Whirlwind Spring Recap

Posted in Trips by Annie T

Matt and I have been going non-stop this Spring with yard work, running, family gatherings, weddings and work trips. As a result, I’ve been pretty bad about blogging (I need to use our rare down time to relax!!). Nevertheless, I do want to share what we’ve been up to so I’ll attempt to use this post as a catch-all recap of our Spring…

After returning home from California in mid-April, we spent a weekend in New Jersey to celebrate the marriage of two of our college friends, then I raced three weekends in a row (Rick’s, St. Tim’s, and Elwyn) before we embarked on another work trip, this time to Baltimore. We were in Baltimore for three days and got in some good meals and two nice runs around the Inner Harbor (which is beautiful!!).

Baltimore’s Inner Harbor (5/6/14)

My mom and “Fie” (5/24/14)

After Baltimore we were home for a few weeks during which I ran three more races (Victory, Rocky Run, and Radnor). We also celebrated Mother’s Day, my mom’s and brother’s birthdays, and Memorial Day, AND started on a major home landscaping project… ripping out and replanting all of the overgrown shrubs along our front walk (more on that in a future post!). For my mom’s birthday I did a photo shoot of her on her new horse and then Matt and I had my mom and stepfather over for a fancy dinner of grilled salmon and avocado with roasted corn relish and Mexican rice pilaf. (And don’t worry, that recipe will be up on the blog soon!!). 🙂

After Memorial Day we had the pleasure of taking care of Matt’s parents’ German Shorthair, Bella, for a few weeks. Bella patiently watched us dig up stumps in the front yard (fun!), went running with me at Ridley Creek State Park, and, best of all, got to come with us to the Hunting Camp where she got to experience the central PA wilderness. We were at the Hunting Camp for 3 days, during which we hiked and ran over 20 miles. Matt and I also made a big taco dinner for everyone on Saturday night but we were too busy cooking and eating to take photos of the food, sorry!

Bella in the car after our Ridley Creek run (6/3/14)

Blue Diamond Lake (6/7/14)

Bella at the Hunting Camp (6/6/14)

Matt and I left the Hunting Camp late Saturday night so that we’d be home for our first wedding anniversary on Sunday. We celebrated by sleeping in, doing some yard work, then spending the afternoon wine tasting at our wedding venue, Sweetwater Farm and Grace Winery. The winery recently started hosting dog-friendly tastings so Bella came along and happily flopped on the ground between our chairs as we sipped our wine. After the tasting we had dinner at La Porta, our favorite local restaurant, and then returned home to — you guessed it — MORE yard work! 🙂 Good thing we both like hauling rocks, compost, and stumps around!

Anniversary wine tasting (6/8/14)

Nuclear power plant! (6/10/14)

The Tuesday after our anniversary we headed out of town again, this time for a work-related trip to a nuclear power plant to do a nighttime lighting demonstration. It was a productive visit but between the Hunting Camp (4 hours away) and nuclear power plant (5 1/2 hours away) it meant that we spent close to 20 hours in the car in less than a weeks’ time. And the road trips weren’t quite over yet…

On Saturday we were on the road again, this time to Avon-by-the-Sea, New Jersey for another fantastic wedding celebration. The weather was perfect and we spent the night in Asbury Park right next to the boardwalk and the beach. I loved waking up to the view of the beach and sand right outside our window. New Jersey is pretty nice!

Asbury Park Beach (6/15/14)

Waking up in Asbury Park, NJ (6/15/14)

That’s about it for my whirlwind Spring recap. Now that our travels are done (until 4th of July, at least), I’m hoping that we might have a little more time to kick back and relax. First I need to make it through the Media 5 Mile race on Friday night! 🙂

Gazania Flower in my garden (5/22/14)

Budweiser Clydesdales at the Devon Horse Show (5/29/14)

How’s your Spring going so far? Has it been busy or relaxing?

31Jan2014

In Loving Memory of Bailey, our Little GSP

Posted in Bailey by Annie T

Matt and I lost our best friend last night. Our beautiful, energetic, vibrant, happy pup Bailey passed away very suddenly and we are heartbroken.

