Busy Weekend

But before we get to our weekend activities, since sports championships are rare in our city, here’s a picture of Kai hoisting the Stanley Cup, at least, the one he made in summer school on Friday.

The weekend always feels busier when we have dogs to take care of. And this weekend, we had three active, noisy dogs staying with us, plus we went over to someone else’s house to take two other dogs walking. So, we had a lot of walking to do.

One particularly nice thing was that Kai did not complain about having to walk so much. In fact, he looked forward to the walks. On Sunday, when Kai was busy with a workout with his swim instructor, my wife thought about going for a walk without him. But since he had let us know how much he wanted to see Georgie and Mancha, we decided to wait for him.

I was glad we had waited as he really enjoyed the walk, and we got to see a different neighborhood than our own, one that had some interesting sights.

Aside from taking care of the dogs, we were able to make a quick trip up over the Wisconsin border on Saturday for our annual outing to pick strawberries.

Usually it is extremely hot and muggy, and while we enjoy picking one basket of berries, we endure the heat to pick another one just to make our drive feel worthwhile.

But this was an usually cool weekend, and all the rain we had had made for a bumper crop this year. And it made for pleasant conditions to pick berries.

And eat berries.

Technically, we probably are not supposed to eat the berries in the field. But I think the owners know that is part of the fun of the pick-your-own experience and account for that in their pricing.

Anyway, Kai had a nice time. I was very happy that he did not seem anxious about the impending rain, and never complained once even when it started drizzling. I don’t know why he was so calm, as usually any hint of rain brings on tons of anxiety.

The next day, we went for a family bike ride. We had not gone at all this year, so it has been a long time since Kai went riding with us. And that brought out some anxiety.

He complained through much of the first mile.

But with a steady stream of encouragement, and just feeling comfortable being back on the bicycle, he gradually got less cranky and more happy.

And by the time we were done, he was looking forward to going riding again.

And so it was a busy weekend. And a good weekend.