Franklin is Sleepless in Seattle Part III

The next day we decided to go on an adventure. We took a ferry across the Puget Sound.


And visited Olympic National Park. You know how I feel about the outdoors, and the sheep seemed to like the fresh air too.



Here we are at Crescent Lake. This moss just grows everywhere.



We decided to pay a visit to the Ranger Station.



But Ranger Gordon wasn't home. He must be goofing off with the whole gang down at Possum Lodge.



We saw the biggest tree in the gosh darned forest.



And then we hiked out to Pacific coast at La Push. The sheep wanted to go for a dip, but there was no way I was ridin' in a car full of smelly wet wool the rest of the way home.



The hike back to the car sure was purdy.



And then we came to this city called Forks. Sounds like a utensil to me, but DJ said it had something to do with some movie with Vampires and Werewolves.




After grabbing some chow it was time to head back to the ranch. And then hop on a plane back to Iowa with John.

It sure was a fun trip out to Seattle with the whole gang.

Franklin is Sleepless in Seattle Part II

Any good ole sheepdog knows it's the proper thing to do to bring sumthin' nice along when you're visitin.'


John and Erin went to some fancy-dancy seafood joint for dinner. The sign said no dogs allowed, so they promised me and the sheep some leftovers.



What in tarnation is this stuff. They just keep starring at us!



We talked John and Erin into taking us out for ice cream instead.



Then it was Superbowl Sunday. Jesse fixed us up with some nice submarine sandwiches.



Then we watched the game. What was that ref looking at?



The fixins sure were good though.



And we made s'mores in Erin's fireplace. Made me homesick for the campfires on the trail.

Do You Know the Way to San Jose?

Erin came home from work last week and started running around the house. She was tossing clothes everywhere. A suitcase whizzed by my head. D.J. and I started to suspect that Erin was a little stressed and was planning to leave soon. I know we normally don't talk about work on this blog, but it seemed that Erin's work trip meant that we needed to step up and work, too. So D.J. and I crawled into Erin's suitcase when she wasn't looking. Man, she packed a lot of sweaters.

So D.J. and I had no idea where we were going but we knew that Erin needed to have her little plush therapy buddies. And all day we got tossed and thrown. We were seriously glad that Erin packed all those sweaters. But finally, Erin plopped her suitcase down on a hotel bed and went for her P.J.s. And out we came. She was shocked.

She scolded us for being stowaways. And lectured us on what could have happened if she had to check her bag and the airport lost us. But we could see that she wasn't really mad at us, just frustrated by work and deep down I know she was happy to see us. After about an hour of listening to her tell us about the last minute trip, the last minute ordeal with booking the flight, the lost hotel and car rental reservations, how she sat in water waiting for the bus and about 25 other ways of saying "life happens" we all cuddled up for a good night sleep.

In the morning, Erin went off to work and D.J. and I planned out how we were going to rescue Erin. First we check to see where the heck we were even at. We were in San Jose, California! How exciting, we have never been to California for a visit.

What is this thing called a "Sun" and how does it work?

Then checked the weather to see why Erin had packed so many darn sweaters. But the weather was gorgeous! It was 50 - 60s and sunny. It was a no brainier. As soon as Erin got out of her meeting we were going outside for a little fun. No excuse. Of course Erin had an excuse. She said she had to get some work done and write this paper. But we insisted that she take a break, enjoy the day, and take us...I mean see the Golden Gate Bridge.

Cheese!

Of course, we won. We knew that the engineer in Erin couldn't pass up the chance to see one of the most world renowned suspension bridges. And then we convinced her to take a stroll on the bridge.

This bridge is monolithic.

We wanted to reenact a movie which had a scene with the bridge. So we thought we might do... "Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus" or maybe a dramatic scene like in "You Kill Me." Or something heroic like in "X-Men 3: The Last Stand." Or something fun like in "Monsters vs Aliens." Oooo maybe, something like "Star Trek IV: Voyage Home." O wait. No defiantly not "Star Trek IV: Voyage Home." That's enough to make someone want to jump off the bridge and add to the bridge suicide rate. You know like in "The Bridge." O...we didn't think of that. Maybe we shouldn't have brought a sad Erin to the bridge that she could jump from...um...ok, moving on...

