The Sunshine Committee

One of my favorite things to do is to go walking. It's a very peaceful thing for me; it helps me to clear my mind and to really just kind of take a break from everything. My favorite route is at the beach, but there are lots of good trails around my house. Before Bailey was born, I would take Doby walking whenever I could; he has always loved to walk, but he would get tired or hot really quickly. Before I had a stroller on our walks, I would either carry him or just take a break when he was done. It was always kind of funny to me when I had to carry my dog, but I didn't mind. I would always get comments about who is taking who on a walk. Now that I have both Doby and Bailey, we go for a group walk. Doby will still walk for about 20 minutes, but instead of me having to carry him, he gets a ride with Bailey. There is a little bit in the front of the stroller that I know, was just made for dogs to sit--why else would it be there?! So Doby knows now that when he's done walking, he gets to take a ride on the stroller for the rest of the walk. The first time I tried it, I didn't know if it would last. Doby would try to jump off every time he heard my voice or saw me around the back of the stroller. Over time, he as taken quite a liking to his seat on the stroller. Now when I go walking and Doby is in his spot, I feel like the sunshine committee. Everyone that we walk by either starts to laugh or starts talking to me about how cute it is. We bring a smile to everyone's face! It makes me feel like I'm doing my good deed for the day to bring people a little bit of sunshine in their day. I know that it sounds really cheesy, but it makes me really happy to be able to brighten someone's day by doing nothing more than going on a walk with my dog and my daughter!

I've been meaning to take this picture for a long time, but I always forget to bring my camera with me when we go walking. I now realize that I should have taken this picture at the beginning of my walk because I look so beautiful, but really try to ignore me and focus on Bailey and Doby.