42 years - Together

     as my husband & I were contemplating our life together, he said today "we're closer to death than we've ever been, both of us are contemplating how to live without the other, knowing that it could happen anytime. Even the dog who's on her last legs could leave one or the other of us completely alone"

    This is what I've had to live with for 42 years. He has an interesting and quirky way about him that always makes me smile. The above statement made by him was all said in jest, just so you know ;-)

Tomorrow we are celebrating our 42nd anniversary with a bicycle ride & picnic on the Centennial trail in Snohomish county, one of our favorite places to be. Marriage for us has been a journey of ups and downs, great joy and great pain. We've both had our moments of utter stupidity and then of incredible strength for each other with unconditional love. To us marriage is a lifetime commitment, when the bumps of life come along we put in the effort to be better. After all, marriage is really just learning how to accept each other where we're at.

42 years 

pretty good for a young couple, that started out the way we did (me 17 and pregnant, him 19 and going to college).

When we were married we were told by someone that it would never work, 

well just look at us now!

Blanchard Mtn./Lily and Lizard lakes Trailblazer hike

I should have titled this the "Separation hike". 14 of us met at the Bellingham Senior Center this morning to sign in and to talk about where we were going and to split up for our carpool rides to the trail head. When we got to the Blanchard Mtn. trail head on Barrel Springs road we realized that one of the cars wasn't with us. Thanks to Ed who had a cell phone, we got in touch with them and since they had gone to the wrong place, they decided to go on their own hike today instead of trying to find us. The driver of their car miss-heard our destination and had headed for Chuckanut drive. So they had 3 in their group and our group was now 11.

This is where we were all supposed to meet

getting ready to hike

Today's hike would be all in the forest except for a trip to North Butte to check out the view.

As we were going along my left calf that I had injured in 2011 was feeling pretty tight. It had been getting really sore the last mile of last weeks long hike, I told my husband that I didn't like how it felt so we talked about it and agreed that instead of hiking up to North Butte with the rest of the group, we would continue past Lily and Lizard lakes and hike on down to the car and wait for them to return. Our leader Pat agreed that this would be a good idea.

"OUR" separation, they went left - we went right 

This separation would shorten our hike by a little over a mile. Since we left the group we could now hike at a slower pace that was more comfortable for my leg. 

We didn't really go to these lakes, just passed by the sign

The trail to Lizard lake was so cute, a trail crew had lined the path with rocks. We decided this would be a nice place to sit and eat our lunch.

It was nice to take a more leisurely walk with my husband. The trail had several benches on the way down. So of course I took the opportunity to have my picture taken!

I noticed this tree along the trail (in the photo below), it had completely outgrown it's mother tree. 

Now that was a good "mother" ;-)

last bridge on the way out

We only had to wait about 40 minutes for the group to rejoin us. Not too bad, and my leg survived. I think ice will be my friend for the next few days.

together at last

I will be skipping next week's hike to Park Butte, I'd like my leg to feel better before I go again, besides next week is our 42nd wedding anniversary. 

Our shortened hike today just right! 

Endomondo stats:

7.82 total miles hiked

818 Min. altitude

2160 Max. altitude

10735 Total ascent

10740 Total descent