it's 9:30 pm and i was thinking about sharing a late post on my instagram. a little photo dump from our time in harkness state park in waterford, conneticut.   earlier today i shared this reel and i figured i wanted to share these photos, too.  as i was typing my caption, i wrote out "back in my blogging days, this would have been a blog post".  and then i thought, wait this would be a good blog post.  so i stopped posting on instagram to come here and blog these photos from our little road trip this past weekend.

we decided last minute to do something, anything, for fourth of july weekend.  it was a long weekend after an extremely long work week (for both of us).  originally on monday, i suggested acadia national park but after i told junior that was an 8 hour drive, neither one of us brought it up again.  "want to do to acadia national park this weekend?"  "sounds like a plan.  how far is that?" "8 hours in maine"  "oh" followed by a bunch of surprised and laughing emojis.

saturday rolled around and we still hadn't decided what to do or where to go.  junior suggested DC and i almost agreed but i just felt like it might be a little too hectic for the fourth of july.  on the morning of, we changed our plans last minute and decided on a state park in conneticut that we had passed by last year, rocky neck state park.  

when we got to the park, we were welcomed with a few signs that read "no dogs allowed".  i was bummed.  we had just gone last year with indi, no problem!! we figured it had to have been because it was a holiday weekend.  junior made a u-turn and we were back on the road with nowhere to go.  we both got grumpy and were annoyed trying to figure out where we could go with indi in tow.  after some strong words were exchanged and i got a few snacks in me, i was able to find a nearby park so we headed in that direction.

as soon as we arrived in harkness memorial state park, junior parked and immediately laid his seat back to take a nap.  he needed it! (and so did i, ha!)  after we were both fully rested, we set out to finally enjoy our day.  the park wasn't anything out of this world but it was really nice (and better than nothing at this point!).  we sat by the water and chatted a bunch.  we played fetch with indi and people watched a little.  after awhile, we started heading back to the car to head home (and beat the traffic). 

we made it home just in time to heat up some leftover penne vodka with chicken cutlet pizza (but not before stopping at the outlets so junior could look for some pants from abercrombie, lol).

i wrote this on november 17, 2020 and never got around to posting it.  in an effort to get back into blogging,  i am publishing this post so that i can look back on these memories.   photos taken november 7, 2020 and published here and here. 

going down to the beach with my family has quickly become my favorite thing to do (when it's nice out, of course).  we found a beach that we favor going to and we've been coming back to it, year after year since 2017.  it feels like our beach.  

it was actually our anniversary weekend which i loved being able to celebrate with indi, too.  we celebrated 7 years of marriage, which in and of itself is just mind blowing to me. how has it been seven years already?  seven hard and beautiful and challenging and amazing years.  i cherish having this memory together, celebrating our seventh anniversary with our little puppy during a time when the whole world was shut down.  a time where so much was uncertain but we had each other to lean on during the madness and uncertainty.  i don't know how i could have survived 2020 without my boys!

||  mock neck tank  ||  sweatshirt  ||  jeans  ||  sneakers  ||  hat  ||  necklaces  ||

are the terrible twos a thing for dogs?  because i feel like dogs go through terrible twos, too.  and if normal dogs don't go through terrible twos, i'm here to tell you that in our household, we are currently going through puppy terrible twos.

we've hit a bout of puppy regression in our home and i can't say that i'm surprised.  when we first got indi two years ago, i spent all of my free time watching training videos and practicing what i learned with indi.  he mastered so many tricks at such a young age and i learned so much that i've continued to implement in our daily lives.  but with all that progress, i know i've definitely let my guard down and relaxed a bit on the training.  i know i'm blaming myself but i am his owner.  it is my responsibility to teach him and lately, he's just out of control.

he's always been an anxious pup.  we noticed he was that way since the day we picked him up down in north carolina.  while his littermates were climbing up the fence to greet me, baby indi was hiding all the way in the back having zero interest in meeting us.  that didn't change much after we brought him home and he started with the separation anxiety, barking when we locked him up in the kitchen.  or even more subtle tells, like when he follows us everywhere we go, or whines when he wants to get his way.  

i feel like his anxiety has heightened as an after effect of the pandemic.  i was working from home for a while which we both absolutely loved, of course.  once i went back to the office full time, we notice his anxiety progressively getting worse.  i'm back to the drawing board with him and trying to educate myself as much as possible.  i'm going to dive back into watching zak george and cesar millan.  i may even consider getting a trainer (and that's huge because i'm a big DIY girl).  

it's been stressful for the both of us (and junior, too) so please wish us luck!!  indi is extremely smart and i'm sure with me dedicating myself to helping him cope with his anxiety, this season will soon pass.