Why?

I flew out to Arizona with Mango on Thursday night to visit my preggo sister and my niece. My BIL is in Florida doing military training. He'll be there for awhile; likely right up until my niece or nephew (Nora or Cody, eh), is born.
My mom and I met at the Atlanta airport, had dinner, and slept through the 4+ hour flight to Phoenix. We got in around 1am EST and took a cab out to Gilbert (another half hour) to my sister's house. She was awake and so were her dogs, Atlas (a Beauceron) and Cargo (purebred black lab). Atlas is a big, scary looking dog, but he is the sweetest boy. He is super intelligent and has the best expressions. He even smiles! Really! Cargo, or Cargo Pants, is my black pig. He looks chunky (though my sister says he is underweight) and is super lazy (like me!). They both gave my mom and I a welcome to remember. So cute.
The next morning, the ladies shopped all day. My sister had invited me to my niece's school soiree. She said to bring a dress because it was fancy. Here's the thing. My sister's "fancy" is different from my "fancy", so I brought a nice work dress thinking thats all I would need, but after talking about the event, I discovered we would need to be in cocktail attire and neither of us were prepared, hence, the shopping. My sister hates shopping and anything girly, so it was definitely interesting getting her to be patient with me while I picked out an outfit and accessories for her. Me? I just made a b-line for Banana Republic, picked up a dress and purse I liked, and was out the door in 10 minutes. The shoes took me about as long to pick out, as did the accessories. Had I left my sister to fend for herself, she wouldn't have come back with anything. She kinda reminds me of the ridiculous women of What Not To Wear. Sorry dude, but it's true.
Later that day, my sister, my niece and I headed to the pool! It was 100 beautiful degrees in Gilbert last Friday and NO humidity. Love it.
I will say I was a bit nervous about how my niece would be with me. Back in January she really didn't want anything to do with me. It wasn't until the last couple of hours I was in town that she really warmed to me, so I was nervous she'd be the same this time. I couldn't have been more wrong. On her home turf, my niece is the sweetest, most playful and articulate 2.5 year old on the planet. She's super inquisitive, asking "Why?" at least a million times a day and wanting to play pretend.
The Saturday Soiree deserves it's own post, trust me.
To Be Continued...