Day two of the drive down...

The puppies woke us up at 7 so after letting them all run around in their pen we packed up the car and off we went!  This was what our GPS said when we left the hotel.  666 oh boy!

 We stopped at many random places... one of them was a McDonalds that had a lovely grassy area.  Everyone who was working the drive thru kept watching us and laughing at the puppies.  When we went through the drive thru they all were like "oh we were hoping you would come through because those puppies are so cute."  It was very nice.

Serena chilling and making funny faces...

We were driving along and found this really nice rest stop.  We didn't need to stop but it was so pretty that we did.  We let Cricket come out with us and Serena.  After a quick look at the pretty scenery we jumped back into the car and continued!

One of our next stops was outside a Walgreens type store (I forgot the name).  We set up the pen and took turns going in and getting stuff and using the bathroom.  People were asking all sorts of questions from their cars while stopped at the stop light.  I am surprised we didn't cause an accident.  We had a bunch of people come up here and say hi to the puppies.  Everyone kept thinking they were all our puppies.  So funny!

Serena did not like that Sarah took a puppy up to the front with her.  She wanted to know why she couldn't sit in our laps.  Oh poor Serena!

One of our last stops was at an office building right next to a Starbucks.  We let the puppies play and Serena run around.  I decided it would be fun to lay down with the puppies.... I was puppy attacked instantly!  Oh how they are little attention whores.  

They are such good puppies and let us play and do silly things to them... this one like being on her back and played with

We were ready to make it to Florida.  After driving 12 hours we finally made it to My Angel With Paws around 10 pm.  It was great to see Chris and Val again!  We dropped the puppies off, caught up a little bit and then drove to Deb's house to get some much needed sleep.  Deb was super nice and let us stay in her guest room.  Sarah, Serena and I immediately passed out.  We had to rest up for our first busy day in Florida!

Drive down to Florida...

Hi all!  We just got back from Florida and had so many great experiences.  I am going to try and go day by day since one post will be way too long.  Day 1 we started our drive down to Florida with Serena and five 8 week old golden retriever puppies.  We had to stop every hour and a half to let the puppies out to pee so that made for slow traveling but it was so much fun.  All the puppies were very well behaved except for Cricket.  She would wake up and sit in the middle of the crate and bark and yap until she woke up all her sisters.  If that didn't work she would trample all of them until they woke up.  What a little diva.  Lucky she was cute.

At a rest stop:

Another random stop at a random gas station: 

Cleo got to ride on my lap for a little bit: 

We made it to the hotel around 9 and let the puppies run all over the room.  Serena had fun chasing all of them.  We put all of them in the bathtub because their little feet were dirty.  This made for super cute pictures.  After drying them all off we got ready for bed and put them all back into their crate.  They didn't like being across the room and cried and barked until we put the crate in between our beds.  We were able to sleep for 3 hours until they woke us up to go out.  We set up the puppy pen and ran outside with the little fluff balls.  After a group pee back into the crate they went.  Serena was so pissed that they disturbed her beauty rest.  They then woke us up 4 hours later and we decided just to get on the road after letting everyone outside.  A blog on Day 2 of the drive will be up later :-)

Bath time for everyone... this one reminds me of AT&T.  Raising the bar: 

Cute puppies: 

Group picture <3 

Puppy being dried off:

Serena playing tug with two of the puppies:

Florida here we come!

Tomorrow Serena and I embark on our journey to Florida to visit the My Angel with Paws facility!  We will be taking my friend Sarah and 5 of our newest Angels in Training with us.  Serena is so excited she is already packed.

Map, bowl and sunglasses are a must...

 

 Reading the map carefully...

All that packing makes for a tired puppy!

Serena runs a 5k

This past weekend Serena and I went to Champaign for the 2nd Annual March for Megan.  Megan was my best friend who died suddenly of a diabetic seizure in 2009.  The Illini Equestrians sponsor this 5k to raise money for juvenile diabetes research.  I was working the race but my friend Anna was awesome and took Serena with her to run the 5k.  They came in 2nd place girls (Serena was 1st place dog!).  It was a super fun day and we raised $1000 for JDR and the Illini Equestrians.  Totally awesome!!!

Serena Watching the Map:

Serena helping with course signs: 

Serena on the Quad: 

Serena making new friends: 

Serena at the start line with the 5k group:

Anna and Serena finishing the race: 

The dogs getting food: 

All the dogs who were at the race:

Serena helping clean up after the race: 

Serena helps me get ready for bed

Here is a video of Serena doing three commands that would help someone get ready for bed.

First she pulls off my socks because a lot of disabled people cannot reach down to their feet.  She has to be very gentle because we don't want her biting any toes!

Second she pulls the covers over me and tucks me in.

Third she goes and turns off the light switch.  She was super proud of herself for the last one and celebrated with a flying leap onto the bed... whoops!

Serena really likes practicing the light switch!  So much so that she brought me the practice board :-)

Serena Plays Tennis

Serena heard that she was named after a famous tennis player and wanted to learn how to play tennis.  So off to the courts we went to practice her power shot.

Before playing, any good tennis player knows you need to take some glamour shots so the fans can ooo and ahhh:

Then you have to warm up by running around with your tennis racket:

Make sure you check the net out too:

Then you are ready to start hitting some balls:

New Video

We have these awesome very stable benches in the barn locker room that are great to practice "jump-on" because they are just wide enough for a dog to stand but still requires them to balance.  Serena is afraid of them so Becky was playing around with her the other day working her over her fear.  She still thought we were crazy at the end but she got tons better.  More practice will ensue!