The End!

Well we have good news to report -our foster puppy (now known as Gracie) has found her forever home with family friends and loyal blog readers Bill & Terry! 

When we first found her, we decided once we got home and got settled, we would hit the phones and make finding her a good home our mission.  We had a list of people who we were going to target (actually most of you reading were probably going to get a call!)  Bill and Terry were on that list.  Saturday night while we had our visitors over, we got a call and Bill said "I wanna see the puppy!"  So we brought her over Sunday and she stayed with them for a few hours.  Let me tell you those few hours were so long, we were missing her so much it was ridiculous!  It was then that we wondered are we making a mistake?  Should we be keeping her?  You see the problem with our little souvenir is that she is the sweetest dog either of us has ever met.  It's pretty much impossible to not fall in love with her.  So when she came back, obviously Bill & Terry said they really wanted her, we just had her vet visit the next day.  Monday, we both went back to work and at first I told Brian that maybe he should go home for lunch since she was in the crate.  Later I decided it would be best if he didn't.  If anyone remembers way back when we got Lincoln it took him about 3 months to get the potty training thing right.  This meant that during Brian's busy season, I would come home every single day and have to clean the crate, it was a dark time for me!  A girl can only take so much cleaning up after someone, no matter how cute!  So I told Brian to not go home and I crossed my fingers that I would come home to a HUGE mess!  Of course I was not so lucky, and I came home to the little angel in her crate so excited and perfectly clean!  Ugh!  We went to the vet and once we found out that she was healthy, we called Bill.  They were so anxious and said they missed her already!  This was probably the hardest thing we've ever had to do.  Remember way back in the beginning of the blog when I mentioned we were doing this before we had to grow up?  Well yea, I guess this was our first lesson of growing up.  You see we've been pretty lucky to not have any real tough decisions yet.  Getting married, buying our house - eh those were easy!  Even getting our puppies, things just seem to fall into place.  Now we actually had to make the "right decision".  I've heard a lot about this "right decision" through my years but I had no idea how hard it was!  The beauty of not being a grown up is that you never ever really have to worry about making these choices.  I can think of a few things that I wanted growing up but it was never my choice!  And it was so easy in those teenage years to just hate my parents for being the meanest and not giving me what I wanted!  Can I go back to them making decisions for me?  Being a grown up and thinking about things logically, weighing the pros and cons and thinking about all the parties involved really truly sucks!  Well as hard as it was to part with Gracie, it is definitely the right decision, for everyone!  Our boys definitely loved playing with her but they definitely gave us a few looks like wait, is this one staying?!?  Plus I feel like there's nothing like the love you get from a dog.  We are lucky enough to have two of the cutest, funniest, most-loving puppies and now Bill and Terry have probably the sweetest little girl out there!  We are so happy she has such a great home and bringing her there last night just confirmed we made the right decision.  As soon as Terry came to the door, she was wagging her tail so much her whole bottom half was shaking (the dog, not Terry).  Once she went inside, there were toys and she just picked up and started playing, jumped on the couch and was thrilled! 

So now that we have found a home for our souvenir from TN, our trip is officially over.  The unpacking is done.  The souvenirs have been distributed.  The laundry - well it's getting there!  This was definitely an experience that we will never ever forget!  After planning this trip for months and then actually going, I can't believe it's over.  It was a TON of running around.  There was definitely a lack of sleep.  We definitely should have invested in air fresheners driving around with 3 weeks of laundry.  Brian may need a chiropractor after sleeping in the car sitting straight up.  But those things are so worth it when we look back at all we did!  It was truly an amazing experience!  We saw some of the most impressive architecture; some of the most beautiful rivers, mountains and sunsets; and some of the greatest cities ever!  We met so many interesting people but had some great nights just the two of us!  I still am in shock over how fantastic the weather was, I mean sure in the south I thought I might go up in flames because it was so hot but it's better than our trip getting rained out!  And I think I'm going through withdrawal from all the fabulous meals (and desserts) we had.  And last but definitely not least, we are so lucky to have such AMAZING family and friends!  One of the best parts of our trip is that while we were traveling across the country, we got to visit people all over the place.  This gave us the opportunity to see people we haven't seen in a long time and people we don't get to see too often, which was so wonderful!  Speaking of all of our friends and family stops, I don't know how we lucked out but we must know the most hospitable people in the world!  People gave us comfy beds to sleep in, awesome meals, great company and they were fantastic personal tourguides!  So thank you so so much to everyone we got to visit on this incredible trip!  And of course, thank you to all the rest of our family and friends for following us on this journey!  Even though we didn't get to comment on all of your comments, we read them all and it was so nice to share this amazing experience with all of you and get all your feedback and love from home!  If anyone has ever thought about doing a trip like this, you have to do it!  We are so lucky to have so many different and fabulous things right here in our own backyard!  And we only saw a teeny tiny bit!  If anyone needs any tips, please reach out to us, we've got plenty to say (in case you didn't notice).  And for anyone looking for some stats...

18 days

24 states

7,587 miles

just 1 ticket!

67 - Brian's total score in the license plate game

85 - Colleen's total score in the license plate game

And that was our amazing cross country extravaganza!  Thanks so much for being a part of it, we'll let you know when we leave for our next one! =)

Love
Colleen & Brian