Another beautiful spring weekend!

We were terribly spoiled this weekend. After a week of warm (and a couple of days- a little too unseasonably warm) weather and a thunderstorm, the weekend brought cooler temperatures (but not too cool) and lots of sunshine. Absolutely perfect weather for running, biking and of course- hiking.
Not surprisingly, we took full advantage!
Prior to this weekend, we had taken the pups to several of the trails at Gambrill, but besides that, the only other place we've gone is the Watershed. It was time to branch out a little bit.

We took the boys to the Annapolis rock hike at the Applachian Trail, which is my favorite running trail, late in the afternoon on Saturday. I love this trail- it's pretty close to home and has some nice steep sections in the beginning. After that, it's relatively flat and great to run along. The turnaround point has a beautiful, rewarding overlook to take a brief moment of rest at before turning back. When we made it to the overlook, we stopped to take a few photos and were quickly the center of attention. There were quite a few people at the overlook that loved puppies and came over to pet and cuddle L&J. The boys certainly loved the attention. And I get it- if I saw the two of them I would do the same thing- they are just irresistible!

After we brought the boys back home and fed them dinner, Greg and I went out for dinner and a nice little date night. Although we are both totally restaurant snobs and very rarely eat at a "chain," there are a select few that we dine at. (We definitely prefer to support the local restaurants around Frederick- the food is such better quality and a lot of it comes from local farmers. Plus, it supports local business owners!) So, one of the chains that passes inspection is Bonefish.

We had a gift card and like to go there and eat at the bar. They have great bartenders, a nice selection of wine, and the food is pretty good. And it's always nice to  have someone else cook for you!

On Sunday morning I had to teach spin class and Greg went for a mountain bike ride. We wanted to get a somewhat early start on hiking, so we headed out to Sugarloaf mountain in the late morning. I've been wanting to go to Sugarloaf for the past several weekends, but since it's a little further away (as opposed to Gambrill which is pretty much in our backyard) we hadn't made it happen. But Sunday was the day. And it was packed! We had a great hike, which started out very flat with some downhill. Pretty boring. But when we got to the point that we started climbing up the mountain, things got a lot more exciting! By the time we hit the top and got to the overlook, the pups were exhausted. They were completely wiped out! We hung out at the top, tried to take a decent "family portrait" (without much success) and let them rest for a bit.

The hike down certainly was... interesting. Greg and I have definitely hiked our share of extremely steep and rocky declines before, but having two little puppies trying to pull you along was certainly a different experience. It was a little hard to keep balance, but we managed to all make it down safely.
By the time we made it home, the boys were pooped. Lance sprawled out on the kitchen floor, as he always does, and was out like a light. Jackson was out too- but I managed to get a shot of his "tired face" before he fell asleep.
Greg gave the pups a bath later (I refuse to bathe them in the tub at home- it sucks!) and according to him, the tub was filled with dirt after. There was a lot of rolling around in the dirt this weekend, so I'm not surprised. Nothing makes me happier than clean, tired puppies at the end of a wonderful weekend.