the videos are ready!

..Ready to be watched that is ;)

Here are all the videos from our weekend at the 2011 AAC Nationals!! Whatta weekend!

Warm-up run can be found here.

Sanctioned Masters Gamblers can be found here.

Steeplechase can be found here :)

And, best of all, the main event... The National Events! They can be found here!!

Enjoy!

Sam.. the cat!

Sam is my Nana's cat.. he is so cute! Just look at him.



Sam <3

I'm visiting my Nana for a couple of days. And this guy is just so cute.
My Nana got him from her local SPCA. He such a happy cat :)

Nina Dobrev.

@ Teen Choice Awards

Nina @ MTV's Music Awards

You may know her from The Vampire Diaries, Degrassi or maybe even the Roommate (if you had the courage to see that movie..) or maybe you know her from any of her other films. Maybe you saw her at the teen choice awards this year, winning choice TV actress for fantasy/sci-fic. Maybe you saw her presenting Justin Bieber's MTV music award win, with her co-star Ian Somerhalder. Or maybe you don't have a clue who she is. I know her from the vampire diaries (one of my fav shows :)). And I'll tell ya, she's amazing. Not only at acting but as a person also.

She's Bulgarian. Although, her hometown is Toronto. She's 22, and loves yoga.

a quote Nina tweeted recently

Her twitter is the best. She posts an inspirational quote or picture quote everyday and they are truly inspirational. If you have twitter, follow her! (http://twitter.com/#!/NINADOBREV or @ninadobrev)

Camping.. is awesome!

Ah, the smell of campfires and mini barbecues, the fresh air.. it's awesome.
Such a great feeling.
Camping with the famjam is always the best.
Great times, great times :)

We went camping this weekend at Jellystone park :) It was the Halloween weekend, so lots of activities and trick or treating! I stayed at the trailer and gave out treats :) My little brother went trick or treating, had lots of fun and got lots of candy! There was a site decorating contest and we can in 3rd place. Not too bad!

I also finished another book. "The Vampire Diaries: Dark Reunion" 
4th book in the series, and a great book!
TVD is waaay better than Twilight, just sayin'!

Besides that, we were there with some friends we haven't seen in 4 years! Fun times.

And, the moon was beautiful! Full and bright.

Gotta love camping :)

This blog is undergoing some changes.

Yea, it is.
So, if you see anything weird or unusual, don't panic ;)

an amazing trial, for sure.

At the beginning of July we went to a trial held by FAST. It was an amazing trial for Jazz and I!! So many brilliant moments and as you can tell by the music in the video (link is below); "Never Say Never". Definetely one of my motos. It was definetely one of our best trials this year. We got 6/8 Qs, and that doesn't matter because he ran so well that weekend. Our only faults, were my fault. *Rachel, you know not to call his name while he's going over a jump.* 

Jazz and I with our Qs and judge Lynda Yielding 

For some odd reason, the photo above would not go into the video.
I love this picture of Jazz :) He also looks so happy and proud.

I finally got the video up and here it is :)

Sunday's National Events!!

Such. An. Amazing. Experience.
I repeat, Such an Amazing Experience!!


Nationals was so so so much fun!!
Absolutely Awesome!


On Sunday we ran Standard first. This was a nice course. At the end of the run we had 15 faults. Two bars and a refusal. I think the first bar could have been since my FC ended up being a little late. The refusal was since I did not support enough coming out of the tunnel (a little layering) then he knocked the bar on that jump since when I brought him back around, I did not give him enough space ahead of the jump :\ But, the rest of the run went really well. Beautiful contacts. He also did splendid with 3 FCs over the course, as usual ;) Even though we had 15 faults it was such a fun course to run!


