Welcome Summer

NOTE:  I wrote this on Sunday night, but somehow I forgot to hit publish.  I apologize for the delay.

This week I spent Monday and Tuesday in Minneapolis attending meetings for work.  While I love to travel, work travel isn't something I enjoy very much.   I don't mind a short weeknight trip within Michigan, but when I have to travel out-of-state and spend more time at the airport than I do in meetings, well, that's a different story.    For this trip, the girls got to spend two-nights away from home with Nicol while I was gone.  It always makes traveling easier when I know that they are in good hands and will be loved and spoiled.

I left home on Monday morning at 5:45am for the 7am flight to Minneapolis.  Even with a couple of delays, I arrived much earlier than our meeting start time so I got to spend sometime before the meeting hanging out on the 29th floor.  Not a bad view from there! 

After an afternoon of meetings, we headed out to Surly Brewery for a tour and dinner.  It's nice to spend time with the team in a more relaxed setting and the food was amazing! As a bonus, the patio is dog-friendly and I got to meet a beautiful Great Dane and this adorable St Bernard puppy.  That may have been the highlight of my trip!  If you're ever in Minneapolis, I would highly recommend stopping there for lunch or dinner.

Day two brought more meetings and then the long wait for the 8:40 pm flight out of Minneapolis back home.  Luckily our flight left on time and we had no delays on the way to Lansing.  Although you can't really see it well in the picture(unless you zoom in), I was pretty excited to capture a shot of the Minnesota State Capitol Building from the air.

The sunset from 30,000 feet was pretty nice too.

I was happy to arrive at home where the girls were waiting to greet me.  While they were happy I was home, all the excitement of the two days with Nicol wore them out and after an excited greeting and a quick trip outside for a potty break, both of them were happy to curl up and go to sleep. 

I was lucky enough to spend Wednesday working from home.  I think Peaches would like me to work from home every day! 

And after being away for over 48 hours, they wanted to make sure that I wasn't going away without them any time soon.

With all of the rain we've been getting this Spring, it was nice to see that the weather would improve for the beginning of Summer.  Thursday night we headed downtown to continue to work with Peaches on her off-leash listening skills.  I really want to be able to take her to the UP and let her run free on the beach, but I need to know she'll come back when I call her.  So we continue to hone those skills.  She's doing pretty well.

Saturday I had plans to get us back out on the North Country Trail to add some more miles toward our 100.  We're about 1/2 way there at the mid-point of the year, so we're doing alright, but I'd like to get ahead of schedule a bit. 

We headed toward Marshall for our first stop on the trail because there is river access and both girls love to wade in the water and Maddie can't go far without stopping for a drink.

We added 2.2 miles in Marshall before Maddie told me it was time for her to stop for a rest.  With arthritis problems and some other potential health issues, it's important for me to really pay attention to all the signals she gives and to make sure I'm not pushing her beyond what she can handle now.  While that doesn't always make Peaches happy...because she could always go more, it is the reality of dealing with our life as Maddie gets older.  We are going to just continue to do things with her and take life at her pace.

We drove a bit more that day and ended up adding another mile on the trail on one of the roadwalk stretches, so we ended the day with 3.3 miles total.  It was definitely a successful day on the trail.

We spent today at home, relaxing and enjoying the nice Michigan weather.  Peaches is thrilled with the warmer temperatures and all of the sunshine and would spend all day, every day lying out in the sun if I let her. 

We don't have many exciting plans for the upcoming week, but Maddie does have an appointment with the vet to get some testing done.  With as much as she's slowed down over the last couple of months, I want to make sure I know what may be causing her problems and how I can ensure she has the best life possible.  I'm hoping that the only issue is her arthritis, and after bloodwork and potentially some other tests, I should know exactly what is going on with her.  It's so hard to see her slow down as she ages...she is aging much faster than Jake or Imke did and, at 13, she's far too young for me to be prepared for anything really bad, but we'll face head-on anything life decides to throw our way.    I promise to update all of you as we know more. 

For now, I say good night on this beautiful Sunday and wish you all a happy week!