Harley

I had the amazing opportunity to be a bunny owner for a couple of months. My dear friend and art teacher, Kris, moved to Arizona and since bunnies don't do well in extreme heat, she needed to find her sweet bunny, Harley, a new home. I volunteered to foster Harley until we could find him the perfect home.

I would send Kris updates on how Harley was doing, she was happy to hear he was doing well and having a great time at my house. She sent me this adorable picture of Harley and his litter mates, she had had him since he was just a tiny, little baby.

Harley is a magical bunny who acts more like a cat, he is litter box trained, so I could let him freely hop around the house. He absolutely LOVES to snuggle and would often hop over to me for pets and kisses. 

Harley didn't like it when my attention wasn't on him, I was a sunday school teacher while I was fostering him so I would need to prepare lessons every couple of weeks.

Here is a photo essay of how that went ...

I loved to buy him little toys at the pet store, it was hard not to go crazy and totally spoil him. But I would pick out one toy for him every time I needed to pick up more hay or bunny litter. 

I had lots of friends and family want to come over to meet and play with Harley. Even my brother in law, who doesn't like bunnies, fell in love with Harley, he truly is a unicorn of a bunny.

Harley really loved my niece, Vienne. He followed her around like a shadow the entire time she was visiting.

We had a fun time testing out which fruits and vegetables Harley liked, he didn't love raspberries, he would take a couple of bites and then hop away.

 I did tons and tons of research on how to properly care for bunnies, and learned a lot about what foods they can and can't eat. I attended a workshop put on by the Utah Humane Society on the proper care for pet bunnies and was constantly reading up on everything I could find online. I learned a lot about this adorable little fluffs and discovered they are actually fairly high maintenance pets, which isn't a bad thing, its just good to know.

I have two pet cats, and it was fascinating to watch their "relationship" with Harley over the months he lived with us. Sweet, social Harley instantly wanted to be friends with both cats and would eagerly hop over to them whenever they were in the room. The feeling was definitely not mutual on the cats' end. They are terrified of Harley, and wouldn't come downstairs if he was out and about for about the first month he was with us.

Once they realized this bunny wasn't going away anytime soon, they gradually began to be in the same room as Harley, but didn't want to be near him at all. Then slowly they got more and more comfortable with being closer, but still had zero interest in being friends. In the end they learned to tolerate his presence, but would put him in his place if he ever got too close. 

I thought everything Harley did was the cutest thing ever, like how he would stick his hind legs out when he laid down...

.... Or when he would flop over on his side to take a nap ....

... or his obsession with this decorative elephant, he was constantly hanging out by it....

Eventually, we found Harley the perfect home with a bunny mama that already had a pet bunny and was looking for a companion to keep her bunny company, Harley was the perfect choice! His new home is in California, so I don't get to visit him, but I have gotten a couple of updates saying he is loving his new home and is making fast friends with his new bunny sibling! 

Love you Harley!

Little Red Riding Hood 2018

A few days after I got home from Mexico, Beth and I headed up to Lewiston for the Little Red Riding Hood bike race! We absolutely love doing this race and look forward to it whenever we can make it. We discovered it works best if we spend the night before up in Logan, so that we don't have to wake up quite as early to get to the race on time. So we have adopted the tradition of staying at the Anniversary Inn since all the other hotels fill up so fast.

We have the best time picking which themed room we want to stay in each year, last year we stayed in the Taj Mahal and this year we choose Fire and Ice.

Our room was decorated with arctic animals and all different kinds of fake icicles, it was definitely a memorable theme.

We went out to dinner at our favorite Indian restaurant in Logan, Tandoori Oven. This is the best pre race meal, lots of carb loading. Then we headed back to our romantic room to munch on our complimentary cheesecake and have silly girl talk before heading to bed.

The next morning we awoke to breakfast being delivered to our room. Then we packed up and headed over to the racing grounds.

We always take a picture in our red hoods when we arrive at the race. Bethy forgot her red hood this year (huge eye roll)

All the medal bracelets waiting to be handed out to us riders as we cross the finish line.

The theme for this year's race was Fiesta! 

And we were off!

Our first rest stop was 12 miles in, this is always my favorite rest stop, it has the best snacks!

My favorite snack they serve is peanut butter on oreos. They often have a slice of banana on top but they were in the middle of getting a fresh box of bananas in when we went through the line.

The Little Red rest stops are all so amazing, there is a tent of people who will check your bike and help fix anything or help replace any tires. There is a first aid tent with all sorts of pain meds, there are sun screen stations, electrolyte powder stations to add to your water bottles, basically anything you could ever want/need while doing a bike race, they have it ready for you.

We love this race for many reasons, but one of the main reasons is that the course is absolutely gorgeous. We bike through beautiful green farmland the entire way, no matter if you are riding 26 or 100 miles. It is so quiet and peaceful, it's a beautiful place to ride.

Beth and I always have fun looking for all different kinds of animals on our ride, we pass by a lot of cows, horses and dogs.

We made it!

This year we signed up for the 50 miler but ended up riding the 34 miler since I had caught some weird stomach thing in Mexico. I never got really sick, I just didn't feel super great for about 2 weeks after coming home, it was weird. But 34 miles was the perfect distance to ride when I wasn't feeling my best.

We are given our bracelets and a cold drink as we cross the finish line, Little Red takes good care of it's riders

The Big Bad Wolf is always at the race taking silly pictures with all the riders.

Lunch is included for all the riders, it is always catered by subway.

I love doing this race with my sister, we have the best memories from all the ones we have ridden together! Until next time Little Red!