We first met Bailey when she was just a tiny 4 week old puppy. When we brought Bailey home at 7 weeks we quickly learned that in addition to being cute as a button she seemed possessed with never-ending energy. She kept us very busy that first year… I don’t think she ever let us sleep in past 8AM!

As Bailey matured we found ourselves adapting our lifestyle around her boundless energy and intelligence. We hiked with Bailey on a regular basis, did agility and nosework training with her, and bought a house with a big yard for her to enjoy.

In 2009 Bailey started competing in DockDogs. This opened up a whole new world for us – exciting new places, people, and experiences – and also gave us the chance to develop an even closer bond with our dog. We traveled thousands of miles and spent countless weekends with Bailey by our sides and I know that she loved every minute of it.

We told Bailey that we loved her every day and we meant it. The night before she died I remember going into the bedroom to get ready for bed and finding Matt kneeling down on the floor, snuggling Bailey’s soft ears with his face and whispering good night to her. We had no idea that that would be her last night with us but it comforts me to know that she clearly knew she was deeply loved by us.

We don’t know exactly what happened to Bailey last night. She was out in the yard before dinner as is her usual routine. She generally comes to the door when she is done hunting/playing/patrolling the yard but she hadn’t shown up yet so I started calling her. She didn’t come when called (which is also quite usual if she’s still absorbed in her squirrel-stalking!) but after calling for her a few times I got worried and turned on the back lights. Then I saw her, collapsed in the middle of the yard, a dark figure in the snow with the lights reflecting off of her jacket. I ran out in the yard and carried her limp form inside. We rushed her to the vet but she was gone.

Bailey lived an action-packed life and threw herself wholeheartedly in everything she did with 110% enthusiasm. She was only six years old and she brought joy to Matt and me for every single minute of her time with us. We loved her unconditionally and we miss her terribly.

In loving memory of Bailey
May 11, 2007 – January 30, 2014

Puppy Bailey

Bailey on her first car ride

Such a goofball

Leaping over the jump!

Bailey let me kiss her mid-hike

Bailey was such a funny puppy

Looking thoughtful

Matt and Bailey hiking

DockDogs at Lilypons

I was so happy to be holding baby Bailey!

Bailey with her world qualifier ribbon

Running with her frisbee

Wild ears at the dog park

Staring me down in the hallway

Pup profile

Making good eye contact

All tuckered out

Bailey

Such a happy pup!

Streching out of her house

Chewing that tennis ball SO HARD!

Bailey and Matt watching the rain

Now that’s one happy dog

Flying through the back yard

Bailey wan kenobi

Bailey at Harford County Fair

Bailey and her buddy, Hershey

Beautiful Bailey

Wild eared pup

“MY mulch pile!”

10Dec2013

Snow Day!

Posted in Adventures at Home, Bailey by Annie T

It snowed again today!! The snow started falling at 7:30AM and didn’t stop until another 3-4 inches were heaped atop the snow that we got on Sunday. Yay snow! Matt took a “snow day” (aka spent some quality time with his early Christmas present, an Xbox One) and I went into work for a few hours and enjoyed a productive morning in the nearly empty office. Once the roads were plowed I came home to play with Bailey in the snow. Did I mentioned that I LOVE snow??!!

Bailey loves the snow, too. Here are some photos from this afternoon… see the one where I totally whacked her in the head with a giant snowball? Oops!!

Bailey in the snow

Snowy Tree in the Front Yard

Yay snow!

Snow Day!

Snowy Branches

Bonk!!! Snowball to the face!

She’s ready for me to throw the snowball…

Stalking under the pine trees

Patrolling the yard

Bailey’s making a funny face.

Bailey

I shoveled the whole driveway!

Frolicking in the snow

After playing with Bailey I shoveled the whole driveway… talk about a work out! Now I just have to find the strength to get up off of this comfy couch and go run my daily mile(s) for the Runner’s World Holiday Streak. Today will be day 163 of my streak, woohoo!

