Ft. Lauderdale

Just got back from Florida last night and I'm still super tired from the trip (especially since I had school again today) so I intend on keeping this a relatively quick post. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of the beach or palm trees since I was trying to conserve my camera's batteries, but these pictures are still beautiful even if they are not typical "Florida vacation pictures."

Some of my grandmother's orchards in her yard:


Unfortunately, one of my grandmother's dogs, Nel, recently passed away last month. She was a very sweet dog and was relatively young, but she had been very sick for awhile. My grandma was especially devastated from this loss and planned on not getting anymore new dogs. However, after going with one of her friends to get a dog, my grandmother fell in love with one of the puppies that she saw. Here's Gypsy, a Pomeranian. She weighs only two lbs. and is less than 2 1/2 months old, as my grandmother unfortunately always gets pets from breeders :( But nonetheless, she's such a sweet and energetic little puppy and is very social already. This picture of my mom holding Gypsy really doesn't show just how tiny she is, but trust me- she's tiny.

Haha, funny story here- well you see, when my grandma told my grandfather about the new puppy she got, he was very upset since they had agreed that they were too old and traveled too much for any new dogs. After a few hours, he lightened up on the idea and offered to go with my grandma the next day to pick up Gypsy. According to my grandma, on the car ride there my grandpa kept mentioning how the dog better not be a little, white, scruffy dog since he didn't want to have to worry about keeping it clean. Well.........apparently, once they got to the breeder, my grandpa saw another little dog. So, being the softy he is, my grandfather fell in love with this dog and came home with not only one, but two new puppies. So below are some pictures of Rags, my grandparents little, white, scruffy dog (talk about irony)!

It's truly adorable to see Rags and Gypsy playing together. It's obvious that they will grow up together and be very close. Plus- they're both so damn small and cute!

Of course we cannot forget my grandparents other beloved dogs:

(Eeeek! Bad lighting!) Here's Nebell, she's rather old and sleepy and has been deaf for awhile, but she's still super friendly. It's just sad that we can no longer call her over to us to play with her....

Mya, my grandparents' oldest dog. I truly connected with her over this vacation and I'm not entirely sure why. I think it's because when she was younger, none of the grandchildren in my family could ever pet her since she was so skiddish. Now, because she is completely blind, she has to depend a lot more on people and actually enjoys when people pet her. It breaks everyone's hearts to see her constantly bump into people and walls, but she's still such a happy dog, so that's what really counts and we're happy to have her still around to be with us.

Update: Sadly, Mya was put to sleep only a few days after we returned home from Florida. In addition to poor eyesight, Mya also had awful heart problems and a very difficult time breathing for her last few days. My grandmother is, of course, heart-broken. I just feel thankful that I was able to finally get close to Mya during our vacation because she didn't like most people when she was younger and was very difficult to get to know. I hope she is much less pain now and she will be missed very much.

And last, but certainly not least, Mistro. He's a Bernese Mountain Dog, which I of course must mention since my three doggies are all Berneses. I think he's actually distantly related to my youngest dog, Bo, but I can't remember....

Now, just because this is food log after all, the only food picture I managed to get this week: the sweetest, juiciest nectarine I have ever eaten. Mmmmm....

Oh, I must mention this quickly. Well....about trying to eat at Sulbime- it didn't work out, which really was quite disappointing :( We were unable to go there as a family all weekend since my grandparents were unwilling to try the food there and they are not open for lunch, so my dad suggested that I order something to pick up from the restaurant and eat with my mom at home while the rest of the family went to some seafood restaurant. My mom and I were literally on the phones for half an hour trying to call the restaurant with no answer. Not even an answering machine- it just kept ringing! Sigh..... to say the least, I was a little upset by this since I didn't really have any food for a last-minute dinner left in my grandparents house that was vegan except for some cereal, but I didn't let it get to me (I like cereal for dinner anyways!). For now, I just emailed the restaurant to ask if they know why no one was answering, not because it will get anything done, but because I can't leaving anything unanswered- haha. Oh well, there's always next year....

Update: I received a reply from Sublime about why their phone line was not being answered. Unfortunately, they had their phone line down for a few hours that night. Of course- the few hours on the one night I try calling...

So that's my vacation! The occasional bump in the road, but it was very fun and I enjoyed being with my family for the entire weekend (not to mention getting away from the weather!)