Memorial Weekend: Deer, Family, and Puppies

Ryan and I decided to take a last minute trip to Phoenix this past weekend. We were joined by Ryan's sister, Lisa, and her family.

The drive to the airport on Friday night was nice. Until this happened:

Such damage! Such horror! The culprit?

**not the actual deer**

Just seconds before Bambi smashed itself into our car (yes, it hit us, we didn't hit it), we watched a deer get hit by the car in front of us. Poor thing was split in half, flailing all over the road. Needless to say, it was a distraction. Before we knew it, Bambi's face and eyes were scarred into our memories as it tried to obliterate our car. It sure didn't go down without a fight!

After Ryan called the insurance company and we did our best to clean the deer hair and blood off of ourselves, as well as pick glass out of our clothes (I ended up going to the restroom 3 times later just to get pieces out of my pants), we decided to still try to make our flight. The car was left in a secure valet covered parking for the weekend, and we got to the gate as they were boarding. We felt blessed for making the flight, but not as much as we were for not being injured at all in the accident! We were pretty on edge for the rest of the evening.

After we arrived in Phoenix, we were able to spend time with Ryan's family. My mother-in-law recently got a Great Dane puppy, and everybody fell in love with her pretty quickly. She charmed Ryan, and he was really hoping that she could charm me too. No dogs for me yet. Maybe when I'm actually home long enough during the day to care for one.

The weather in Phoenix greatly trumped that of Fort Collins at the time. We were having lots of clouds and rain, but there was not a wisp of white in the sky in Phoenix! I loved the hot sun!

We also got to spend time with Ryan's grandparents. Ryan has many fond memories of spending time with them growing up. We got to hear about his grandfather's career in the Air Force and look at pictures of him as a young man. It was fun to see him reminiscing.

Love you all, Arizona dwellers!