May Days

This week started with some beautiful sunny weather, the kind of weather that makes me want to ignore all responsibilities and just get outside with the dogs.  While I can't ignore all of my responsibilities, I can certainly make a point of making most of the time I do have to get out and enjoy these days.

So for my lunch on Monday, I decided the girls and I were going to take the short drive to Frances Park for a nice mid-day walk.  The park has a nice loop trail and a portion of it is nicely wooded.  I was happy to see that some of the Mayflowers were still flowering and I even saw Trillium, but it was clearly nearing the end of its blooming season.  There were also plenty of Wild Geranium and a few beautiful sections of Lily of the Valley.

We walked one full loop of the trail and on the second loop, we crossed over to the trail along the river across the road.  We saw a couple of families of geese happily swimming on the river.  

At the end of our walk, we stopped for the girls to take a good roll in the grass and to get a couple of pictures.  

I think Peaches was pretty happy about our mid-day adventure.  I can't believe she actually looked at the camera and looks happy!

Since we had gotten in a good walk earlier in the day, once my work day was over it gave us time for some other fun.  We did take a short walk around the neighborhood and then we spent some time outside and in the garage practicing some new tricks.  Peaches really loves all of the time I spend training Mina and the extra treats she gets for being a good big sister.  She's also getting in some good practice and has learned some new tricks over the last few months.  

Mina has learned all 5 new tricks that she needs to learn for her Novice Tricks title, and I'm hoping to spend the next week practicing them before we officially have her tested.  Then we'll move on to Intermediate Tricks.  I'm excited to see what Peaches learns during that training time too.  

Tuesday we headed out for a walk at another nearby park and the surrounding neighborhood.  It's nice to change up where we walk and have the girls practice their walking skills where there are lots of new things to smell.  We had a great walk, but I never got any pictures of the girls.  The only picture I got that evening was this one of a sign on the side of a house...it made me chuckle.

The girls got another mid-day walk around the neighborhood on my lunch on Wednesday since I needed to head to Mason for Dog Walking Club right after work.

We had a really nice walk with a really great group of dogs.  The weather was beautiful and all of the dogs were very happy to be out of the shelter and getting a some time with our volunteers.  I love Wednesday nights!

On Thursday we headed to campus for our evening walk.  It was another beautiful day to be out for a walk and I was happy to see that many of the flowering trees were still in bloom.  It won't be long before the blooms are gone, so I have to enjoy them while they last.  The girls had a great time on our walk too.  Peaches was happy to have a chance for another good roll in the grass.  It really is her favorite thing to do.

Friday we had rain move into the area in the late afternoon, so I made a point of getting the girls out for a walk between work meetings and before the rain started.  We were able to get in a quick 1 1/4 miles before the rain and then another short walk after work when there was a brief break in the rain.  Then we did a short training session and Mina went out for a good run around the yard in the light drizzle.  By the time the rain picked up again, the girls and I had taken a drive to pick up some take-out for dinner and they had their dinner while I ate mine.  And then we settled in for a quiet Friday evening at home.

Saturday morning we met up with Vanessa to get back out for some miles on the North Country Trail.  With our schedules and other factors, we haven't been on the trail since February.  It was nice to get back out there and get moving toward our 100 miles again.

The girls were so excited to be out on an adventure with Vanessa again.  Peaches was feisty!  We had a nice 6.5 mile walk between Cannonsburg and Rockford.  The trail was mostly paved trail or sidewalk which made for easy walking and there were even a few geocaches along the way.  While the weather was cooler than average for this time of year and the sky was cloudy the entire walk, it was a great day to get in some miles.  With the exception of a small 5 mile section of trail in Hillsdale county, we have traveled almost 211 miles from the Ohio border through Michigan and in about 20 miles we'll be done with Kent County.  Then we'll really start to get into some more scenic areas on the trail.  I think that is pretty exciting.

Before leaving the area, we made a stop in Lowell for lunch and then slowly meandered home picking up some geocaches along the way.  I thought this little dam in the Saranac area was pretty.

 

I also love how geocaching brings me to interesting historic places that I probably wouldn't find otherwise.  

Our Sunday plans include house cleaning and yard work, and hopefully it will also include starting to get the garden ready for planting this week.  I'm sure we'll get out for some adventures too!  

I have a short week of work this week and we have some fun plans for Memorial Day weekend.  Am I the only one who can't believe that it's already Memorial Day?!?  I look forward to seeing what fun things we find to do this week and I'm very excited about next weekend's adventures.  The blog will probably be delayed a day or two next week, but I can't wait to share our adventures with you.  I hope you all have a great week!