Family Holidays

Christmas Day with the Puppies

Christmas Cheer

A lazy winter afternoon

check out that tongue

Big yawn from Ewok

November Update

So, the days have flown by and we have ourselves a nice little routine. We are early risers and love having breakfast before dawn. We have a quick trip outside and then we snuggle in for the day. We sometimes play up the guilt with Christine when she leaves for work, but we enjoy our days. We each have our favourite sleep location and our special blankets. Christine leaves us watching TV most days and we love watching Anderson in the afternoon.

Christine was away for 4 days this month in Kentucky, so we got to have a sleep over with granny and grandpa. This was great. They spoil us.

Grandpa is a softy for Ewok and Granny is great for curling up with and getting belly rubs. We got to go on a little trip too.

We went over to Galiano Island for the day and had a good trip on the ferry. We explored everything.

We walk most days and Christine is going to need to find us a longer route. The route that used to take us over one hour, we can now walk in 35 minutes. Ewok only needs a little break going up the hills and I, of course run all over. I likely walk double what Christine and Ewok walk. I also have found a way to get out of all those sweaters and jackets - I'm an au natural kind of girl.

I'll see if Christine has some more pictures of us, we had our hair cut - new place. We liked her. Ewok went first, I let her. But when it was my turn, after the bath we got to hang out in a drying kennel. Ewok loved it. But I was good only for a little while and then I was bored. I unlatched the door and started to explore. Unfortunately, Christine was hanging out and watching how we were doing so I didn't get very far. Ewok thought it was funny.

I'm wiggling my tail so much that Christine cannot type anymore. So until next time - love and licks (kisses),

Vanilla

Our fitness update

We have been walking every day. At first we walked around the complex. 10 minutes and we got to go home and then we went around the block and walked for 30 minutes. Now we can head out for 60-75 minutes. Vanilla likes going up the big hills and down the trails. She smells everything and still tends to tangle Christine with our leashes. I think she walks twice as far as I do. I find the last parts of the walks pretty tiring. I sometimes hitch a ride home for the last block. But last time, I walked the whole way on my own.

Christine's nephews have both walked Vanilla, she loves to run with them. I prefer to walk with her niece, we walk slowly and stay out of the mud.

Happy trails,
Love Ewok

Adventures at Middle School

September 23, 2011
Today Christine took us to school. No kids but so many smells. The floor is still freshly waxed from the summer so we slid down the hall and had some traction issues going around the corner. Christine had to go to a session, so she left us in her classroom. We mostly slept and played in the bean bag chair. I dug and dug and dug... it kept puffing up around me.

So near the end of the day, Christine left us in the classroom. She left a little fence to keep us in the room. As soon as she was out the door, I got Vanilla to come and help me. It took us less than 30 seconds to get the fence down - team work! And then we were off. We tracked Christine to the washroom, but the door was closed. So I told Vanilla, "let's head out..." We took off down the hall. We had almost made it 200m by the time Christine released we were out exploring. Vanilla and I stuck close together and met lots of people on our adventures.

Trying to catch up on more memories of the past month...
Love Ewok

into a routine

We have been getting back into a Fall routine. We have met many of the neighbourhood dogs. Our neighbours are Jinx and Kilo and we love them. They are very big dogs, but they are very friendly. We have a pretty good vantage point from the sundeck and can see most of the coming and going in the neighbourhood.

We've been going for walks and spending lots of time snuggling. Christine's niece now has stuffed toy dogs, named Ewok and Vanilla. We love her! She cuddles us. She tries to carry us too, but she's still too little. We give her lots of kisses.

We are headed off to sleep.
Love,
Ewok and Vanilla

Labour Day Weekend

Whirlwind. We are tired. Christine made a last minute trip to Summerland, so we got to have our first sleep-over with Granny and Grandpa. They also had cousin, Duke. The three of us get along pretty well. We even got to jump up on the bed to wake up Grandpa in the morning. It was probably a good thing we didn't go on the road trip, it was over 30 degrees.

Christine met us at the cabin on Sunday. We had already met our other cousin, Maggie. We don't think she likes little dogs very much. She is almost as old as us and was ok to hang out with. We also met Christine's niece and nephew. Grace loved us... she can babysit us anytime.

another day in the neighbourhood

So it was just a regular day in the neighbourhood today. Christine left us at home for a while today; she went to work. We were super excited when she got home. I think she felt guilty for leaving us at home, because we got to go with her for the rest of the errands.

We went for a walk in the neighbourhood today. Ewok peed on every post, tree, fire hydrant, and piece of grass she could find. I didn't. I prefer the privacy of the sundeck.

We had some good snuggles tonight and Ewok tried to type... all and all a good.

