Father's Day BBQ

We arrived in Anchorage on Saturday, June 14th. The next day, Sunday, was Father's Day. Joy organized a great BBQ to celebrate the Dads in our lives....and we thought it was a wonderful opportunity to see and visit with many of our friends whom we've been missing. Thanks Joy!


Tina, our favorite German lady, brought bratwursts to share....YUMMY! Left to right, behind Tina who is holding the brat, is Gwen (Joy's Mom-in-Law), me, Lara, and Joy.


One of these ladies said this picture should be captioned "Who does this remind you of?" Can you guess who? You might be surprised at the answer.... :)


And who's that girl wearing the skimpy top????? What nerve!

Jillian wearing Jeremy's shoes and taking a walk with Uncle Tim.

Bob and Tina used to be one of our neighbors in Anchorage. We just love them....even though they always made us look bad because they have the prettiest yard on the block. Their oldest daughter is pregnant with their first grand-baby and they are just thrilled to pieces. Jillian really bonded with Tina this trip and gave her lots of practice playing with a little one! Thanks Tina for all the fun!

Josh, Audrey and Luke saving the world....playing video games. ;)

Clean-up crew...Gwen, Joy, Tina.

Here we are with the Vanhoozer family. Andy and Jeremy used to work together. They are so fun! Andy and Lara have a 2 year old little girl...Allison. This was the first time that Allison and Jillian were able to really play together....and they had a ball!

At the little girl table. :)

Yummy, dessert! The girls pigged out on chocolate pretzels, chocolate chip cookies, ice cream and pie. With that menu, can you believe there was a time when Jillian wasn't allowed to have any sugar at all??????

Hula Chicks. :)

We love the Bursons!

When we moved to Kona last summer I had a very hard time adjusting to living in Hawaii. I missed Alaska....and all of our friends...terribly. I think Jillian was on the same page with me....just not able to articulate her feelings as well. At Christmas, Jeremy surprised us with a very loving gift....a trip to Anchorage. He had coordinated with the Burson family, our friends we love so much they feel more like family. We would be staying with them for FOURTEEN DAYS! We returned from our Alaskan adventure this past Friday evening and we all had a wonderful visit!

Tim, Joy, Josh and Luke....thanks for having us, we love you and miss you already! We can't wait until you can visit us here in the land of Aloha!

Uncle Tim and Auntie Joy....could they be any cuter? :)

Josh and Luke....could they be any more handsome? :)

OK....between Joy and I (who are scrapping girls) & Tim and Jeremy (who are supportive husbands) we took enough enough pictures in 2 weeks to fill an entire scrapbook. Many, many fun pics from the 49th state to come.

Off to Alaska....

This evening we are getting on a plane bound for ALASKA!!!!! We will spend 2 weeks with our closest friends, The Burson Family. We are all so very excited! Alaska pictures to come.



Yesterday, while I was doing some last minute yard work, Jillian escaped. I didn't realize she was gone until I heard happy noises coming from our bathroom window. This is what I found when I went to investigate. She decided she needed to take a bath in my bathroom sink. :) Water play is awesome! :)

Here is little puppy dog taking a nap. He is using a washcloth for both a pillow and blanket. It also looks like Jillian cooked a special snack for him. Often there will be several little animals throughout the house napping and snacking. Good times.

Oh, How We Love Kukio

We call our favorite beach in Kona, Kukio. It actually has a different, hard to pronounce name. We call it Kukio because it is right next to the actual Kukio beach and to get here you have to take Kukio Nui Drive. It is a small-ish beach, protected by a border of rocks....so the water is very calm and still, like a pool. Jillian will actually get in the water and play and swim here. When we go to beaches with a rough break, the waves are too intimidating for Jillian. The beach has lots of pretty trees that provide great shady areas. There is also a bathroom with showers...which is fantastic to rinse off all that sand before heading home. Oh, and the best part...it takes us 10 minutes to get here. :) If you come to visit us, we'll be bringing you to Kukio. Promise! :)

In the picture above, Jillian is using her watering can to water the rocks.

We got lucky on this day and had the beach to ourselves for over an hour. Lots of little crabs live under these rocks, see below.

Our favorite treat to bring to the beach is popcorn. Yummy! It was still pretty early in the morning, so I also had coffee...not a terribly great combo.

This little crab just walked over and started crawling on Jeremy. It must have thought he was a big rock.

This is the biggest crab we could catch on this day. They are super quick! Aren't they funny? They don't bite and their little pinchers are too small to do anything but aid in crawling and climbing.

Greenwell Coffee Farms

Last Friday we visited a Kona Coffee Farm.....Greenwell Farms. We went to get coffee and ended up having a little adventure.

