Back from Vacation!

Despite my lil smug pug's best efforts to thwart my haphazard packing, I made it out to Arizona for a relaxing trip at a resort in the middle of nowhere (well relaxing until the traveling back).  It was a 2 hour drive from Phoenix but I enjoyed it since I didn't have to drive and the sky was beautiful!

It was stinkin hot there.  Well in the 100s, but dry heat which I find way more bearable, having grown up in the hot valley of southern California.  But near the end of the trip my skin was begging for more moisture (I never thought that would happen!).  Some photos of the resort, pool, cacti, and happy feet.

Unfortunately our travel plans back were derailed by "Hurricane" Irene even though the hurricane got downgraded to a tropical storm and our flight would have arrived late Sunday night when it should have already passed.  So we ended up having to spend an extra night at a hotel close to the airport and then take a 5:30am flight back out.  This involved a 3am wake up call and misery all around.  Plus the day before with driving back and returning the rental car, everything that could go wrong, did.  It sucked because those last two days kinda sucked out all the relaxation from the trip.  And by the time we got back we were haggard, tired, and fighting off virulent colds/flus/plague (?!).

As if to taunt us, on our drive back from the airport, the sky looked like a beautiful painting (I'm guessing an aftereffect from Tropical Storm Irene).  As though angels and little cherubic babies would come tumbling out of the sky to point and laugh at our fatigued and busted looking faces.

My lil pug was waiting with my mom outside and when she first saw me she froze and didn't react at all.  It wasn't until I approached her and she sniffed me and knew for sure I was back and hadn't permanently abandoned her that she started to go ba-nah-nas.  She panted furiously as she danced around my legs, trilling, yelping, and doing pugtona all over the place.  It was awesome.  What a great welcome home!  But now she's lounging on my couch (she wasn't allowed on the furniture at my parents' house so I think she's really loving being back home) and spending some quiet alone time.  I missed her so much!

I swear she isn't as fat as she looks here.  She's slouching here and has a lot of excess belly skin from her past life as a dog used for breeding.

I always think my lil pug is the cutest pug ever but of course I realize I am biased.  However, during this morning's walk a woman was following us and before I could get weirded out she asked in a pleading voice if she could pet my cute pug.  My heart always goes out to pug sympathizers, but just at that moment my lil pug was in the middle of her running/spinning before her morning poop.  I actually blurted out, "I'm sorry, but she's about to POO!" as I dashed to follow her.  I felt bad for the pugless, pug-loving woman, but you can't disturb that routine.  When they gotta go, they gotta go!