August's Final Hurrah

After a busy weekend of traveling home from Copper Harbor, getting Mia adopted, and visiting my mom, I was so glad that I had taken an additional vacation day for Monday.  I don't normally take the Monday after I return from vacation off, but I think this is something I might consider doing again in the future because coming back to work on what is normally the busiest day of the week seems counterproductive.  

I did get out by myself for a short adventure on Monday morning to meet up with a group of geocachers for an event at the Bunker Nature Preserve, somewhere I'd never been before because it's not dog-friendly.  It was a beautiful morning for a short walk in this beautiful place.  After returning home to two girls tired from a long week of fun, I was able to relax and enjoy a mostly quiet day at home too.  It was a great start to our week.

Tuesday I was back at work, but I made a point of getting the girls our for a visit to the Farmer's Market at the Capitol over my lunch.  We stopped for Crepes at the Ukrainian Crepe place and of course we had to stop for a cider and doughnuts at Petey's.  We had a nice walk around, the girls got lots of attention from lots of people, and we enjoyed a nice lunch break on a beautiful day. 

The girls spent the rest of the day out in the yard or lounging inside as I worked.  It was a productive day, but the first day back at work is always exhausting! 

At some point in the afternoon, one of my broccoli plants went from the picture above to the picture below thanks to Mina.  She's been so good all summer with no fence around the garden, but apparently this beautiful broccoli was just irresistible.  I thought I had protected the remaining two plants well, but that little stinker found a way to get to a second plant as well.  At least I have one left, and there is still a chance I'll get some broccoli off the other plants if I can keep Mina away from them.

This is the small bounty I picked after work.  My first roma tomatoes of the season.  My little garden just isn't growing as well as it normally does, and everything (other than the cucumbers) has been slow to produce and ripen.

I have one beautiful vine that was supposed to be zucchini, which is producing what looks to be a delicata squash.  That was a bit of a surprise.  Hopefully I'll get a few squash from this plant.  My green beans finally have some beans on them too.  I planted those seeds late, so I'm not surprised that they are late producers this year.  The plants are looking great and I'm looking forward to picking some beans in the next couple of days.

After work on Tuesday, we drove out to Dimondale for a little walk.  It rained on our way there and we saw a beautiful rainbow and the rain had completely stopped by the time we arrived in town.

Wednesday I was happy to have a half day off from work so that I could take Peaches to the final Wednesday Lungut's game of the season.  The weather was perfect and I debated whether I should bring Mina along as well, but decided that Peaches deserved a solo adventure with mom.  So off we went.

With most kids back in school, the game was pretty quiet with a smaller crowd than I'm used to seeing, but that was perfect for us.  We did a couple of laps around the stadium before I made my lunch choice, and then I ordered the Philly Cheesesteak Burrito, got some fries to share with Peaches, and headed over to some seats to enjoy our meal.  Peaches was pretty happy about the fries!

When we were done with lunch, Peaches was ready to resume her laps around the stadium where she would happily sniff at every water bowl we passed (but only found one in the whole stadium worth drinking out of), pick up any pieces of popcorn she could find on the ground, and stop begrudgingly so that people could say hello to her.  I finally convinced her to sit a while out on the lawn and was lucky enough that she cooperated to get a picture together.  It was right here that I realized how glad I was that we had made this day all about Peaches.

She did such a great job all day at the game and I am so proud of her.  I was also pretty excited when we got the chance for a photo op with Big Lug!  We left the game in the 8th inning because I could tell she was ready to go.  By the time we arrived at the car, we had walked 2 1/4 miles.  I'd say it was a good day for Peaches.

When we got home, the girls spent some time outside and I relaxed a bit before I had to head out to the Shelter for our Wednesday night dog walk.  

We had four people joining us to walk, which was perfect because we had four dogs available to walk.  Monroe and Crawford were two of our walking pals.  Both of them are adorable youngsters.  It was a great walk.

Poor Mina had been neglected a lot all day, so when I got home, I knew that I would need to get her out for a walk too.  We did a loop around the neighborhood just before sunset and it was the perfect way to end my busy, but fun, day.  
 

