September and I have a complicated relationship

It's Sunday again and all I can think is how fast the days are going by lately.  This first week of September started with Labor Day on the first.  The girls and I had had a busy couple last days of August, so I thought we may start September with a quiet day at home.  

After a quiet start to our day, I decided to run to Speedway for a Mt. Dew and maybe get the girls out for a walk nearby.  Somehow, we ended up in St. John's, and once we were there, I thought it would be fun to make a trip to Uncle John's since we were so close.

This time of year, the sunflower fields are in full bloom and the apple trees are full of ripe apples, making it a beautiful time for a walk on the Farm Trail.  We really enjoyed our 2.5 mile walk around the farm on this beautiful, sunny day.

After 2.5 miles in the sun, Peaches was ready to call it a day, so I gave the girls a drink and then loaded them into the car.   Then I drove the half-mile down the road to Phillps Orchard for a cider slush and a monster cookie.  

I decided i did not want to get back onto US127 with all of the holiday traffic for the drive home, and instead, I decided to make a slow back road drive home, picking up some geocaches along the way.  We were enjoying our drive until suddenly my tire pressure light came on in my car, and I could tell that the tire was losing air.

Luckily, I made it to a nearby gas station before the tire went completely flat, but I could hear the air coming out of the tire and knew I'd need the spare in order to make the drive home.  

It was quite an ordeal working with AAA to get a tow truck to come out and help with the spare replacement, but I was somewhere safe and the girls were excellent while we waited.  I finally got the spare on after quite a long wait, and we made it home safely much later than I ever thought we would.  My quick trip turned into a really long day, but ultimately, all that matters is that we made it home safe and sound.  But it seemed a fitting start to September.   I really don't like this month.

I had taken the day off Tuesday with the original plan of going somewhere fun, but after our crazy Monday, I decided staying home was a much better decision.  I started my morning with a tire repair and an excellent experience at Discount Tire.  Then I ran several errands, picked up some lunch, and headed home for the day.   I did get the girls out for a short walk around Dewitt and a quick trip to Padgett Dog Park before dinner, but otherwise, we had a pretty lazy day.

The weather forecast for Wednesday had the day starting out nice, but with cooler, rainy weather moving in for the afternoon.   I decided to take advantage of the nice weather while it lasted, and got the girls out for a very nice lunchtime walk around Benjamin Davis Park.   It was sunny and beautiful when we started, but by the time we finished, gray cloudy skies had moved into the area.  Boy was I glad I got them out when I did.

The radar didn't look promising for our Wednesday night shelter dog walk, and we didn't have many dogs to walk either, but I decided to head out to the shelter after work and hope for the best. 

While it was raining when I arrived at the shelter,  by the time I got the dogs ready and our walkers arrived, the rain had nearly stopped.  We had three under socialized puppies that we just couldn't get to walk, so a couple of volunteers stayed behind to play with them.  That left us two dogs to go out for our walk, and they were both very happy to be outside enjoying the fresh air.   I was so glad all of the dogs got out of their kennels and got a little exercise and some time with our volunteers.   

Thursday morning was chilly and required pants, socks, shoes, and a jacket.  Ugh!  I'm not ready for this weather yet.  I started my morning by taking the girls to the East Lansing Dog Park following an early morning doctor's appointment nearby.  Then it was back home for work.  

It was a big day in our family as Fiona started preschool that afternoon.   In true Fiona form, she was a little shy at first, but she went off with her teachers without one look back at mom and dad.  And when it was time for pick-up after school, she was the slowest kid to leave.  She is going to love her Nature pre-school this year.  I just cant believe how grown up she's getting already!

After my work day, I made the drive to Langsburg to watch Brezlyn's golf game.  It is her second year playing on the Varsity Golf Team, and I want to be there to support her as much as I can since the poor kid lost both of her grandpas this year.  My dad would have been there if he were still alive, and I know that she misses having him there watching her.  While I know I am not a real substitute for him, I want her to know I'm here for her.  I can't believe the baby of the family is a Senior!  

Our evening adventure after work on Friday took us to Old Town for a walk.   Of course, that also meant a visit to Preuss Pets.  The girls were extra interested in the Koi ponds on this visit and loved their time at the store. 

Just look at how happy Peaches was after our visit to Preuss and her walk around Old Town!

Saturday I met my mom at Mancino's in Owosso for lunch before heading to her house for a visit.  It was a cool, cloudy day, but overall it was still a nice day to be outside.  We walked around the yard with the girls while we chatted.

Then I tied the girls to nearby trees while we picked apples.  I got a good workout shaking the tree and we got almost all of the apples that were remaining in the tree. The girls were not happy that they weren't allowed to help us! Now I just have to find a little time to core and cut apples to make applesauce.   

We walked around the yard another time before we finally got into the car to start the drive home.  The sky over the farm fields were pretty spectacular on our drive. 

We slowly wandered our way home enjoying the farm fields and big cloudy skies.  We got home in time for dinner and spent the rest of the evening watching football.

We all must have been exhausted after our long weekend because we all slept in Sunday morning. 

After getting up and around and eating breakfast,  I debated on what we should do today.  We have a lot of progress to make this month toward our 100 miles on the NCT, but I also kind of just wanted to stay home.  

Ultimately, I started a load of laundry and then decided to make the drive to Battle Creek to hike.

We started with a hike between Kimble Pines and Historic Bridge Park.   It was a beautiful day and I have always loved this section of the trail. The late summer flowers are blooming and the bees and grasshoppers were abundant.

I forced the girls to stop for a picture on the bridge and Mina was not happy about it.  She definitely enjoyed this hike though.  We all did.

We arrived back at the trailhead after completing 5 miles on the trail, and of course, I made the girls stop for another picture. 

Peaches didn't stand still for long because she was ready to get back to the car.

Since the weather was so nice and we still had a little time, we made the short drive to Historic Bridge Park to get in a little more time on the trail.

We finished the day with another 1.5 miles at Historic Bridge Park for a total of 6.5 miles for the day.   We made really good progress today, and we only need to get another 14.5 miles this month to get us back on track and reach 75 miles by the end of the month.  If we can get there, I'll feel much more confident that we'll get our 100 miles before the year ends.  I really just don't want to have a lot of miles to hike when we reach December.   

We got home in time for an early dinner and then watched the Lions lose to the Packers.  Now we'll enjoy a quiet evening at home.  

Sadly after tonight, we only have one more 8pm sunset, and the cooler temperatures the last few days have made it clear that fall is on it's way. Thankfully,  the weather this week will climb back into more summer-like temperatures and we will make sure we enjoy it.  But those earlier sunsets are really making me sad.  I'm just never ready for September.

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!