there are two things that my family loves to do together, and if you were to ask any one of our neighbors, they could tell you exactly what those two things are:

1. sitting on the porch before dinner with wine and hors d’oeuvres, and

2. going for walks.

we’re lucky to live in a nice, quiet neighborhood with lots of trees and land and space.  we have two porches, one in front and one in the back, and thanks to the subtropical texas climate, you can find us on one of them pretty much every weekend night from march through november.  (“us” meaning the four of us when mike and i are home or just the parents when we’re not, and often the g-parents as well.  plus the pets!)

we like to chat, catch up on each other’s days, and enjoy our yard and just being outside.  the cat and the dog enjoy this time too; they’re always up to something and we have fun watching them!  my parents are big on not drinking on an empty stomach, so we always have some little goodies out there, and of course vino and maybe some beer.  when i think of home, i think of our evenings on the porch, and i can’t think of a better way to spend my evening!

the other thing we like to do together is walk.  sometimes we’ll drive to some nearby trails that connect several parks in mansfield and walk there, but most of the time we stick to the “routes” in our neighborhood and the surrounding area.  we live at the top of a street with a cul-de-sac at the end, so we walk that if we just want to take a short walk after dinner or at night, and i think down and back five times is two miles.  usually, we get to talking and end up walking even more than that!

in the day, we’ll often walk the larger road that our little street is on, which is just short of three miles down and back.  many of the houses along that road have quite a bit of land and all different kinds of animals!  it is quite amusing to see what the animals are up to as we walk by.

{one house has a menagerie of goats, chickens, cats, a dog, and two little pigs plus lots of piglets!  the piglets are really cute, and i want a picture of them so bad, but all the pigs run away when they see us walking by!  this is the mama pig sprinting away as fast as her huge belly will let her!}

as with the porch, we enjoy the time catching up and spending time together, and it’s nice to get some exercise too.  it’s lucky’s favorite part of the day, and he’s very smart and knows that when he’s in our yard or anywhere on our cul-de-sac, he can roam without a leash, but as soon as he sets foot on “the big road,” he needs a leash.  we are all pretty amazed at how good he is about that.

also, because he walks three miles most every day, lucky is a very healthy dog, and the people at the vet’s office are always telling us how impressed they are at how fit he is.  [as a side note, we also do not give him people food which keeps him healthy and also makes him a very pleasant dog to have around during dinner… he usually sleeps or wants to go outside.  i used to want to be a veterinarian, and one of our family friends who’s a vet would let me shadow him during surgeries.  many of his little patients had been fed people food and had all kinds of problems because of it, so i highly recommend keeping your pet away from the human food and sticking to those foods that have been specially formulated to keep them healthy.  my bit of advice for the day!]

so our walks are a good thing for all of us, and for many different reasons.  as my mom has been known to say, “the family that walks together stays together!” xoxo