Thursday we woke up to rain showers, so it was a pretty slow work from home day for the girls.  Luckily the weather cleared up by the end of my work day so we were able to make a short trip to the Lansing Farmer's Market for a few items.  Then, after dinner, I took the girls for a visit to Dewitt for a run in the dog park.  We hadn't been here in nearly two months, so there was lots for Peaches to sniff.  Mina and I played several rounds of fetch with her Chuck-it and I added in some training as well.  The park was pretty quiet, which I like, and after about 40 minutes, Peaches let me know she was ready to go home, so I loaded the girls into the car and headed home for the night.

While I had had a short work week only working 3 1/2 days, it seemed a lot longer and I was so glad when the end of the day Friday arrived and we headed into the Labor Day weekend.  I had been debating on what we'd do for the weekend because I wanted to have some fun, but I also have some work to do around the house.  When the clock hit 5pm, I made the decision to start our weekend with a hike on the North Country Trail, and so we headed off to Albion to see how far we'd feel like going.

In order to reach the 14.5 miles per month that we need to average through the end of the year, I knew I had to get in at least 1.4 miles.  That seemed simple enough, but I wasn't going to push anything if we just weren't feeling like doing much more.  I've been having some knee issues and I'm slow to start, but luckily once we get moving, I seem to do okay.  I decided to start with the trail as it goes through town and heads along the riverwalk west out of town.  I knew just about where I wanted to stop and turn around, but went a bit further so when we got back to the car, I only needed to walk another 7/10 of a mile to get to 3.5 miles for the day.  

So we continued east out of Victory Park thinking the next .35 miles would be easy to get before turning around to head back to the car and finish for the day.  Boy did that first quarter of a mile go slow!  But once we got past that, the next thing I knew, we'd gone far enough that we'd get back to the car with another 1.2 miles for the day-for a total of 4 miles on the trail.  I was very happy with this hike and the progress that we had made as we slowly inch toward our 100 miles this year.  

I grabbed some quick take-out for dinner and then headed for home so we'd get home before dark.  It was the perfect start to our long weekend.

Saturday arrived with some beautiful weather.  I had debated on what we'd do Saturday-stay home or have some fun.  After spending the morning at home, I decided an afternoon adventure was in order.  I made a plan that would allow us to see something new, but also get in at least a couple of miles on the NCT too.  

While doing some searching for things to see, I discovered Whites Bridge and decided that's where we'd start our day.  It is near Fallasburg, which would allow us to get onto the NCT, and it was a place we hadn't visited previously.  While it wasn't a long stop here, the girls were able to get into the river and we sat for a bit to enjoy the day.  

Then it was off to Fallasburg for what I thought would be a short hike on the NCT, but we were having such a nice hike that we just kept going.  

We finished the day with another 4.25 miles on the trail.  While I had originally planned to get out on the Fred Meijer trail for a walk and some geocaching, after our nice NCT hike, I decided to leave the Fred Meijer trail for another day.  

We made a quick stop in Lowell to pick up some stromboli from Three Brothers Pizza and then made the drive home so I could eat stromboli and watch the first Michigan football game of the season.  The girls were happy to eat their dinner and then they crashed for the rest of the evening.  It had been another good day.

We spent our Sunday on adventures with Vanessa.  The first stop was Albion for a couple of miles on the NCT. 

Then we headed to Concord to check out the Falling Waters Trail which is a new trail for us.  It is a really nice rail trail and we enjoyed our walk and a little geocaching along the way.

On the way home, the girls and I stopped in Homer to get another 1.7 miles on the NCT bringing us to 54 miles for the year.  Technically, as we end August, we should be closer to 67 miles, but I'm really pleased with the progress we've made this month.  I'm looking forward to continuing to make good progress in September.  We will get our 100 miles!

We really made the most of the month of August and I'm grateful for all of the fun days I spent with the girls and the memories we made.  Life has changed since losing my dad, and i just feel like I need to experience as much life as I can now.  We still have some Summer fun ahead of us, but with the arrival of September tomorrow, I am reminded that Fall isn't very far off now.  I will never be ready for earlier sunsets, cooler temperatures, and the change from shorts and flip flops to pants and sweatshirts, but it will come whether I want it to or not, and I will embrace it and make the most of every day.  

Now its time for bed!  Have a great Labor Day!