Jumpers was next. Definetely one of our best Jumpers! With a time of 35.70 seconds; 9.30 seconds under time! Super good time for us! I even got a FC in where I thought I was going to have to rear. And, I thought I was going to have to hold my front longer so that I would not push him to the wrong side of the jump, but I got ahead of him, and got in the right spot! The front was right on time :) So many brilliant moments in this run.. I could go on and on! And, guess what.. we got a 5th place in this run too! Super proud moment!!! Jumpers has never been our best placing run at our local trials, because of time. So, I'm sure you could just imagine how happy I was! :) To get a 5th place in Jumpers at the National level.. I was speechless!


Gamblers was also a splendid run! 47 points in the opening with two dogwalks, a mini twice, and some other stuff in between :) We did not get the gamble, but still a great run! Such a great run to end the weekend :)


Our last run was the Steeplechase Finals. To be honest, I was nervous. And, I never get nervous before any runs, not even at Regionals or Nationals. But, there was a huge amount of people watching, it was being televised, a man was anouncing stuff and the music was blarring. It was a good experience, though! Jazz ran super, as usual :) I think the music bothered him a bit at the beginning, but a great run. Not our fastest, but still a great run. We got 2nd out of the juniors, and $15 :) Again, super proud of him!!

Jazz and I with all our ribbons from the weekend! :)

Such an amazing weekend, and I am so blessed  to have been able to have this wonderful experience. We had so many brilliant moments over the weekend, and I can't wait for our next Nationals!!

Saturday's National Events!!

Such. An. Amazing. Experience.
I repeat, Such an Amazing Experience!!


Nationals was so so so much fun!!
Absolutely Awesome!

On Saturday we ran Gamblers first. We had a good opening with 30 points. 30 points, but he ran well. He got his contacts and did everything he was told :) We did not get the gamble. We had some buzzer mix ups.. 3 rings running gamblers, and yes, they do tell you what your buzzer sounds like, but when I'm running I just don't think about that. Oh well. At least, he ran well :)

Standard was next. I really liked this course. A lot. It ran fast, and I have to say it was one of our best Standards this year. One of our fastest for sure. Clean and 41.84 seconds :) I remember at the start of this year when we ran Standards in 50 seconds or more. So nice to see improvement!! Such a good feeling when we came out of the ring :) We placed 5th in this run!!

Jazz and our 5th place ribbon for Standard :)

Jumpers was our last run of the day. This run went really well. Really nice course, too. At one point it would have been faster to do a RC instead of a wrap. I walked it as both ways, and I planned to do the wrap. As I was not sure he would read the RC properly. (we have not done them at such a sharp angle before. something new to practice) But, when I was running I thought the RC would actually be better, I deceled and forgot to tell Jazz to go on and we got a refusal. I got him back over the jump, and the rest was clean :) Even though we got the refusal, I was very happy with the rest of the run. We had two nice FCs, a RC and a Serp in the rest of the run. All of which he did super :)

Such a great day! The awards after were so exciting. It was nice to cheer everyone on as they went up to the stage!
We even got a 5th in Standard!! I was so proud :)

Shannon also finished painting our chair on Saturday.. see the resemblance? ;)

Videos to be posted soon :)

Friday's Fun :)

On Friday we ran a Masters Gamblers and Steeplechase :)

Masters Gamblers was good. It was our first run of the day and to be honest, Jazz was a little jumpy. He did get the mini twice but with a lot of barking before sending.. We did not get the gamble, but it was fun to run :)

Steeplechase went great! All clean except he popped out of the weaves and I put him back in the wrong spot.. :( 20 faults.. but he ran spectacular! Fast! Ran super even with a rear cross :) I'm so delighted he's getting better at them! And, guess what.. 

yeah!

We were a finalist.. yeah!

Video to be posted soon :)

2011 Nationals: Day 6!!

Today was day 6! woot! woot!!