Did you have a snow day today? How did you spend your day?

4Nov2013

Birthday Walk at Ridley Creek

Posted in Bailey, Hikes by Annie T

Last Friday was my birthday, woohoo! Because we were entered to run in the Trinity 5K at 9AM Saturday morning we kept Friday’s celebrating pretty low key. We got breakfast at Manhattan Bagel (my favorite) and worked a full day while hydrating like crazy for the race. After work we took a nice walk with Bailey at Ridley Creek State Park before eating a pasta dinner and getting a good night’s sleep. Here’s a photo of my Ridley Creek walking buddies… the perfect birthday companions! 🙂

The weather was gorgeous during our walk. Since we weren’t planning on doing any running in the park I brought my camera along to capture the beautiful autumn colors and my favorite photo subject, Bailey. Here are a few of the photos I took:

Bailey my little GSP

Rain drops on a leaf

Yellow Leaf

Bailey looking regal in her new harness

Bailey looks so happy with herself!

Orange Fall Leaves

Bailey hasn’t been to Ridley Creek State Park since I hurt my foot in late September. She was so happy to be out and about again! She was sporting her new ‘walkeez’ fleece harness and she paused for lots of photo ops. She’s such a good dog!

Hiking in the park with Matt and Bailey was the perfect way to spend my birthday. What’s your idea of the perfect birthday afternoon?

24Oct2013

Bailey

Posted in Bailey by Annie T

It’s been a while since I posted about Bailey so I thought a nice picture-filled update would be fun! Here are some photos that I took earlier this week. I love this dog!

The above photo is classic Bailey. She looks very serious because I’m holding her frisbee in my hand and trying to get her to make a nice expression for the camera. She’s like “come on, just throw it already!” This is what happened when I finally threw the frisbee…

The weather is too cold for dock diving now but Bailey is keeping herself busy patrolling the yard for squirrels, lounging in the afternoon sun, and burrowing as deep as possible into her doggie sleeping bag when it’s time for bed. Bailey has also been taking K9 Nosework classes for several months. Last night she finally graduated from searching for treats to hunting for “birch” odor, woohoo! I’m biased, of course, but I think she has a very good nose, don’t you? 🙂

As I write this Bailey is curled up between Matt and me on the couch. She is not normally allowed on the furniture but when it gets cold out we let her snuggle with us. If we snuggle too much she gets hot and hops off the couch to cool off though…. which just happened. Now she’s headed up to bed. Good night, Bailey!

3Oct2013

Limping my way to 400 Miles

Posted in Challenges, Race Recaps by Annie T

Last night I hit the 400 mile mark in my 100 mile iPad mini challenge. Sadly I was not running triumphantly through a park or jogging confidently on the treadmill as I hit this milestone, though. Nope, instead I was cross-training on the old beat up elliptical in my garage because my left foot hurts too much to run. Boo!

After running the Run-A-Muck 5K on Saturday, September 21st I felt AWESOME! Empowered by the completion of my first adult distance race I was unstoppable and super motivated to run, run, RUN! And so I ran like crazy:

…on Sunday Matt and I ran 6 miles at Valley Forge National Park,

…on Monday before work I ran 2 miles on the treadmill,

…on Monday after work Bailey and I ran the 4.3 mile loop at Ridley Creek State Park in 38 minutes (a new record!!),

…on Tuesday after work Matt, Bailey and I ran the 4.3 mile loop at RCSP again, this time in 40 minutes.

Then I got home on Tuesday night and said, what the heck, I’ll run another mile on the treadmill, just for fun! And that’s when I realized that the outside bottom of my left foot really REALLY HURT! Uh oh…

Bailey was my running buddy during both days of Ridley Creek loops. I had her secured to me with a waist leash and I think she pushed me (or pulled me, actually) to run a little too fast for my own good!

Bailey was my running buddy during back-to-back days of Ridley Creek loops. I had her secured to me with a waist leash and I think she pushed me (or pulled me, actually) to run a little too fast for my own good!