Look how pretty the view is...behind the guardrail.

After a few snap shots we decided to go back to solid ground. Erin was shaking her head and patting us on the heads. And then she pointed to a little island out in the bay and said, "if I had the time I would take you 2 there to be booked." We didn't know what she was talking about. Obviously the stress of work had gotten to her.

Have us "booked"? Is it a library? Funny place for a library.

But we though we better humor Erin and take a closer look.

"I don't see any books. Do you think they have Curious George?"

Erin told us that it was Alcatraz. I didn't care what they called it, that place looked like they were serious about their late fees.

Not a very accessible library.

Erin just laughed at our lack of interest in going to a library in the middle of the bay. And she said "guess you guys will have to stay on the lamb." Then she laughed. At that point we decided we better take her back to the hotel. She must have gotten sunstroke.

We got Erin in the car and she started driving. But then she took a wrong turn.

Back on the bridge again.

And we ended up having to go over the bridge. Erin said she didn't want to drive over the bridge but we reminded her that there was no U-Turns on the bridge. Please note the sign.

I think they spelled that wrong. It should be "No Ewe Turns."
I hate it when those ewes get to turning.

Soon enough we were on the other side of the bridge. Erin pulled off to the side to see where she could turn around. And D.J. spotted that this side of the bridge had free parking! So we made Erin stop and take more pictures.

O yes this is clearly my better side.

No sooner had the flash gone off did Erin have us back in the car. She said she HAD to get back to the hotel to do some work. I think she was a little embarrassed. There was a few people pointing and looking at us weird. I TOLD Erin that she should have spent more time looking for her camera case. But NOOO she had to just grab a fuzz sock and use that for her camera case. I was so embarrassed. I mean some times I just don't want to be seen with Erin. She just draws too much attention. But what can you do? You just have to love those humans no matter how weird they are.

But it didn't matter really, because soon enough we were back on the bridge. And Erin said she was going to drive really slow to enjoy the bridge ride because it was going to cost so much money.

Come on Erin! The speed limit is 45 miles per hour not 45 inches per decade!

And then we got to the tollbooths. Do you know how much it cost to go over the bridge!? SIX dollars! Those bridge suspensions better be made out of diamonds for that rate!

$6.00! Quick, check for coins in the seat!

But all ended well. I think Erin had a good time. She seemed a little less stressed and a lot tanner. And we got back to the hotel and Erin sat down to write her paper. And I sat down to get caught up on some of my reading.

"The Art of Deduction."

And all was great...until D.J. decided to get caught up on being annoying.

OUCH! D.J.!

The rest of the trip went great. (After I got some duct tape and put an end to D.J.'s pouncing.) Erin got a good part of her paper written and did a great job on her business trip. And we all hurried home to Seattle to meet up with Franklin and John.

Franklin is Sleepless in Seattle Part I

I reckoned it was high time I took a trip out to the state of Warshington to see the sights and check up on the sheep. We will get to the sheep soon enough, but I needed to see the sights of the big city first.



Somethun smells a lil' fishy at this next place.



Erin wanted to take me to see this here Arboretum. Soon enough I found a pond with some ducks. I barked and they just came closer and closer!



So I told John I was gettin' mighty cold, and hopped into his sweatshirt pocket.



We were all a bit tuckered out, so it was time to go the ranch and check on the sheep.

What do you mean I'm not your first!?

Erin went home Thanksgiving last year and didn't take us. I know it was a last minute trip so I wasn't too upset. I mean plane tickets are expensive and all. So D.J., Jesse, and I just enjoyed Thanksgiving with each other. It was kind of fun having a sheep holiday without Erin standing there telling us to stop having fun.

But then Erin came back and she wasn't alone! We were so hurt. She left us for a weekend and found another sheep to love. And then she told us that this wasn't a new sheep but that this was her FIRST sheep!

Baa Baa

I must admit I always thought I was Erin's first. And to find out that her first was this little rose cheek, flowing yellow locked, hand stuffed sheep was more than I could handle. AND now she wants him to move in with us just because there is "more room" in the new house. NO SHEEP, I'm sorry there is no room at the house for you! There is a 3 sheep limit at the Sleepy Sheepy Resort and you're not one of them! And this will be your ONLY appearance on the blog. So don't get any ideas about that! How dare you think you can walk back into Erin's life after being out of it for over two decades. No, don't even try to give me "I'm just glad I'm not in a plastic bag in the attic anymore" crap. I'm not hearing it. You sit in the corner and watch yourself buddy! Ya, I'm talking to you!

