I have finally finished all our Irish photos. The trip to Ireland was a wonderful family trip with LOTS and LOTS of family time (as evidenced by the photos). I won't write the entire story here, but will try to explain each photo.
Upon arriving in Shannon, we traveled to Galway to have lunch and stretch our legs. Finorah decided that her first Irish friend should be the biggest raven in the park.
Daddy & Finorah at the pub where we stopped to eat lunch
Being that we had no cell phone, when we got to Donegal, we walked the town for about 30 minutes looking for his family. When we couldn't spot them, we headed up to his Uncle Con's home, who has a sheep farm out in the Irish countryside. He also has two sheepdogs -- Spot & Jess who were the apples of Finorah's eyes. Spot (pictured above) was fabulous with her. Jess who was only two wanted NOTHING to do with her and told her this many times.
Uncle Con also had two baby lambs, which we got to get up close and personal with. Finorah was petrified of the babies. As we would get closer to the lamb, the mama ewe would start bleating and it scared her.
This is E's other uncle, Tony who is staying temporarily with Con to help out. He brought down another older lamb that is still bottle fed. The lamb knew the gig and came running when he saw someone along the fence with the bottle.
E's nieces and nephew got to feed the lamb.
L to R: Neave, Aiden, & Maraid
We got to see the dogs work the sheep quite a few times in our short days there. Here's Spot showing off his stuff.
When I asked Uncle Con about how he trained the pups, he said that he never did. They just knew what to do.
It was pretty amazing to watch instinct kick in with the pups.
There was also a little black sheep out in the field who was quite rambunctious, but refused to come any closer.
Once the sheep were in the position that the dogs wanted them in, they would set back about 15 yards and lay in the grass, intently watching to make sure no one strays.
The bottle fed baby lamb
Satisfied with his work, Spot trots off the field when called.
Along with E's immediate family, Uncle Tony's daughter Anna-Marie was also over from England. She has a 12 month old (James) who Finorah got along quite well with. L to R: E's sister Anita, Anna-Marie & James, E, and E's brother in law Matt
Finorah picking Irish wildflowers in the meadow
Telling Mama where I should be pointing the camera -- at Spot.
Distant cousins separated by only four months
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