Sox has arrived! Our first guests!

Thomas was back in Florida for a couple of days and stayed with my parents, when he returned, he brought our dog, Sox, back with him!

Thomas flew on Lufthansa from Orlando to  Berlin then on to Stockholm. The boys and I went to pick them up at the airport and we were so excited to see them get off the plane.

The boys waiting for Thomas and Sox...

After waiting for Thomas to clear customs with the dog, he finally walked out of the secured area with Sox by his side...

She did great on the flight! We were worried what condition she would be in when we got her, because it isn't guaranteed that they will take her out to let her pee during the layover, so after about 20 hours of travel, she had no accidents in her carrier and she was so excited to see the boys.

She must have been exhausted from the travel because she slept the entire 2 hour car ride back to our house.  But when she got there she made herself right at home!

The only thing that happened to her was we were trying to show her all around the house and went she went to go down the staircase to the basement area, it has curved steps with a narrow side and she stepped off that side and missed about four steps before she caught herself.  She is terrified of those stairs now and she won't even go up them now...

Luckily, there is another staircase up that leads into the kitchen and she got smart enough to use them when she wants to go up or downstairs.

Bringing a dog to Sweden wasn't as difficult as I initially thought it could be, the first thing I thought was we would have to quarantine her, but thank goodness, that wasn't the case.   Here are somethings was had to do to get her...

1) She couldn't fly to or from an airport that was 85 degrees or hotter (or 45 degrees or colder) during the time she would be on the Tarmac, so it was challenging to find flights that were early or late enough in the day to take the risk of Florida temperatures being too warm;

2) She had to have been microchipped and have a current rabies vaccination;

3) She has to go to a vet within 10 days of travel and have special papers filled out saying she is ok to fly and then the papers have to be signed by a vet at the USDA for exporting her;

4) She needed a special carrier designed for travel and bowls that attach to her cage so they can give her water;

5) She needed reservations on the flight because they only have so much room for pets in a special place in cargo that is air conditioned, there was already another pet reserved, so Rosie had no space this time:(;

The night we came home with Sox, Thomas' parents made the 6 hour trip from Norway to see us.  It was beautiful weather on Saturday so we went for a long walk around this lake and of course we brought Sox. 

Along this lake, my friend here had told me about these various grilling locations that they have fire wood to use and you just have to bring matches and paper to start a fire, so we brought along hotdogs and stopped for a picnic!

At the end of the walk, there were even a few animals that they allow us to bring apples and crackers to, so we had some bruised apples we brought to them...

And of course the weather was good enough for ice cream so we all had some!

That night was even pretty enough to sit outside, though the next day the weather wasn't as nice so after Thomas' parents went to Ben's soccer game, it started raining...but it was a great weekend and it was so nice to have company and show them our new town.