Today we headed to the Nationals site, set up Jazz's crate and our chairs, ran a warm-up run, did some obstacle familiarisation, and did a little shopping :)

First of all, the Nationals site is the best! So big. It's nice and spread out and there was not that much comotion today. (yet they were only running pre-qualifiers and warm-ups) I walked Jazz around a lot, and he seems very comfortable with the site :) There is just such a wonderful feeling when you enter. So much good energy and just such a wonderful experience already!!

Our warm-up run was absolutely awesome! The rubberised contacts didn't fizz Jazz a bit! He did great on all the obstacles :) I can't wait for the events to begin!!

They had the aframe, dogwalk, teeter all set up in a loop for the obstacle familiarisation in ring 3. We ran through once when it first opened, and about a half hour later, we ran around the loop just once more. Jazz did great on all the contacts, with great speed too! :)

We also did a little shopping. I am so happy that I saved up all my money all year long! There is so many vendors! A bought Jazz a nice tug that has some some sheep skin on it, with a tennis ball on the end. He absolutely loves it!! And, I bought a teal 20' tunnnel! :) I have wanted another tunnel for so long, sooo happy I saved up my money! Got a good deal on it too :)

I totally can't wait for tomorrow! Master Gamblers and Steeplechase here we come!!!!

2011 Nationals: Day 5!

Yesterday was day 5, of our trip :)

It was my little brother's birthday!!
We had a ice cream cake from Baskin' Robins. Really good!! He opened his presents and got some really great gifts. He seems to love them all :) He was so happy it was his birthday, and I think he really enjoyed it.

We went to the mall later in the afternoon. We ended up going to Sportscheck, seen on TV, and the Disney Store. I got a really nice pink (cool gear) t-shirt and a pair of under armour shorts. Both for under $50 :) I also got Jillian Michael's new DVD :) I loved her 30 day shred so much, I thought, why not? ;) Mom got a Zumba DVD set, looks fun too!At the Disney Store, we got some things for Alex for his birthday. We don't have a Disney Store anywhere near us, so it's nice when we can find one on the road. He was so happy!!

Then, the best part (in my opinion); we went and registered at the Nationals site :) It was so nice to walk around and look around the site. When registering we got a nice competitors bag, full of goodies :) The Nationals shirt I ordered fit perfectly too! :)

All in all, a super great day!

A ton of Excitement!!

Yay!!!!!
Today is Wednesday.. which means today we will go register and check out the setup at Nationals!!

I am super pumped, as this is my first Nationals! After Regionals, I was soooo (and I totally mean so so so so so) excited when my Mom said we could go to Nationals since Jazz and I made it :) It'll be a first Nationals for both of us :)

I'm sure we will do just mighty fine; Dont' Stop Believin'! The best part will be just that we can have the experience to run, and enjoy a competition with dogs of such excellence competing in it.It'll be such a spectacular experience, either way.

I also can't wait to run the courses!! Especially gamblers :) We have been working on our distance work all last month (along with some other stuff too, of course :)) And, it's been a real grand goal of mine, to get a gamble at Nationals with Jazz :) Or, at least improve our gamblers runs than how they were at Regionals :)again, Don't Stop Believin'! :)

Standard is also an exciting class for sure! We've been working on his running contacts this summer, and I love them! Hard work pays off :)

Jumpers is also just as exciting! We've been working on our decels, acels, front crosses, threadles, serps, and especially our rear crosses. It's so so so so nice to see improvement! In both my handling and Jazz :)

I'm so excited to see everything come together, and just compete and have fun!

Don't Stop Believin'!!

2011 Nationals Trip: Day 4 :)

Yesterday was day 4 of our trip.. and awesome it was!

 We went to the "Elmvale Jungle Zoo"!!