We took the tour and ended up not taking any pictures on the actual tour....what was I thinking? There were two girls working that day and both were really great with Jillian, showing her all kinds of neat things. Jillian is being shown "sleeping grass". It is a fern like grass, that when touched withers, browns and sleeps. Then after a bit, it wakes up and looks normal again. Too funny!

The shop....very cute. They have a resident cat at the shop who Jillian fell in love with. Jillian gave her lots of hugs....and the cat (named Kitty) was very tolerant with all the love.

All around the shop are the biggest citrus and avocado trees. In fact, since we just planted lemon, lime, orange and banana trees in our backyard, I started wondering if we made a mistake. Anyway, lizards (a member of the chameleon family) live in the lime trees. The girl working, I think her name was Samantha, said that 7-9 lizards live in each tree. We were on a mission to find a lizard....she found one and we each got to hold this very cute and very calm baby female.

Well, Jillian opted not to hold the lizard and simply enjoyed her from a safe distance.

Art in the Park

On Thursday one of the moms from MOPS coordinated a play date at our favorite playground. She organized crafts and snacks for the children. Jillian had a blast. She is sitting next to her buddy Grace. She stopped playing on the playground for a brief moment to paint.....then she said "see you later" and was back to running and climbing and sliding.

Sliding down a slide.

Sweet girls......Teghan, Jillian and Grace. Because of the little rocks, Jillian wears tennis shoes or no shoes. If we go in flip flops, she kicks them off and runs around barefoot because it is too annoying to get those itty bitty rocks in her shoes.....then by the time we leave her feet are filthy! I felt so smart remembering real shoes! Hee hee....clean feet for an afternoon of errand running.

I was there too! :) I'm usually the one taking the pictures....I grabbed Jillian for a quick shot and you can see that she is not happy that her fun stopped for a photo op!!!! :)

Playtime

I'm getting in a post for May at the very last minute! It would be very sad to skip a month....I'll try to do better in June. Jillian is playing with sidewalk chalk.

Tonight Jillian's friend Grace came over to play. We are swapping babysitting times with her parents for date nights. Its lovely! Jillian and Grace playing with the tricycle.

Our Family is Complete

Athena made it home safe and whole, Thank God! She survived her flights and the incredible journey. She is in Hawaii and acclimating to her new environment. She is going through the same transition we went through....Hawaii is way HOTTER than Anchorage!!!!!! (Especially this time of year!!!!) She spends most of her days resting and trying to keep cool. She is a shedding monster....we have filled up over 1/2 a grocery sack with hair from brushing. We think she is also missing the Burson's a bit. Which is a good thing, I think we'd all be sad if she didn't.

Jillian is crazy about Athena! The first night was a little exciting....Jillian was whacked in the face by an Athena tail within the first 30 seconds of greeting, this was something Jillian had forgotten about Athena. Her tail is lethal!!! Jillian is acclimating to life with a dog and they are both doing great! Athena is extra gentle and tolerant with Jillian. And Jillian is loving playing with her.

At the airport....Athena flew on Aloha (cargo) from Honolulu to Kona. Here is the guy bringing Athena around on a forklift.

The kennel was much too big to fit in our trunk or back seat...even with the seats folded down. So, we improvised and strapped it to the hood. If you look closely, the 2 green dots in the windshield are Athena eyes. :) Thank goodness we live 5 miles (or less) away.

Athena comes home today!

At this moment, Athena is flying from Houston, TX, to Honolulu, HI. She will be landing in Honolulu in ONE HOUR!!!!!!!! YEAH! We are all so excited and can't wait to see her! She will have a brief visit in Honolulu and proceed to Kona this evening, arriving at 9:30 pm.

The Burson's picked up a larger kennel for Athena to fly in...she was too big for her other one! She almost looks like a small puppy in this GIANT kennel.

We are so thankful for the Burson's! They loved and cared for Athena during our move to Hawaii...she lived with them for 9 months and became part of their family during that time. They spoiled her every minute...in this picture she is sitting ON their couch! Joy tells me that Athena is allowed on all their furniture and even sleeps with Josh. Athena is a very lucky dog to have two families who love her so much!!!!!!! Thanks guys, we love you!!!!!

I took Jillian to the pet store yesterday to pick out a "welcome home" present for Athena. She chose this super cute Princess Hedgehog and takes this toy everywhere...even to naptime. :)

Jeremy is outside enjoying a vog-free, windy afternoon on the lanai. :)

Kilauea is Active!