Til our next adventure... love and kisses,
Vanilla

some more pictures from our cabin adventure

A busy weekend

This weekend we explored a lot. We met Christine's nephew and our cousin, Duke (Jack Russell). Her nephew took good care of us and we kept a good eye on him. We went for a car ride and love the view from the front seat, window down and wind blowing in our faces.

Christine nephew really wanted a quiet day at home, so we tried out sleeping in the front yard, on the sundeck, on the couch, on the kitchen floor and in front of the fan.

Just before dinner Christine's nephew agreed to go out to the cabin... this was a whole new adventure. We drove out and chilled in the wind... and then went down a very bumpy ride. Ewok loved it, but curled up and slept. Christine's nephew slept too, so I was in good company.

So Christine parked the car, and we hoped out and started down the path. I was excited and pulled Ewok along and we ventured down the hill. When we got to the bottom, there was water. And lots of water. Christine lifted us down into the boat. Ewok was a little bit scared, but Christine kept both of us close between her and her nephew. I was a little relieved to get to the dock. But then I realized it moves with the water... it was so hard to get all four legs coordinated. Christine took us up to the pier and we curled up with grandpa and slept in the sun.

Christine went in swimming and we watched her very closely. We didn't go into the ocean, because Ewok doesn't have her life jacket yet. Mine fits really well and I'll get Christine to post a picture soon. We got to get wet in Christine's nephews' little pool (fresh water)... cooled us down enough that Ewok burrowed into the towels to dry in the sun.

When we came back on Sunday, we remembered the route and were able to make it down the path. We found a far around the stairs to the beach. Ewok's tummy got wet on the rocks and seaweed, she seems to enjoy the cool tickles. Ewok snuggled with granny on the way over in the boat and I chilled with Christine.

We got braver today and explored the docks and met Christine's aunts and uncles. We even met Josie (Christine's cousins dog), she is younger than us and was so eager to play.

We got braver jumping in and out of the little pool and spent the afternoon being sun dogs, curled up and enjoying the breeze.

We drove home and both nights we put ourselves to bed in the kennel before Christine even asked.... we a plum tuckered out. Right now Ewok is snoring, but hopefully when the light goes out I'll drift off to sleep.

Love,
Vanilla

Riding home on the ferry with our new granny

Moving to the Mainland

Today was a big day. Vanilla and I moved from Victoria into the country on the mainland. We had a regular day at home and said our goodbyes. We had such a great house and family. We will write often and have completely enjoyed the past 9 years.

We rode in the kennel on the way to the ferry. I tried to watch everything that was going on and enjoyed the smells as we drove along the Pat Bay Hwy. Vanilla curled up and was asleep before we were off Reynolds. She was a little nervous about the trip, but I kept my paws on her back and she stayed calm.

We arrived at the ferry and were almost able to drive right on. Christine thought it would be a good idea to stretch our legs, so we did. We wandered down past the market stalls. Some pretty great smells. We stopped at every garbage can and got Christine completely tangled in our leashes. Don't worry she'll learn. The loud speaker called us back to the car, but my goodness it was a steep hill. We both were feeling hot and tired from the adventure so far so we got a ride back to the car. Vanilla got a ride from Christine and I got a ride from Granny. We curled up for another nap as we boarded the ferry.

Christine showed us the islands as we went through Active Pass.

Vanilla really enjoyed having the wind blow on her face, whereas I preferred to snuggle into Granny. We got our picture taken on the big ferry boat and got to explore the car deck. There were some many smells, and we checked out everything.

I watched most of the way to Granny's house, Vanilla went back to sleep. And maybe I slept a little too, because before I knew it we were at Granny's house. We got to stretch our legs again. Had a small snack on some grass, Christine wasn't quite quick enough. Don't worry we didn't eat enough to make us sick, just a little snack. We tracked down Grandpa. I snuggled in and gave him lots of hugs and kisses. Vanilla explored the yard and checked out everything.

We rode for the rest of the way home in the car seat. Great view, except we headed into the country and there are no street lights. It was hard to see much of the surroundings, but we'll explore more tomorrow. We got home, even though Christine took a wrong turn. When we got to the house and Christine got us out of the car, we went straight to the neighbours grass and marked our territory.

We made our way up the stairs, I needed a hand to get up and Vanilla took a running start. We checked out the whole first floor. Vanilla got up the courage to even go onto the sundeck. I went out eventually, but came back in and watched from inside. There are so many smells here and we can tell our cousin Duke was here recently. We'll meet him on Saturday, maybe. We are still checking the place out. We are sampling places to lay down. Vanilla is just getting ready to sleep in the kennel, so I'm going to call it a night. I will get Christine to post some pictures tomorrow.

Love & Kisses,
Ewok