"Rehearsal Dinner"

Yesterday was a pretty busy day for Rocco and me. My dad and step-mom are having a wedding vow renewal today so yesterday was set up day. The ceremony is going to take place in Storyland. For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, Storyland is a child's playland that involves many nursery rhyme characters. It's also attached to Playland which is like a carnival without the swindlers. Anyway, a whole bunch of us headed over to set up twinkle lights that might not even turn on if we can't get enough power. But it was fun to untangle and put light all over trees and bushes. AND there's a small train that goes from Storyland to Playland and back again. We all got free rides because we're friends with the manager and Marion is part of Rotary. The Rotary Club here is what funds Storyland/Playland. I thought it would be great for Rocco so we went on too! He did great and wasn't the least bit scared of train "whistle."

He did great mostly, but he did try to eat a whole bunch of stuff off the ground.
But he mostly slept and looked up and me during the trip.
I think he had a lot of fun though.

After we worked we went off to lunch and Rocco fell asleep on the cool ground of the sandwich shop. My Aunt and Uncle and Cousin were all really impressed with him. My Cousin met Freya once when he was heading through California, but no other member of my family has ever met one of my puppies. So this weekend is pretty exciting for me. After lunch my brother's girlfriend from Sweden, Astrid, and I went shoe shopping for tomorrow. This was Rocco's first time in a high activity mall. He did great. Most of the time I didn't even need the Halti on him. Even in the shoe store where there were a lot of kids who were absolutely fascinated by him. He walked right by them and looked up at me for a treat. This is great progress for a puppy who used to seek out people to love on. After the mall we went home to get ready for the dinner last night. Astrid and I ended up going over together because we took a little longer to get ready because of our adventure through the mall. Right when we were about to leave the house I found Rocco in a very interesting position taking a nap.

He's so cute. He usually sleeps behind or under my chair when I'm at the computer.

You can tell my room isn't the cleanest right now. I'm in the middle of serious cleaning and deciding on things to give away before going off the school. But Rocco is loose in my room all the time and he doesn't get into anything. I once found him in the middle of a pile of papers and other crud fast asleep. He's such a good boy.

We finally made it down to the club house and ate food and had fun. I really enjoyed talking to all of my relatives because we hardly get to see each other.

It's hard to get pictures of yourself and your puppy.
But I think these turned out ok.
He really did amazing during the dinner. He just sat under the table real still.
Everyone was impressed by how well mannered he was and everyone said that he was one of the most handsome boys they've ever seen.
It was right about here that I realized that I realized he was bored. So we took a little walk.

There's this great little kid play jungle gym near the clubhouse so we went there. He got very distracted by some kids playing basketball, but he is a lab so chasing balls is in his blood.

Here he is on the jungle gym. I love this shot. It's like King of the Jungle status.
Here he is checking out the slides. And down he goes.

He actually really liked going down the slides so we kept going back up and doing it again.

Another King of the Jungle picture.

I really wish I could have got one of him trying to climb back up the slide. You know how we all used to try to go up the slide instead of down when we were kids? Well that's what Rocco tried to do. He tried so hard, but he just couldn't do it. It was cute and I think that shows that he has some intelligence in there. It was problem solving right?

Today is the actual ceremony so I'm going to try to get pictures up first thing tomorrow.