the perfect day.

You know what day is my favorite? The first day that you really get to enjoy the summer season. There's something about it that just makes me so happy - longer, sunnier days... warm weather interrupted occasionally by a cool breeze... and finally being able to enjoy it instead of being cooped up inside at work. Interestingly enough, this perfect day showed up early this year - yesterday, to be exact. It was a warm, cloudless, 80*F Sunday. In mid-March. I couldn't wait to get up and get going. Claire must have felt my excitement, because she was up early too and was ready to play!

My goal was for us to be outside all day long, and that goal was certainly accomplished. We went down to the river with our friends for the first time this year, and Claire had so much fun leaping through the shallow water and diving into the deep! I've found that she is really a great swimmer, she just needs something to focus on - and for the majority of the day, her focus was on a very precious thing: a new tennis ball with the squeaker intact. Her little webbed paws came in handy with all of the swimming she did to fetch that thing!

We took a quick break from the river to go see my friend Brianna and her dog Asya [who you may remember as Claire's snuggle buddy from this post] at the farm that Brianna works at. Asya gave Claire the grand tour of the farm, and they spent some time exploring the barn and chasing each other through the pastures. Claire's excitement was palpable! She would run off with Asya and then bound back to me, jumping around with her tail wagging, and then they would dart off again. It makes me so happy to see her so happy!

We went back to the river to meet up with some more friends, but after awhile, it was clear that Claire was pretty tired. She withdrew from our little group and went over to the field across from the river to rest. I loaded her up into the car and she immediately curled up in the front seat and fell asleep. When we got home, we both struggled to stay awake through dinner, and then we went straight to bed.

Yesterday was one of those days that you just want to relive again and again because it was just so great. But with summer coming early this year, hopefully we'll have many more days just like it!