Kilauea Volcano is active right now and the lava is flowing. A few weeks ago, we drove over to the park to see the lava. This made me VERY nervous....we've all seen the touristy pictures of people standing so close to the red stuff and I have no desire to be that close to red lava. Plus, protecting Jillian adds an extra level of paranoia for me. Jeremy thinks the volcanoes are so cool...he convinced me to take the trip and off we went. As soon as we arrived, I noticed the massive amount of state officials working and all the yellow barrier tape...I immediately felt at ease with the situation. They only allowed us to get so close to the flowing lava and close ended up being something like 3 football field lengths away. That was close enough for me.

We were not able to see the actual red, flowing lava enter the ocean....we could see steam on land along the path it took and then also above the water as the lava reached the ocean. This picture is of crashing waves and lava steam. It was a neat experience, a fun family road trip, and I would definitely do it again.

Not only does an active volcano create obvious lava hazards, it also emits a toxic sulfur dioxide gas that is very harmful to breathe. Right now state officials are evacuating many areas on that side of the island. On our side of the island, the SO2 gas has created a dense vog that makes the mountain and ocean around us appear hazy. Many mornings we can't even see the mountain and the ocean looks very gray (instead of blue). When we first moved in, our neighbor told me she never opens her windows and runs their A/C year round to keep the vog out. Now I know why, the dust in our home builds up fast. I should probably dust, vacuum and sweep daily. The vog dust is more like dirt....I wiped off my scrapping table the other day and the dust was thick and brown. WOW, that is what we have been breathing! And we are physically far from the active volcano! It is no wonder the state is evacuating closer residential areas.

Happy Easter!

We had a nice Easter at home this year. Jillian is still having allergic issues with pork...so we voted and everyone agreed a Costco pizza would take the place of a ham dinner. You can not imagine how unbelievably easy that was for me!!!!!! :) And Jillian thinks pizza is such a special treat.

What Daddies do for their little girls.... :) It looks like Jillian is supervising the Barbie hair brushing.

After a rest...because sadly, naps are on their way out the door...Jillian went hunting for Easter eggs. Jeremy and I both had fun hiding the eggs. He found the BEST spots...like this one...the egg was perched on top of the water fall.

My mom made Jillian a dress for her birthday this year. Jillian loves it and would wear it every day, and to bed, if I let her.

Coffee Tree Egg Hunt

Last week a mom from my mom's group (MOPS) had an Easter Egg Hunt on their coffee farm. It was Jillian's first egg hunt ever and she had a ton of fun.

Jenny (in yellow and green) is telling all the kids to "go, go, go!".

Jillian is finding an egg under one of the coffee trees.

There are some views that simply take your breath away. This is the view from their farm...and my camera didn't even capture the entire bay.

Waterfall Bubble Bath

Last week Jillian added an entire bottle of bubbles to the waterfall fountain. After that all of her toys had to take a bubble bath....Jillian is just finishing up with Barbie. :)

The Dentist

I took Jillian to see the dentist for the first time last week. I thought I was early in doing this...but, the dental assistant informed me that I was actually LATE!!!!!, that children should see a dentist as soon as they start getting their teeth. Hmmm, ya learn something new every single day. :)

Jillian had a complete blast...she loved the sucking tool, they called it "Mr. Thirsty". She loved it so much they gave her the top piece that is replaced with every patient to take home and play with. She says "Look Mama, it's Mr. Thirsty!" :) Jeremy was a tad embarrassed that I actually had the nerve to take the camera into the dental exam room. Of course I did....he was still in OKC on this day, so he wasn't subjected to my obsessive-every moment is a photo op behavior! Hee Hee!!!! :)

Three in March

Last week was Jillian's birthday...she turned 3 years old! When asked, "how old are you?" Jillian would answer, "Three in March!" I thought that was so cute. Jeremy was traveling for work over her birthday, which was a little sad to celebrate without him. So we had two celebrations, one with just mom and one with mom and dad....which was a total score for Jillian. The night before her birthday she slept with me and in the middle of the night I snuck into her room to set up the new table and chairs and the rest of her presents. That morning I made her wear a blindfold to add to the suspense.

I wanted to make a Barbie birthday cake....the kind of cake that has the barbie doll on top and the cake is decorated to be her skirt. Jillian and I went to the store and picked out her first Barbie. I used my oven-safe mixing bowl to bake the cake....it took 2 boxes and almost 2 hours to bake!!!! When cooled, I wrapped Barbie's legs in press and seal wrap and stuck her down into the cake. The cake was tall enough to just cover her knees....and not even close to her waist where we needed. If I had another mix, I would have made another round cake to sit as a pedestal and add extra heighth. Bummer, I'll do better next year.