New Family Member

It dawned on me that we never introduced you all to our newest family member, Pandora.

Our neighbor's dogs had a litter of 8 puppies. One day Alayna came in from outside screaming that there was a dog after her. I laughed her off because we have a neighborhood dog that is scared of people and takes off running as soon as there is movement. Alayna then told me that no it wasn't the same dog. I got up to go look and sure enough it was one of the neighbor's puppies. They had all gotten out of their fence and the owners were chasing them down so we picked this dog up and she just cuddled right up to us but we took her home. The neighbor in his good humor said not to bring her back but we told him we had to return her until we talked about it and had a family discussion about having a dog. We decided we could take her so we went and got everything we would need. 

She was born March 8th 2014 along with her two brothers and five sisters who have all been adopted now.

She was so little when we brought her home May 17th.

 Her mom!

 She loves tug of war!

 July 4th and on alert

 Today August 18, 2014.

She is a fun new addition. 

She has learned the command sit and we are hoping to get her leash trained by the end of summer.  

We love our Pandora!

Brayden turns 10

Double digits for my boy! He is almost taller than me too!
 His birthday was a bit low key with dinner out at his choice (Red Robin), and family over for cake, ice cream and presents.

 He chose two types of ice cream cakes which made it easy on my end because we always give them what they want on their birthdays.

It is still hard for me to think my little boy is growing up into a nice young man! We are blessed to have him in our family and we look forward to many more years or fun and laughter with him.

Bike MS: Harmon's Best Dam Bike Ride

For the last several months we have been planning on attending the MS Bike Ride this year. In order to ride Josh had to raise a minimum of $250 dollars. In order to do this he teamed up with Pizza Pie Cafe to help raise the funds!

Friday, June 27th we packed up and headed down to Logan, Utah to get ready for the ride! Our drive down was uneventful but wet. We pulled into Logan at about 3:00 in the afternoon with rain showers on and off. We quickly got the tent set up and got ready to party for the weekend at the fairgrounds!

At the last minute before leaving Idaho Falls, Idaho I decided we would already be down there for the event so why not volunteer so I got signed up. My volunteer training was at 3:45 on Friday afternoon so while i was in my training Josh and the kids took cover out of the rain and waited for me. The rain was not going to deter us from having fun! Josh and I signed up to ride and volunteer on Team Harmon's and Friday evening we got everyone checked in and Harmon's fed us dinner. The yellow dot beside his name means he has rode in the MS bike ride between 2-4 years! 

We had some time to ourselves before bed so we drove up the hill to see the Logan Temple.

We went back to camp and got to bed early for an early morning.

SATURDAY June 28th

Saturday's wake up call was at 5:30 a.m. for breakfast at 6:00 a.m. team pictures at 6:15 and getting Josh to the starting line before 7:00 in the morning. That is a lot to do in a short amount of time but we did it! 

Team Harmon's

To put this in perspective... 

Bike MS had 552 participants this year

raising approximately 1.4 billion dollars!

Team Harmon's had 172 members

raising approximately 75,000 dollars!

Now that is AWESOME!

Starting line at 7:00 and Josh on Team Harmon's got to lead everyone off!

After we sent Josh on his way we went for a bike ride ourselves, chilled out for a bit and then headed to the finish line to cheer the riders back in!

 The riders just loved being handed their medals by the kids and would stop and chat with them. This man actually has MS and was touched that so many people were there to greet him and cheer him in from his ride.

 Kaytlin is in the pink pants on the left of this picture getting ready to hand a medal to Josh as he finished the first day!

Smiling after riding 45 miles in 3 1/2 hours!

Saturday afternoon we relaxed and played. The playground around the corner from the fairgrounds had four different sections with playground equipment and the kids would have played all day if we had let them.

 The fairgrounds had a nice little stream/creek running through it that the kids enjoyed playing in. After all the rain on Friday, Saturday was a warm sun shiny day reaching 81 degrees!

After playing the afternoon away, our evening was scheduled! At 5:00 dinner was served, at 5:30 we had the Harmon's raffle, at 6:00 we had the awards party and program, and at 7:30 the Aquatic Center across the street opened its doors for the participants and their families to swim.

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The kids all loved the slides they had and went down them over and over again! Once the sun went down though it got cold and we ended up going back to camp at 9:00 and got ready for bed!

Sunday June 29th

We all slept in but still had breakfast at 6:30ish and got Josh to the starting line by 7:15ish. Sunday is much less structured and you can start any time you wish but have to be finished by noon. 

While Josh rode we tore down camp and packed up then headed to the finish line to cheer. 

 Brayden handing medals to riders as they finished their ride.

 We had so much fun meeting so many new people and cheering everyone on!

Josh coming into the finish line!

Wooohooo! Smiling after another 30 miles for an overall total of 

75 MILES RODE!

 I couldn't be more proud of him for finishing strong even after his knee bothered him the first day. I am glad we were able to make it a family activity and be there to support Josh and all the other riders who ride with MS or ride to support MS! Way to Go!

See you all again next year!