Big Dog in a Small Car {Sugarcreek Metro Park}

Monday was a very sad day for my family. We said goodbye to our 15-year old chocolate Lab. He was our first family dog. He was my first ever dog.

On Tuesday, my other dog and I needed to get out of the house and out of the neighborhood. Dayton has beautiful metro parks and we hit the trail at one of our favorites, Sugarcreek. Sugarcreek MetroPark is home to the Three (now two) Sisters, which are 550-year old oak trees, a tall grass prairie, woodlands, some steep trails, and of course Sugar Creek.

Hunter gets so excited when he sees me put on my tennis shoes and then go to the closet for his leash. He knows what's coming up. Right now my son has my Tahoe, so that leaves me with my small car and a 90-pound dog. It's quite a picture!

What I didn't think about was that it rained a lot on Monday. 

Rain + dirt trails = lots of mud. 

At first I tried to navigate around the muddy areas on the trail but that turned into quite a joke and it was stressful. We came here to get rid of stress. Shoes can be washed, dogs can be washed, cars can be washed. Our hearts needed some healing from the pain of losing our long-time dear pet. We walked through the mud, we splashed in the creek, we had a marvelous time!

A wish and a prayer for our dear old dog ~

Prairie flowers

Steep enough for you?

Sugar Creek

Hunter and the woodlands

Muddy, muddy, muddy!