There's no place like home...

Well our trip is officially over...
We woke up this morning in Maryland with pancakes for breakfast (Thank you Michael!), then we played with Shania for a little bit and loaded her into the car.  Let me tell you, if you're looking for a green hotel, no need to travel all the way to Lake Tahoe.  I'm pretty sure Michelle & Michael have them totally beat!  They have solar panels, recycle everything, have some crazy shower head that shuts itself off and even took us to a "green" doggie store before we left!  Since they are such a fantastic foster aunt & uncle, they bought Shania a new toy for the road and a fun little braided bone (yum- she said).  But they could never forget their nephews so they even got them some goodies (Linc & Teddy say Thanks Aunt Michelle & Uncle Michael!!).  After our little shopping extravaganza, we got in the car for the last time.  Thanks so much to Michelle & Michael for letting us stay with you for our final night!  And also for not minding that we had a stowaway and taking such good care of all of us!!  We will be back again soon and have more time to spend... as long as we don't find any puppies in Delaware on the way down!

So we drove back up to NY and Shania pretty much slept the entire time.  Today she decided she didn't want to sleep between the seats so she squished herself between the backs of our seats and the giant cooler in the back seat.  I have no idea how she thinks that's comfortable, but I didn't hear any complaints!
We also have some big news to report - Brian no longer hates Idaho!  That's right folks, once we got onto the Belt Parkway and I explained that today was actually NOT the Idaho, NY or Long Island fair and that there in fact was no reason for the traffic, he caved in and agreed that Idaho is not the devil.  I'm glad we could end our trip on a good note!
So after we got out of traffic, we dropped Shania off to her foster Restivo grandparents house.  Since we were away for 3 weeks we figured our best bet would be to not show up at our house with a dog.  Didn't think the puppies would like that too much.  Okay well part of me thought they would be more excited to see her than me but whatever the reason, we left her there!  Even though they are only a mile away from our house it seemed like we couldn't get home soon enough!  I really hope when we do have kids that I love them as much as I love these little guys!  After being away from them for so long, we couldn't wait to see them!  And apparently, they couldn't wait either!  It was so great, we walked in the door and they were jumping on us, hugging us, kissing us and just so so excited!  If you could see the scratches I have all over me, you would see how happy they were too have us home!  And I always say, if you don't have bruises, you're just not loved enough... I swear it's the puppies! =P
We gave them their souvenirs (matching frisbees from The Alamo) and they loved them!  Teddy actually got REALLY good at catching a frisbee while we were gone, he must have been practicing. 

So once they destroyed the frisbees, they played dress up for a little.  They really liked Mommy's Bourbon St beads... actually Teddy didn't want to take them off!

Then we took them for a walk over to the Restivos!  Of course Lincoln acted like a psycho because he may or may not have a chemical imbalance, but once we got them all on the leashes, they were great!  Oh and a HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY to our little Lincoln and his brother Spike (they're 2 now)!!!
We got them home just in time for my parents and Carolyn to come over for some pizza, souvenirs and to meet our foster puppy.  Then she had even more surprise visitors, my Uncle Hot Shot and cousin Chris stopped by to meet the "vagrant dog" we picked up.  I call her foster pup, I think it has a much nicer ring to it!  We've decided that we really want to find a home for her with someone that we know.  First off because then obviously we know she will be taken care of.  Secondly (selfishly) we want to still see her every so often!  So we've decided we'll give it a week to try and convince someone we know and love to take her in and after that we'll open it up.  Obviously we wish we could keep her but 200 pounds of puppy may be too much for us to handle.  Plus I think if we got 3, what would be another and another and so on... sooner or later we would be the (way cooler because it's not cats but still weird) dog people.  Even though, it's hard to not be able to have this every night, it's for the best!  This is like my dream couch!

But seeing as Teddy was a rescue and he was lucky enough to have a wonderful foster family take such great care of him until we were lucky enough to adopt him, we figure, this is our way to pay it forward and try to find her a great home!   
So tomorrow morning Brian's parents are coming over for breakfast, souvenirs and some puppy play and then it's off for another home visit for Shania!  Hopefully all goes well!  I'm not ending the blog yet because I want to be able to end it with good news that we found a home for our little foster puppy so everyone cross your fingers that she continues to be a little angel!!  Oh and I'm also too lazy and tired to end it, so hopefully tomorrow will be it!  Good night and wish us luck!!