I had read on their website that they were hosting a 2k Fun Fundraiser Walk. They were having three contests associated with the walk- Best Team Costumes, Best Dressed Dog, and Best Wagon. I zeroed in on the Best Wagon thing. I already had easter bunny ears for Olivia and her Easter dress, why not make an Easter basket wagon? I told my crafty mom about it and we set out to decorate her fairly large and fairly heavy garden wagon. I put Milkbones in 84 Easter eggs and attached my business card to them to hand out to people.
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| Olivia got sorta bored of decorating |
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| my mom decorating the wagon |
Friday night Brian and I loaded the wagon into my SUV in preparation for our early morning.
We arrived in Charlotte and found Independence Park (where it was being held) easily. We checked in for the walk because we had pre-registered and one of the HSC volunteers video taped an interview with Olivia and I which you can find on our Facebook page.
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| Here's the finished wagon in all its glory |
A lot of people took Olivia's picture, some people even had their kids pose with her (!), a woman named Elizabeth Kearley took photos of Olivia and she was nice enough to send me the photos she took!
We had the only decorated wagon, so I guess we would have won either way, but I was still really proud of our wagon when the woman announcing said we won.
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| Princess and the frog and sister gypsy with crystal ball were team winners |
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| gypsy with crystal ball |
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| mexican weiners were best dressed dog winners |
The walk was a lot of fun, Brian pulled Olivia's wagon and she walked alongside it. After the walk we put the wagon back in the car because the vendors, food, and other activities were in a long, narrow, and fairly packed park.
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| here we go! the walk begins |
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| Olivia started the walk in her wagon |
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| on the walk |
We walked through the vendors and looked at all the stuff. We got to do a photo booth with Olivia.
We had our photo taken in a beach sorta scene with a VW car (waiting for the email of that photo). One thing we got to do that was super fun was try agility! It's something that I would like to do with Olivia when her recall gets a little better. Right now she's in her teenage phase and doesn't want to come when you call (even though she has proved she can). We paid $5 to get to try the little course that a place called Zoom Room set up (totally check out Zoom Room, I wish we had one closer to us!). I paid another $5 to have Olivia's photo taken while we did it because Brian held the leash and I lured her along with the volunteer helping us, and neither of us had a hand to take the photos (I'll post the photos when the photographer puts them up). It was so fun! And Olivia really seemed to like it and was totally unfazed by the equipment. I want to try it for real with her more than ever now!
When we made it to the village of food trucks Brian and I found a table next to the ice cream truck and I saw he was selling homemade dog ice creams, so naturally I had to get one for Olivia and she was in heaven. She closed her eyes and licked and licked and licked it. She was enjoying it so much she prompted other people to go over and buy one for their dogs.
After lunch Olivia and I had our paws and palms read, and apparently Olivia's says she is going to touch some one in a special way and that's why she was put on this earth. Then Olivia had a doggy massage, and following that she made some paw print art!
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| doggy massages |
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| Olivia's art |
It was time to go home, the festivities were over and feeling thoroughly happy and tired we climbed back in the car where Olivia promptly passed out in my lap. I can't wait to go to another one of these sorta things!
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Wow! That looked like so much fun. I wish we had something like that here in Australia. We don't do as many parades like that though.
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