A grand zoo, it was. Huge with many, many animals. It was so interesting to see the animals; from guinea pigs to lions and giraffes. Speaking of giraffes, we got to feed them! So cool! We also got to feed the monkeys :)


At the end before we left, they had a show. There was a guy (pictured) who would bring out the some of the reptiles and baby animals so that some of the kids come see them. My little brother really enjoyed this part :) There was also a really nice girl (not pictured) who was explaining about each animal that the man brought out. It was actually really neat to hear about all the animals. Yay for an educational experience ;)

and, now for my.. well lets just say.. learning experience ;)

I was just about to walk out the door to play ball with Jazz for a bit,, I leaned my arm up against the door, to push it open. hard to explain..picture below! (the only flaw in the picture is that, the door that pinched me was not a emergency door, just a normal one) right where the arrow is pointing is right where my arm got stuck.. ouchie, ouch!

So, my arm got pinched right in there..

And, it left a huge cut :(
I'm fine, though :)
My arm is now bandaged up, but.. wait before I say the "but" read this quote below:


“I don't accept the maxim 'there's no gain without pain', physical or emotional. I believe it is to develop and grow with joy rather than grief. However, when the pain comes my way, I try to get the most growth out of it." ~Alexa Mc Laughlin

So, the "but" is the following..
I may have got my arm stuck in the door, but I have learned not to open a door that way. (leaning my arm against it to push open)
;)

We also went to get Alex's birthday cake; without him knowing, of course :) His birthday's today and he's so excited!!

That's all for now!

2011 Nationals Trip: Days 1-3 :)

So, we've began our trip to Nationals.. and it's been amazing so far!!

We drove all the first day.. but, hey, I almost finished my book :)



Second day, we went to a blue jays baseball game! It also happened to be the day the blue jays retired Roberto Alomar's jersey... pretty cool to be there. It was such a nice atmosphere to be in! So much energy! 45, 269 people there, if I remember correctly :)





best second baseman.. ever.

 After the game, we went to the CN Tower.. Wow, what an experience! All the way to the top in 58 seconds! 22 km/h, in that elevator! After going thru security, the nicest security guard let us go thru the "express" since he noticed my brother (he has a disability). It was so nice to see the smile on my brother's face since "we got to go on first, since it's my birthday" he would say :') His birthday is on Wednesday and he's so happy we get to go on a trip for his birthday :)

Once we got to the top, it was amazing! You could see all of Toronto, if not, almost all of it! Then we went up a couple stairs to go to the glass floor part.. that's a completely different point of view! There were some kids jumping on it.. that was scary.... and I didn't even know the kids.

After we got back down, again in 58 seconds.. we got some freshly squeezed lemonade.. so yummy!



CN Tower.. absolutely amazing.

 Yesterday was day 3 of our trip, and we went to the "one and only"...
Canada's Wonderland!

Canada's Wonderland is quite amazing! It's so nice to see them honoring all of the flags of Canada in the entrance. After watching the diver show; of a 20m drop (scary!), we went to Snoopy's part of the park, and watched a Charlie Brown show.
Then, we did the best part (well, my favorite part ;)) "The White Water Rapids" ride. We were sitting in a tube thing with six seats.. (with seat belts, of course ;)) going thru well, white water rapids ;) It was so much fun! There was lots of waves and drops in the course, and we got splashed. :) In the end, I got soaked.. there was one part where we went under this mini, mini, mini waterfall...some falling water on the people going on the ride... and I was the one who got soaked in our tube :) I was so happy, it was like 35 degrees! I was cool for the rest of the day :) After that, we looked at a lot of the other rides. (mostly roller coasters, a lot of them where CrAzY!) Then, we went to see the "Snoopy Rocks! Ice Show". That was also spectacular! Some of the jumps the skaters were making were just, wow! Snoopy, Charlie Brown, Sally and Linus were doing pretty good too ;)

that's exactly the falling water, that got all over me :)

Of course, I've taken pictures of almost every step of the way :) Unfortunately, I forgot the cord for the camera to computer.. I'll just have to post the pictures once we get home. All pictures here are off of the Internet, and they belong  to their respectful owners.

The trip has been amazing so far!!

I can't wait to see what happens today! :)