May 19, 2013 • 1 note

Last Saturday we drove from Wilmington to Durham. We picked up a rental minivan from RDU and my brothers and then headed to Charlotte for Ryan’s girlfriend Erin. Somewhere along the way the plan to drive overnight was hatched and before I knew it we were in Atlanta at 2am. By 7 we had arrived at the Friendship Tree in Gulfport, Mississippi and by 9 we were in New Orleans. 1,015 miles.

After a week of partying and wedding prep and the wedding we headed home. We left New Orleans and drove north through Birmingham. We stopped for a long lunch at The Bottle Tree and then headed first to Charlotte and then to Durham. We slept for a few hours at Reid’s then, this morning, dropped the minivan off and headed home. We were back in our house by noon. 1,035 miles.

May 16, 2013

Last night we threw Lauren a bachelorette in the Marigny. Never has a woman in a boa looked so happy.

May 10, 2013

Tomorrow we leave for New Orleans for 8 days. Which means we’re leaving Kaylee for 8 days. This is the first time we’re leaving her for more than a few hours, so as you might imagine I’m feeling all of the guilt.  All of the anxiety. And all of the feelings.

Our super incredible neighbor is going to watch her so that she can stay in her house, in her comfort zone. Since this whole experience is a first we don’t know what to expect. She LOVES our neighbor but she’s used to being home all day everyday with Dan and spending most of her evenings with both of us. It’ll be an adjustment and I expect she’ll freak a little bit every time we leave her for a while. That or she’ll forget about us and switch her loyalty to our neighbor.

To make up for our impending abandonment we’ve been spending some extra time with her this week. Last night we headed to her (our) favorite place, Carolina Beach State Park, to swim and run and play in the sand. We picked up dinner from our favorite Latin American restaurant and let Kaylee really get out some energy. She swam in the river, ran laps, played fetch, and rolled in the sand. Any day that ends with me washing sand out of her harness is a good day. 

May 8, 2013
With just one week to go before her 9 month birthday (when dogs reach full physical maturity) I’ve started taking Kaylee out for runs with me. Last night we did our longest run yet- 2.5 miles! She is doing so well on these runs, keeping pace, not pulling too much, and only throwing her entire bodyweight against me to stop and smell something occasionally. There was one moment where we were coming down a wooden ramp on the wharf and she started to tear off to smell another dog that I thought I was going to fall and break my neck, but I didn’t, so we’re good. I’ve been running with her in the regular harness because she HATED the Gentle Leader so intensely, but it’s sort of a pain because she knows how to pull in it and just leans her (very strong) muscle weight against it. Our friends recommended a harness with a front leash attachment so I think we’ll be checking that out once we return from New Orleans. (pictured: her wiped out on the floor after our run last night)

With just one week to go before her 9 month birthday (when dogs reach full physical maturity) I’ve started taking Kaylee out for runs with me. Last night we did our longest run yet- 2.5 miles! She is doing so well on these runs, keeping pace, not pulling too much, and only throwing her entire bodyweight against me to stop and smell something occasionally. There was one moment where we were coming down a wooden ramp on the wharf and she started to tear off to smell another dog that I thought I was going to fall and break my neck, but I didn’t, so we’re good.

I’ve been running with her in the regular harness because she HATED the Gentle Leader so intensely, but it’s sort of a pain because she knows how to pull in it and just leans her (very strong) muscle weight against it. Our friends recommended a harness with a front leash attachment so I think we’ll be checking that out once we return from New Orleans.

(pictured: her wiped out on the floor after our run last night)

May 6, 2013

This weekend was the first in a long time we had absolutely nothing scheduled. And since it was exactly a week before we’re leaving for Lauren’s wedding in New Orleans I figured I’d use all the downtime to crank out the remaining projects on the wedding docket. I did not. Instead I hung out with Dan and the dog, cooked and photographed like crazy, went for an amazing 8 mile run through Greenfield Lake, did some yoga, and relaxed.

It was wonderful. And I have all these weeknights to get to the wedding projects, right?