that I didn’t land on Jase and his head was nestled in the crook of my elbow.  My shoulder took the full impact of the fall, but Jase was protected.  Other than me being a little sore, we were both ok.  Which is nothing short of a miracle–it could’ve been much, much worse! Thank goodness he was in his sling–I probably would have just thrown him.  My only thought was “Don’t fall on him!”

Even though we didn’t find the big tree, we did see lots of nature’s gorgeousness.  For example, the massive bluff in the photo above.  FYI, we started out at the top of that bluff and worked our way down to the bottom–partly on a trail, partly climbing over and around these huge boulders.  PS:  My mom (the lady in the above picture with my girls, in case you didn’t know) totally cried when I fell.  (She’d say she didn’t, but she so did.)

If you happen to know how to direct us to the Big Tree, let me know 🙂