Humph. Sorry blog readers you had to see that. I'm normally much more composed. O, and just to remind you all that the Sleepy Sheepy Resort loves all visitors and is the kindest most loving place in the world. Have a good day.

O Tannenbaum

It is so sad that Christmas has come and gone. We had a lot of fun having our first Christmas in our "new" house. My favorite was getting to decorate, especially the tree!

Erin left one day all bundled up and told us to behave. I don't know why she always tell us to behave when she knows us better than that. But we said we would because she promised a big surprise when she got back. A few hours later she pulled up to the house with something bundled to the car. It was a Christmas Tree!

Oooo...look a tree!

We were so excited. I must admit I wanted to go with Erin to pick the tree out and cut it down but no matter. Erin let us put the tree up all by ourselves. I got to cut the extra stump off, Jesse screwed the tree to the stand, and D.J. got in the way.

Timber!

We drug it into the house and before you could say "holy shepherd" we had the tree all decorated. Erin didn't even get a snap off before we were finished. Of course she says it was because she was too busy cleaning up the carnage we left in the yard from getting the tree off the car and onto the stand. But I stand by she was just too scared to come back into the house.

Pretty

After all that hard work, Erin told us to get cleaned up for pictures for our Christmas Cards. Of course we haven't sent those out yet. So if you are on our mailing list you might be getting a sneak peek of what our Happy Flag Day Cards will look like. (At least at this point it will take us to Flag Day to get the cards out.)

Our first real Christmas Tree.

But we couldn't stop with a tree. We wanted to have more fun. So we set the table with Erin's Christmas dishes.

We like snowmen.

And we hung the stockings that Erin "borrowed without permission" from her parents' house.

Hanging the rented stockings

While we were doing that, Erin took out her nativity set that her aunt Lori painted when Erin was just a kid. Erin told us not to touch. She acts like we break things.

Ooo..isn't he cute...

And then we took a closer look and ran away. The only thing I asked for Christmas was for Erin to never call this shepherd to sheep sit. That poor sheep. No wonder why there were no other sheep in the scene.

Can't breath...send help

After we called the sheep abuse hot line for that little lamb, we all had a great Christmas. But then just as it started, Erin said it was time to clean up and take the tree down. Which I didn't understand. I thought the tree was going to stay. It seemed nice enough just sitting in the corner, and best of all, it pooped presents! I mean, come on, what is better than a pooping present tree? But Erin said it would dry up and it might burn our house down. Which I think was just an excuse because she is a grinch. I mean she is starting fires all the time just on the other side of the room in the fireplace. I don't see the difference. Atlas, we lost our battle and had to take the tree down.

Heads up!

And of course, that means that Jesse and I had to do all the work because 2 seconds into it D.J. found a shiny bell.

BELL!

But that's ok. We had a system. I climbed in the tree and dropped all the ornaments down to Jesse below.

Angelic Bombardier

And it worked well because Jesse is good at color, thus a great ornament sorter. Although, Jesse also gets distracted by shiny things, too. So Erin had to step in and help me with the rest.

Ooo shiny

And we all said good bye one last time. And Erin wrestled the tree out of the house. You know I thought that tree was all nice but it didn't go quietly. Erin was right, it was dangerous. It took out our light on the way out. D.J. tried to fix the light but it was no use.

Duct Tape! Stat!

After a vacuum, it was all over.

Voom Voom

Good bye, Christmas. We can't wait for next year. Next year will be better. Next year I'm going to pick out a bigger tree. Because you know, bigger trees poop bigger presents!

Lamb Cam

So this morning Taylor was watching CNN (talk about a boring morning ritual). Although this morning it paid off, Jeanne Moos did this interesting report about an artist that puts cameras on animals and makes videos of it.

He even did one of lambs. Now I wonder what we'd see if he put one on D.J.

Anyhow, here is a short clip of it, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQwC-ZzpiLE, the exciting part of it is about 1:00 into the video.