Friday, July 23, 2010

Disney: Day 1 & 2

Hey everyone!

Well we made it safely down to Florida without too much excitement. Bright travels so well in the car and never seems to mind being cooped up for so long. Awesome! On our ride down to Orlando, we decided to take a small detour and visit the Southeast Regional Center of CCI. It's located just northwest of Orlando and (somewhat) along the way to our hotel.

We stopped there and walked inside. I felt bad just walking in without letting them know we were coming through. Normally the campus gives tours on Tuesday afternoons and we were definitely not there on a Tuesday! But we ended up running into the Puppy Program Manager of SE and he said that he would give us a quick tour of the campus. Yay!

The campus is beautiful! It's fun to visit all the regional centers and see how each on differs from another. In SW they don't have nearly as much property as some other regions, but they can spend a lot of time outside training, so the space works well for them. SE looks like a network of different buildings that all seem to meet in the center of campus where there is an amazing gazebo type area. Everything is spacious and it was great to see how things were done there! We got to watch a bit of a training session going on in one of the training rooms (there was a one-way mirror there!) and saw the dogs getting lunch. There is also a great play yard in the back which has a bunch of agility equipment that was made by a local boy scout troop.
We finally made it to the hotel and checked in, then it was time to get something to eat! Thankfully there was a Cracker Barrel nearby. YUM! Bright was tired and so just stretched out by the table and promptly fell asleep.

We then went and met up with Team Orson and it was off to the parks! Orson had done some talking with the people at Saratoga Springs and he gave Bright a button that reads: 1st Visit. We decided to hit the Magic Kingdom first and hopped on the bus. Yay! Bright's first bus ride! She did so well!

We headed straight for Space Mountain since that's Kimmi's favorite ride. Some of us didn't want to ride, so Orson and Bright went to hang out with them while the rest of us went flying through Space! Seemed like they had a fun time and were getting a lot of attention because they were wearing their booties!

Since I knew that I would be bringing Bright to Disney, I knew that she had to get used to wearing the booties. I started putting them on her a few weeks ago and she took to them so quickly! She does the funny walking for a few steps and then just settles into her normal walk and we are fine.

Afterwards we headed over to the Monsters, Inc Laugh Floor. She slept through that....for the most part. I think she got a bit bored and wanted to see what I was up to, so she bothered me for a bit.

I will say this though, she LOVED the Haunted Mansion! No, she didn't go on the ride, but she loved seeing all the stuff that is along the line. She was looking everywhere because she didn't want to miss anything! She was not a big fan of Pirates of the Caribbean though. I guess the drinking and singing was getting to her a bit and she just wanted out of there!

For all the rides we did a puppy/people swap. Some would ride while others would hold the dogs, then we would swap places and the people that held the dogs before got to go on the ride. It seems to work and keeps the dogs happy....and the people too!

We then decided to call it a night and head back to the hotel. It had been a long day.

Day 2: Up and out the door by 8:30ish....yikes! Today we decided to stay in Disney's Hollywood Studios. We headed over to the Tower of Terror and the Rockin' Roller Coaster. The pups stayed behind again and the rest of us had some fun! We then decided that it would be fun to go see the Indiana Jones stunt show. Bright slept through most of the show, but was woken up when they blew something up. She was definitely awake after that! She then had to do a "Lap" so that she could watch the show for a little bit. I have one curious pup!

Then it was time for lunch, then back to the hotel for some rest and relaxation. With the weather so hot, it works well for us to head back to the hotel for a few hours during the hottest part of the day. This lets the dogs (and people) relax and stay out of the sun. Works out well for all of us! The dogs were wiped out at this point and they both just slept. There was a bit of playing, but it was kept to a minimum.

Then it was back to Hollywood Studios again for our dinner reservations at the 50s Prime Time Cafe. When we arrived we realized that the pavement was pretty hot and so the booties went on their paws again!

The people at the restaurant loved the dogs! Again, Bright and Orson just went promptly to sleep and didn't really move much during the meal. After that we headed out to burn some time before we got into line for "Fantasmic". There was a "dance party" going on in the middle of the park and a bunch of the characters were showing up to dance. Apparently Pluto snuck up behind Bright and freaked her out! I wasn't there, but my mom told me that she was quite spooked. I would be too!