Ignoring the stabbing, cramping pain in my foot, I woke up early on Wednesday and ran 2 miles on the treadmill before realizing that I might actually be injured. I then did some internet-aided self diagnosis and determined that I am likely suffering from Peroneal Tendonitis.

In short, Peroneal Tendonitis means that the tendons that go around the back of my ankle bone down along the outside of my foot are inflamed and irritated. This is apparently a classic “overuse” injury which makes perfect sense considering I ran over 20 miles in 4 days of 5K-induced euphoria. Oops!

My Peroneal Tendonitis (or whatever it is) was causing some pretty intense pain along the outside of my left foot last week, so much so that I realized that it would be stupid to keep trying to run through it. I had previously had a 4+ mile a day (walk, hike, or run) streak going since July 23rd but that came to an abrupt end last Wednesday. On Thursday I slowly limped my way out to the old elliptical that we retired to the garage after getting our treadmill and I’ve been cross training on that all week. 😦 At least I’ve been able to keep my 1 mile a day streak going – yesterday was day 94 of that.

In addition to logging some quality time on the elliptical I’ve also been icing like a fiend (even under my desk at work!), and taking Ibuprofen. My foot is feeling significantly better now but I am a little nervous about running. I might start out with a really slow jog on the treadmill in the next day or two and see how that goes…

Here’s the official tally for this week. Not quite what I wanted, but hopefully by my next post I’ll be back to running!

Miles since last post: 41.8
Days since last post: 12
Average Daily Miles since July 18th: 5.23
TOTAL MILES: 403.0

Related Posts:
• Run-A-Muck 5K (9/22/13)
• 300 miles and a 5K in my future (9/9/13)
• 200 miles! (8/26/13)
• 100 Miles in 21 Days! (8/7/13)
• 100 Mile iPad Mini Challenge: 49 Miles to Go! (7/29/13)
• The Challenge Begins: 100 Mile iPad Mini Challenge (7/23/13)

17Sep2013

Stroud Preserve

Posted in Hikes by Annie T

Last weekend Matt, Bailey and I took a hike in the beautiful Stroud Preserve located just west of West Chester, Pennsylvania. This was our first time visiting this nature preserve and we really enjoyed the rolling hills, scenic views, and well-marked trails.

Stroud Preserve

Stroud Preserve is maintained by Natural Lands Trust, a non-profit land conservation organization in southeastern Pennsylvania. According to the NLT web site:

Stroud Preserve consists of 571 acres of culturally and ecologically important land in Chester County. This rolling mosaic of once-pastured grasslands, working farmlands, and woodlands now serves as wildlife habitat and a unique site for research by the Stroud Water Research Center, one of the premier stream research labs in North America.

Here are some photos from our hike on Saturday:

Enjoying our hike!

Bailey hears something in the woods

Wildflowers

Trail Marker

Bailey’s had enough photos for one day

Stroud Preserve

If you’re looking for a peaceful, natural area to hike in southeastern Pennsylvania l would definitely recommend paying a visit to Stroud Preserve. The preserve is located at 454 North Creek Road, West Chester, PA 19382 and a copy of NLT’s trail map is below.

Please note that only the trails marked with solid lines are dog-friendly and dogs should be kept on leash at all times. With this in mind we took Bailey on the Yellow Trail loop with a detour onto the Gray Trail to avoid the no-dogs area and we finished up around the northern part of the Purple trail. Our hike was about 3.2 miles long. If we go back sometime without Bailey (which is unlikely since she LOVES going hiking!!) we’d probably try the full red loop which is supposed to be 4.2 miles long.

Bailey loves hiking!

Here are links to some other hiking spots in Chester and Delaware County, PA that I’ve blogged about. Enjoy!

•   Ridley Creek State Park (Edgmont Township, PA)
•   Okehocking Preserve (Willistown Township, PA)
•   Darlington Trail (Middletown Township, PA)
•   Linvill Trail (Middletown Township, PA)

16Sep2013

Weekly Photo Challenge: Inside

Posted in Bailey, Challenges by Annie T

This week’s WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge is inside. Here’s what Bailey does when she’s inside!

