MIMM: Orion Oaks Dog Park

I was just thinking to myself yesterday how much I love Sunday afternoons.

While Scott and I’s schedule is anything but “normal” and rarely do we have a full weekend free, we almost always at least have Sunday afternoons together. By this point, we both get home from a morning practice and always want to hang low and get ready for the week ahead.

Lately, we have been catching up on college football since Scott insists on recording his Hogs games. I always start off watching them with him, but am notorious for snoozing before the first quarter is over. Ahhh, weekend naps are the best!

This past weekend was one of my favorites we’ve spent together in a while. There wasn’t anything crazy going on, but just enough activity and quality family time to make it memorable. Oh, and then there was this.

Linking up with Katie and a group of others, today I am sharing what made my weekend marvelous. Because that always gets my Monday and week started off on a happy note.

Saturday: Spontaneous Shopping + Date Night

You already know how we spent our Friday night. Freezing and mostly terrified on my first Haunted Hayride!

I woke up Saturday with a sniffle and spent the morning and some of the afternoon wrapped up like a pig in a blanket. It was cold and dreary out too, which didn’t make getting motivated to do anything any easier.

Although I wasn’t feeling my best, my appetite was still in full force and I enjoyed a good two and a half servings of this light turkey chili from the crockpot.

(I’ll be sure to share the recipe with you tomorrow!)

Around 2 p.m. Scott suggested we go see a movie and that sounded perfect. We caught a matinee showing of Gravity in 3D, and it was really good. It left me wanting to see more and kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time, which is pretty impressive.

Plus, we got to rock these stellar shades.

Okay fine, we recycled them after, but the excitement kept on rolling when we conveniently realized we were already at a huge outlet mall and needed to start stocking up on winter apparel.

(To my Florida friends, yes, it is already that cold out up here.)

We both left feeling like we spent too much money, but justified every single purchase with the standard “it’s going to be freezing out and I could wear this anywhere” approach. I’ll be sure to share some of my favorite pieces with you later this week!

Before we knew it, our tummies were rumbling and we were both craving Italian for dinner. Shocker. We tried to get into a few restaurants around the mall, but with an incredible wait ahead made our way over to Downtown Rochester instead. Finally, we stumbled upon Georgio’s Pizza and Pasta, a casual dinner spot on Main Street.

Not holding anything back, we split a Caprese salad (yum) and a basket of garlic knots (YUM) to start.

Craving a little spice, I made up my own pasta with angel hair, fra diavolo sauce and added Italian sausage to it.

Everything was delicious and I may have enjoyed the leftovers for dinner last night as well.

Sunday at the Bark Park

I can never really read what we will be doing on Sundays. Lately, Scott and I have been extra loungy and don’t do too much outside of the house once we get home after morning practice.

More Sundays than not, I also have a fresh coat of spray tan to set too. Ha!

(Don’t worry, the weird grey tint and patchiness washes off!)

Still feeling a bit under the weather, we kept it low key and stayed indoors until we noticed all three pets staring out the window. It’s so beautiful outside right now, and I know it’s not going to last too much longer before the breeze turns from nice to freezing!

I quickly put together a monster salad for us to pull from for the next few days.

Lunch was a base of this salad (spring mix and organic power greens, tomatoes, orange peppers, green peppers, cucumbers, green olives, carrots, and fresh cilantro) topped with the last of my Mediterranean Chick Pea MorningStar Veggie Burgers.

(I have decided not to make any future MorningStar Farms purchases, based on GMO concerns.)

(My heart is still breaking a little over it).

After lunch, our mission was to enjoy the outdoors and finally take our pup to a dog park. Poor Roadie hadn’t been to one in over a year, and we know how much he loves them.

After a quick google search, we were on our way to one that was supposed to be huge and stopped for gas and refreshments on the way.

This was the first time I have ever seen Argo Tea. With it’s fancy glass bottle packaging, it is a little on the pricey side at 2 for $4.

For what it’s worth, I was happy to find out all of the ingredients are natural and both flavors were really really good.

Actually, I finished the entire thing before we even arrived.

We pulled up to Orion Oaks Park with two hours to spare before closing time. It cost $5 for the day, and I am almost positive we will be getting the annual pass for $30.

The property is huge with tons of hiking and walking trails, and we only got to experience the “small” dog park portion of it.

Since Roadie is considered to be a bigger dog (although he seems to always be the smallest of the bigger dogs), we were guided to the bark park area that included a trail and woods!

It was absolutely gorgeous!

As soon as we let him off the leash, he went nuts and ran circles around every one and every dog. He got so excited!

The only downfall of all of the space was him being able to run off with his four-legged friends into the woods and trails. We quickly chased after him but couldn’t see a fence in sight.

The views were stunning but I would have enjoyed them more if I had Roadie on a leash and was prepared for having to keep an extra eye on him. This for sure wasn’t the type of dog park we were used to in Florida!

We finally got him back and made sure to keep his focus on the large grass area filled with other dogs. That seemed to do the trick until he finally tuckered out an hour later.

We made our way back to the house, the boys took showers (I just love when Roadie smells clean!) and we spent the rest of our evening watching more football (Scott), doing laundry (me), and out like a light (Roadie).

It was a pretty wonderful way to spend the weekend!

Now it’s time to get my week started. We’ve got a busy one ahead with two home games and a lot of practices. See ya tomorrow!

Questions of the Day

• Have you ever tried “the spicy” fra diavalo spaghetti sauce?

• Are you a fan of dog parks?

I love taking Roadie to dog parks, but at the same time it gives me a lot of anxiety. At larger spaces like this one, I feel like I can’t control everywhere he goes which makes both Scott and I very nervous. We love letting him run free, but at the same time have to chase him around, call his name, and make sure he stays out of trouble. Occasionally, he doesn’t mix well with who seems to be the dominant dog of the dog park and we spend the entire time trying to keep them a part. Kinda stressful.

At the end of the day, however, taking him to parks and watching him play with other dogs makes my heart smile. He gets so happy, which makes me really happy. Totally worth it!