I plan on introducing her to a lot more of the costumed characters so that she can become used to them. Should be a fun thing to do!

The line for Fantasmic was incredibly long and there was no way that we were going to be able to get into the theater if we got online at 9:30 for the 10:30 show. Bummer! But it will be playing again on Sunday, so we are going to try and make one of the shows that night.

Now we are back in the hotel. Bright went right into her kennel and passed out again. This dog is definitely tired!

Pictures will be added soon, I just really need to get some sleep. Night everyone!

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

A Quick Post

Well we made it down to Disney in one piece! We stopped by to visit CCI Southeast and then hit the Magic Kingdom with SC Team Orson. I swear there will be more to come, but I'm just exhausted from the day. I hope to have a post up tomorrow complete with pictures!

The best thing to do is to stay updated through my Twitter account located to the right side of the blog. I tend to update that a lot more than write out a long post here!

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Headed out on the road

Bright and I are headed out on the road in a few hours! Any ideas where we are headed?


.....


.....any guesses???



....

....we're headed to Florida and Disney World!!
Bags are getting packed, and so is the car. My parents are coming (they're driving, I am NOT a fan of driving the minivan) and we are meeting up with SC Team Orson at Disney. So much fun I can't wait!

I'll hopefully have enough energy at the end of each day to post here with pictures of the day and any fun stories that came up.

See you all soon!!

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Janet Evanovich Book Signing

Last month we had the pleasure of meeting Janet Evanovich for the second time! We went to another book signing of hers last year as well down in Cherry Hill. Here's a picture from that signing. it was amazing!
This year things were a bit different. We planned ahead and one of the PRs was able to get us wrist bracelets in the top 100 people. Excellent! We arrived around 5pm (the signing started at 6) and had fun catching up with each other. We started off with 4 dogs: Bright, Jensen, Nickel, and Mina. We headed upstairs in the Barnes & Noble to their "Event Room" and waited outside for our numbers to be called.

As many of you PRs know, these dogs get a LOT of attention! We had so many people wanting to take the dogs pictures and were commenting how well behaved the pups were being. Great publicity!

As we were waiting for the signing to start, a woman comes up to us so excited to see the pups. It was Janet Evanovich! She had just arrived and was still taking off her coat and purse. We grabbed a quick picture with her there and she was so happy to see the dogs again!We made our way into the event room and stood in the middle of the room. We were waiting to get into the line to have our books signed and pictures to be taken. So we decided to have a bit of fun with the dogs. Picture time!!
We finally made it into line and Forrest and July show up with their PR! So now we were up to 6 dogs. Awesome! We continued going through the line talking to a lot of people about puppy raising. We were also able to talk briefly with Janet's daughter, Alex. For those that don't know, Alex used to be a PR for CCI many years ago. The Golden on Janet's website is actually the dog that she raised.

We gave Alex a little goody bag from CCI that we made for them. It contained two 35th anniversary mugs, two 35th anniversary key chains, a framed photo of our last time we met her, and an invitation to the NJ Chapter's big event, An Afternoon of Wine & Noses. It was great!
As we were almost up to meeting her, Elvis showed up! And right behind him was Feeney! We were up to 8 dogs. Awesome!
We had a great time taking pictures with Janet and talking to a bunch of different people. We were also joined by Onora and her PR and Team Tomba. 10 dogs! It was an excellent day!

We had books signed and a few of those books will be auctioned off at the Wine & Noses event in October. What a great day with some great people!

Friday, July 16, 2010

A Long Time Coming....

I swear I will post more often. I really do! Things have been a bit crazy over here and I will try my best to get some new posts out there. I have missed writing here and sharing my adventures.

As a little teaser, there will be a post about our "puppy class" from last month....we met Janet Evanovich again!
And......Bright has a big trip coming up. Any thoughts as to where she will be going?

As well as a new collage at the top of the blog to help celebrate CCI's 35th birthday!