For 4th of July weekend, we rented a house on a small island in Crystal Lake in Gray, Maine with some friends. It was a great place to relax, enjoy a fire, play some board games, and relax on the water. The first couple days were filled with ear-piercing toller screams from Sandy, wanting so desparately to go into the water but didn’t have the courage to do it. Finally, on the last day, she went all in, and once she did, she wouldn’t stop! Unless it was a different side of the dock.…

Last year I started training for attempting Paris-Brest-Paris in 2023. My training started last fall and went really well. I seemed to have made a full recovery from my knee injury last year and was quite pleased with how I paced myself on the 200 km and 300 km races. But ultimately, the never-ending rain on both the 400 km and 600 km eventually did me in, causing me to retire early on day two of the final brevet qualifying ride and dashing any hope of PBP this year. Here’s a quick summary…

Back in September 2016, Haley and I travelled to Hawai’i for the first time. We started on Oahu for a few days, hopped over to Kaua’i for five days, then wrapped up on Maui for a few more days.

Over the fourth of July weekend in 2022, Haley and I ventured off to Chicago to do some sightseeing. We had an absolute blast seeing all the great architecture by boat and walking around the parks.

Last winter, I had the honor of once again tagging along with the Giglio and Barry men to ski for a week out at Whistler Blackcomb in British Columbia. It started off with our connecting flight in Toronto being delayed over 6 hours, resulting in us arriving at our place in the early morning hours on Sunday the 27th. But we were excited and even on lack of sleep were able to get our “bonus day” in on the slopes.

Decided to collect various photos of Maxie and throw them up on a blog post for future reference. I had made this tribute video shortly after she passed away in July of 2017.

Sandy’s second and final year of puppyhood flew by. She had a blast last winter skijoring with Haley. When she first met Midge, Sandy was could boss her around as the big cousin; now she can easily walk underneath the long-legged lab. She continues to desire swimming no matter what the time is or temperature of the water. She took her first stroll through Boston and tried tolling some bronze ducks to no avail. I also realized looking back this year I took a lot of photos of Sandy jumping…

A few weeks ago, Sandy and Midge got to try out dock diving for the first time during a private session at Dock Diving Anonymous in Barnstead, NH. There were two professionals who helped ease the dogs into the pool, first by going into the water easily via the ramp, then slowly building up confidence to jumping in, and finally with a running start.

This past July, Sandy, Haley, and I ventured down to Nickerson State Park to camp and enjoy the fantastic water of Cliff Pond. Haley broke out her new stand-up paddleboard and taught Sandy how to load up, take a spin, and jump off. Sandy could not get enough of the water and was sad we only were there for a couple days.

Last August we spent the week down with the Merlos in Eastham on Cape Cod. It was an awesome vacation full of beaches, rockets, and sunrises/sunsets. The week kicked off with playing fetch in a local field with Tucker Giglio. It was a bit chilly from the clouds and wind but still had lots of fun running and splashing in the surf at First Encounter beach. Made a day out of Marconi Beach, which being 🐕 friendly meant Sandy could join us. Another 🐕 friendly area was my personal favorite swimming…