Storytime: Tank

When we were still attending school, Nick had a pet turtle: Tank.

I'm here today to share his story with you.

In 2009, Nick decided that he really wanted a pet turtle.  He had one growing up and he thought it'd be a fun pet to have while at school and in his apartment.

I was all for it because, well, turtles are pretty adorable and why not?!

We went to the local pet store together and picked one out (after buying the necessary starter kit from Petsmart).

When you go to the store, these little turtles (Nick got a red-eared slider) are EVERYWHERE inside this huge tank.  I really wish I had a picture to show you all. They're ADORABLE!

Anyways, they are incredibly tiny and cute.  Nick got Tank (great name, right?) and he was so small.

This picture is so cute.

 If I had to guess his size, it'd be only 1-2 inches across.

Over time he got bigger, of course, and he started doing some sunbathing on his big rock.

Well, this sunbathing started becoming quite entrancing because he would go into these crazy poses to, we assume, balance on the rock.

We started calling this his turtle yoga time.

He was such a fun turtle.

When we were moving out of our house in Ellensburg, I was cleaning his tank and it accidentally cracked on that SAME big rock and we just couldn't afford a new tank (do you know how expensive they are?!).  So, we had to get rid of him.  He went to a great family, though, that had other turtles for him to play with.  I'm sure he's well taken care of now.

Moral of this story: even turtles agree that yoga is good for the soul.

Storytime: The Chipmunk

Back in 2009, when Nick and I were in our first year of dating, we went on lots of hikes.  Okay, we still do.

One hike that we went on with his family was pretty memorable.

We went out on the Burroughs Mountain trail around Mt. Rainier.  If you ever plan on hiking around Rainier I highly recommend this trail.  It brings you up close and personal with the mountain.  Pretty amazing.

Anyways, we set off on the hike and made it to the top where there is a pretty amazing viewpoint of Mt. Rainier, in your face, and ate some lunch.

While up at the top, eating our food, we had a little visitor.  I think he goes up there frequently because he did not care that we were there.

Nick's dad was fortunate to be the first person the chipmunk came up to.  Might have been because he had food.

He's the only one who fed him

 Seriously though, this chipmunk was pretty adventurous.

I didn't even have food for it.  It just came to me.

And this is when it happened.

It was so adventurous that when it hopped over to Nick, or scurried ... whatever, it thought he had food in his hand and proceeded to bite him!

And for some other crazy reason, I was taking a picture of him right when it happened!

Nothing happened, though.  We shooed the chipmunk away and Nick never contracted rabies or any other kind of disease.  It was pretty crazy though.

Never trust chipmunks.   Or squirrels.