we're so proud...

our valentine's evening was perfect. a delicious meal with stuffed chicken from fresh market, skillet potatoes, sauteed green beans and salad. not to mention our bread and olive oil dipping spices (thanks, mom!) and tasty slices of chocolate cheesecake and cappucino cheesecake.

so much better than fighting the crowds out in town, wouldn't you say?

now, for the moment we've all been waiting for... pepper's a graduate! class of 2009 top dog academy :)

you can see how thrilled i am...
seriously, i was excited. it had not been an easy night, with a different teacher than the previous weeks (our teacher had a death in her family) and a much more...chaotic environment? the dogs were all over the place, and they were distracting each other and it was just kinda crazy.

but we passed!
not to be left out, justin poses with the happy graduate.
and then we got some time to socialize and enjoy treats from everyone. i even went to the extent of making little goody bags for each of the dogs, signed "from pepper" with a little paw print.
though many people are going straight through to an intermediate class, i think we're going to take a break for a little while and look at some classes during the summer. i just can't handle another evening activity right now, and we'd rather get the basic skills down before taking her into intermediate. but we did have a great time and are incredibly happy with the results. now if we could only get her to stop chasing grace...