We had a full day of practice with all of the team on Thursday at Say Yes on Susan's new carpeted arena.  It was absolutely wonderful to be able to get the dogs used to the different footing.  That said, Rio didn't slip much at the beginning of the day but was sliding everywhere by the end.  Go figure.  Guess she just wanted to be different?  We then had a little bit of entertainment (and earned some new sore muscles) competing on Susan's new Wii.  What better way to bond with your teammates than knocking them out in a boxing match....  I lost by the way and got knocked out by Suzanne in the second round....  I did much better in the hula (!?) competition.

Friday was the day that went on forever.  Oh wait, it's still going on!  We started with a team pictures in the new uniforms and then moved on to a bit more jumpers practice & bounce jumping (there is the possibilty that we will see three jumps, 13'1" apart in competition which is a really awkward distance).  Then I did a rush back to Burlington for another attempt at packing the suitcase and Rio & I got a ride to the airport with Chauffeur Paul.  We had no problems checking in, plenty of boy dogs to start the 'pee' trend on the pavement outside the terminal and had the dogs in their crates by around 3pm.  Rio initially was very excited to be in the airport and tried her best Bambi eyes to get Lynda O-H to fork over Spirit's peanut butter stuffed kong, but quickly became subdude when she realized that the other weren't sharing in her excitment.  

We saw the dogs get loaded for our very full and quite cramped flight to Frankfurt.  As usual, however, the alcohol and cheesy movies were plentiful  

Our flight to Helsinki was a bit better although I may have come close to losing it when I couldn't see Rio's crate on the tarmac with the other team dogs while looking out the plane window.  I did however see a crate that looked like Rio's UP-SIDE-DOWN on the luggage trailer with men piling luggage on top!!!  Adrian & Susan then pointed out Rio, safe and sound with the other dogs being carefully loaded onto the plane.  Whew!  It turned out the other crate was empty....  I then finally got some much needed sleep on the plane.

We arrived in Helsinki and the dogs were quickly unloaded.  Rio came out of her crate as happy as could be.  She looked as though she thought she had been deserted and couldn't believe we were all reunited again.  She was thrilled to see all humans and dogs.  No messes in anyone's crate that I was aware of.  Everyone appeared to have travelled well.  Yea!  Once again, our doggie paperwork wasn't checked and we walked right through customs (although we didn't end up in the 'shopping mall' like during our previous doggie flight to Amsterdam LOL).

This aft, Rio & Phoenix (I'm rooming with Theresa) claimed their spots in our room and slept very, very soundly.  Both dogs barely aknowledged our comings and goings from the room.  We just had a quick walk to see if we could find any grass (we did, but it was fenced!!) and it's now time for bed.  Tomorrow is Practice #1 on Finnish soil and a tour of Helsinki.

Oh yeah, I forgot—Nan met us at the airport as her flight from San Francisco got in a bit earlier.  It was great to be greeted by a familiar face.

G'night Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz