Finding a new way to walk

There is one thing I would like to do this year that I didn't do a lot of last year; take Walter out for some leisurely walks. A couple years ago, we took Walter out for walks all the time. We would meet Ang and Michael at their house or they would come to our house and we would just take off for an hour or two. As the years went by, we went from walking two dogs, to two dogs and a stroller, and then to two dogs and two strollers. As our families grew, it started to take a lot more effort and a little luck to get everyone together on a regular basis. Then, last year we strayed from our walks way more than we should have, and I think there are a couple reasons.

The main reason being that we went on more bike rides last year. I prefer riding my bike to walking, so when the opportunity presented itself, I always chose the bike ride. Unfortunately, that left Walter at home. The other reason is that Emilie was just a newborn last summer and she had her share of problems the first couple of months of her life which resulted in lots of crying. So I think, at least subconsciously, we didn't want to take her out on a walk just in case we couldn't get her to stop crying. But now, seeing that she is as happy as can be, I'm hoping that our evening strolls will become more frequent.

I still plan on going on a good number of bike rides this year, but we'll just increase the number of walks we go on with Walter. Ari now has a bike that he can ride as we walk, and we can put Emilie in the jogging stroller. I'm looking forward to getting Walter back out on there and getting reacquainted with all the other neighborhood dogs he likes to exchange pleasantries with. It'll be fun to watch him track the path of a squirrel and bark at an oncoming dog only to hide behind me if it gets too close. It's so much fun to watch him with that spring in his step, and I'm sure he's ready to get back out there, too.