We joke that Bailey is either “on” (full blast running, hunting and playing outside) or “off” (sleeping peacefully inside). In this photo Bailey is demonstrating her favorite sleeping position: snuggled into her covered “dog den” bed with a comforter tucked over her face for good measure… she’s such a prima donna!

Also, I have to point out that she puts herself into bed this way with no help from us! It’s really a cute sight to wake up to in the morning… 🙂

13Sep2013

Dogs, guns, and hiking… a typical weekend at the Hunting Camp!

Posted in Bailey, Trips by Annie T

Dogs, shotguns and the great outdoors… sounds like a good time, right? Well that’s how we spent our Labor Day Weekend at a “hunting camp” in Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania! The “camp” is actually a private fishing and hunting club that my step-father’s grandfather helped to found back in 1913. One hundred years later it is still a rural paradise complete with a large house that sleeps 20+, a beautiful lake and – the best part – hundreds of acres of quiet, uninhabited woods. The camp is surrounded by other similar hunting clubs and a huge state forest, making it one of the only places in the world where we feel comfortable letting Bailey run off leash. Bailey absolutely loves it there, as demonstrated in this photo of her wallowing in a mud puddle after a long run in the woods!

Happy as a pig in mud!

Bailey’s not completely off the grid when she’s at the hunting camp, however. We learned a few years ago that it’s nice to know roughly where in the wilderness she has wandered to, so we now strap a GPS collar around her little neck to keep track of where she is and how many miles she’s gone. On our first day there we arrived at lunchtime and Bailey ran 10 miles before dinner. The second day she covered 17 miles and on day three she was a little tired so she only did 14 miles… She’s nuts!

Bailey shows off her GPS collar and its really long antenna. We tied her up occasionally for mandatory resting time... otherwise she would have never stopped running!

Bailey showing off her GPS collar and its really long antenna. We had to tie her up occasionally for mandatory resting time… otherwise she never would have stopped running!

Bailey had lots of canine friends to play with at the hunting camp this year. My family brought along a whole pack of pooches including Hershey the chocolate lab, Ganon the 9 month old puppy, and Clyde, the adorable newfie-lab mix. All of the dogs had a blast running through the woods, swimming in the lake and cooling off in mud puddles mid-hike.

Mud Puppies

Ganon and Hershey on a hike

Bailey rarely stopped moving

Hi, Ganon!

Happy Hershey in the lake

Ganon cools off in the mud

When we weren’t hiking with the dogs we enjoyed playing in and around the camp’s beautiful lake, riding ATVs through the woods and shooting clay pigeons with shotguns. We also made sure to spend plenty of time relaxing in the rocking chairs on the hunting camp’s big wraparound porch!

Wildflowers at the Hunting Camp

The Hunting Camp

My brother on an ATV

Matt trap shooting (2008 photo)

Hunting Camp Lake

After a fun-filled Labor Day weekend at the hunting camp we headed home with a VERY tired Bailey. I can’t wait to go back next summer!

Bailey catching some Zzzs after a weekend at the hunting camp.

15Aug2013

Wedding Photo of the Week!

Posted in Bailey by Annie T

Matt and I got our wedding photos back from our fantastic wedding photographer, Melissa Hassey, and I thought it would be fun to share one each week. Here’s one of my favorites:

I love how Matt and Bailey are making eye contact in this shot! Bailey wasn’t being the best behaved wedding dog at this point in time so Matt was having a little talk with her about sitting still for the camera. 🙂

On another note, thank you to everyone that has voted for Bailey in the Yakima Photo Contest! Bailey is one of 10 finalists in the contest and you can vote once a day. Please consider voting now for Bailey… she’s neck and neck with another photo for the lead spot right now and I appreciate any and all votes!!

To vote for Bailey, please click here and hit “VOTE”. You don’t need to have facebook or share any personal information in order to vote. Thank you!!