Stomp out Suicide

In 2011, within 5 months, we attended two funerals for young men who ended their own lives.  This is beyond a tragedy.   One of these people was Luke's cousin Seth and the other was one of our friends.  They were both quiet and kind and genuine people.  This was really the first time that I have been personally touch by suicide- I have seen it and I have heard of it others lives but this was really the first time we have been that close to it.

Easy year since 2011, Luke's extended family has done a 5k walk for to help prevent suicide.  The Stomp Out Suicide Walk.  It always falls right around my birthday and in every previous year we have been busy.  This year however our schedule finally allowed for us to join.

 

So early one Saturday morning in August, Marcus, my dad, and I joined a bunch of Luke's family to fight and raise money to help prevent suicide.

 

Did I mention it was rainy!

 

But have no worries- Marcus was set up with a sweet ride.  He barely even popped his head out until the walk was mostly over!

It was a great day for a walk, for a great cause, with some of my favorite people!

Marcus is in the selfie- hiding under the umbrella!

A busy weekend- Part 1- The Dog Walk

One some weekends we do an amazing amount of stuff.  Neither Luke or I are really the type to sit around for long so we are active and find lots of things to do.  This past week was even a bit busier than normal and it was also a lot of fun.  Here is what we all did:

• Friday-  Marcus and Mom went to the arboretum (it was a free event) and than Vonnie went out to an awesome event called "Light the Castle"
• Saturday- Marcus and Mom and Grandpa Harvey did the Animal Humane Society Walk for animals (which I am going to cover in this blog), Luke went on a long bike ride (over 40 miles) and we visited two parks with water falls (one in Hastings and another called Willow River State Park in Wisconsin)
• Sunday-  Mother's day.  It all started with a lovely breakfast in bed, followed up an awesome bike ride (Vonnie) and a picnic at the Carver Park Reserve.  We also spent some time hanging around the house.

So it was a busy weekend and lots of pictures were taken (not all of them great).  Blogs, well none of those got written, heck I was busy.  So it all starts now with the Walk for Animals.

On Saturday we completed the Walk for animals with the Animal Humane Society.  This event is huge and there are animals (mostly dogs) everywhere!  Luke and I have done this walk a few times with Sandy dog (he is a rescue from IDOG (International Doodle Owners Group) and it is a great cause.  It was also event 3 of year for the challenge my dad and I are doing (one a month) and we are a bit behind.  

Here are few pictures from the big event.

Marcus was really worried his stuff was going
to blow away so he kept leaning over to
keep it all in the wagon.

Proud Sandy Dog!

We divided the labor and switched back in forth between who walked with Sandy and who pulled the wagon.

 Marcus actually got out an walked for about the first mile.  After that he was tired and climbed back in the wagon.  I wish I had a taken a picture of Marcus trying to walk Sandy.  It didn't really work that well since Sandy weighs over twice Marcus's weight.  Finally, we figured out a solution and put two leashes on Sandy- one for Marcus and one for me.  I held the shorter one and controlled Sandy and Marcus helped walk him.  It was a huge success.

 Overall it was a beautiful day and a wonderful event for a great cause, and I would call it a success!

Twin Cities Snowshoe Shuffle

 

 

Two years ago my Dad and I completed the Snowshoe Shuffle.  It was just about a month before I started blogging so I don't have a blog about it- Just a brief Facebook post.  We didn't do it last year, neither of us could remember why but this year we strapped on our snowshoes and completed the Twin Cities Snowshoe Shuffle 5k dog walk one more time.  It was a blast, and what made it even more fun is that this year, Luke joined us. 

 

Twin Cities Snowshoe Shuffle Webpage

 

My mom came along as well but she actually took Marcus to the Eagles Nest- which is a play area less than a mile from the actual event at a the New Brighton Community Center.  The day was a success all of the way around.  Here are some of my favorite pictures from the day.

 

Time to go Sandy!

 Over halfway done now.

When we hiked across the lake we got a nice Vonnie, Luke and Sandy pic

Both the view and temp were wonderful.

It took us about 1 hour 20 minutes to complete the hike.  Sandy slows us down a bit but this year was actually way better than two years ago, when at one point Sandy he laid down and refused to go further.   This year he was faster, we gave him so treats and water and he was all good.

 

Here is the route we took on the dog walk.