Jillian and Athena go to the beach

On Thanksgiving weekend we all decided to go to the beach. We found a dog-friendly beach so we loaded Athena up in the car and took her too. Jillian and Athena both had a great time chasing after the sticks that Jeremy was throwing out into the ocean. Jeremy would throw the stick and then Athena and Jillian would both go swimming after it. Athena would always get their first because swimming is an instinct in black labs and Athena has one pwerful dog paddle.

Athena's Quarter Birthday Celebration

This was totally Jillian's idea to celebrate Athena's quarter birthday. Jillian created a birthday cake using an old apple container, three candles, and a lot of dog food. Unfortunately for Athena, she was not allowed to celebrate by gorging herself on all that dog food because she would have done it and made herself sick. Nevertheless, a good day!

The Return of Lilly

If you love a gecko so much then you should set it free. If the Gecko returns to you then it is yours to keep... or so Jillian thinks. One evening Jillian and I were sitting in the living room and she was telling me about her day at school. She was midsentence, stopped, go huge eyes, and bolted towards the front door! Lilly had returned from the wild. We're not really sure if this is the same gecko that Jillian caught last month and then released, but she was convinced. So, who am I to argue?

Notice Lilly on the wall and the enormous smile on Jillian's face.

Back in the critter catcher for a few hours before a late night release.

Lilly the Gecko

Jillian the shark diver

The family had a trip to Honolulu planned and we wanted to go see the sharks on the North Shore of Oahu. There are a few tour companies that will take guests out and put you in a cage with sharks swimming all around you. It was way cool!
Jillian was a little skiddish around all the sharks at first. After a bit Jillian got a little more brave and moved over to the edge of the deck to watch the sharks up close. She was very concerned that the sharks were going to come on board. After the Captain assured Jillian that she was perfectly safe, she decided to check them out. Eventually, when Mom and Dad were in the cage with the sharks, Jillian turned into a shark warrior and got into the water with us.

We counted as many as 12 sharks circling the boat.

Tangling with sharks is hard work!

Pumpkin Time!

It is Halloween 2010! Here is Jillian and her Dad carving the pumpkin to go out in front of the house. In Hawaii, the pumpkin has to be carved the day of Halloween because it gets moldy within about a day and has to go to the compost pile. This is an annual ritual for these two carvers.

Dolphins = Awesome!

The Waikoloa Hilton Resort has a Dolphin Program for guests to enjoy. We had seen the dolphins several times but the minimum age to participate in one of their programs is five years old. We promised Jillian that she could go for her 5th birthday. However, when we found out that her cousin Ava was coming, we decided to wait so that they could go together. It was a mega-blast!

The dolphin day started out with some bookwork in the classroom learning about the dolphins. Here is Jillian and Ava.

The dolphin is welcoming the kids with a big splash!

The dolphin is posing for the kids and the army of parents armed with cameras.

Ava the best Cuz' from da Mainland

Cousin Ava was here on the Big Island for a whole week on vacation with her family. Ava is eight years old but the closest in age to Jillian of all of our family. The two of them had an outstanding time together. Wherever and whatever Ava was doing, there was a five year old one step behind wanting the same thing.

Jillian and Ava at the Volcano Park

Jillian and Ava at the Hilton Waikoloa Resort

Jillian and Ava at Greenwell Coffee Farm

The Gecko Whisperer

If you are at all familiar with geckos then you probably already know that they are very very fast. Geckos are even harder to catch. Somehow Jillian is able to catch them and they usually end up in her critter cage for a short stint before being released back into the wild (the wild being our lanai).

Keiki Triathlon 2010

Jillian the Triathlete! The University of the Nations Preschool has several big events for the kids, but the Keiki Triathlon is our favorite. This year was Jillian's third and final year of participating in the triathlon so it was very special for all of us. We had no idea back in 2007 that the Keiki Triathlon would be such a huge and memorable event for the family.

Here is a picture of Jillian and the rest of her Kindergarten triathletes.

Jillian the IronKeiki with her IronKeiki supporters.

This year we decided to get all dressed up to show our support for Jillian. We weren't the only parents that had keiki specific clothing to show support for their triathlete. A special thank you to Nana for being Jillian's financial supporter in 2010.

The Kindergarten School Picture

University of the Nations Kindergarten 2010

When the Black Lab is away...

...Rocky the Mongoose will play

One day we saw that we had a little visitor in our backyard. The mongoose climbed out from between two rocks in our rock wall in the backyard. He poked his head out and looked around for a very long time. No doubt, he was looking for one giant black lab that calls our backyard her home and defends it from intruders.

When Jillian found out that we had a mongoose in the backyard, she was very concerned about his well-being. Jillian would put some of Athena's dog food in a little bowl and then take it to the rock wall and put it out for the mongoose to have something to eat. The next morning the food would be gone. Of course, five seconds after Jillian would go inside the house, Athena would go eat the food. Jillian would get so excited that the food was gone that we couldn't break it to her that Athena was really eating the food and not the mongoose. The mongoose got named Rocky.

Jillian and her Kindergarten teacher

This is Jillian and her Kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Gisella. On this day the kids were making hand and foot prints on paper. Jillian is always coming home from school with creative projects that Mrs. Gisella comes up with for the students.

The first big school project

I give you the world!

One of Jillian's first Kindergarten projects at school was to make a map of the world and then to present it to the class. Here is Jillian doing a joint presentation with her classmate. We have the map at home now and if homes in Kona had fireplaces then we would have it over our mantle.

The BIG K

The first day of Kindergarten for Jillian at University of the Nations on August 9th, 2010.

All big girls need to eat a good breakfast to get the brain synapses firing. This ain't preschool anymore!

Jillian was very excited about going back to school after the summer break and seeing all her friends. Some of Jillian's friends went to public school, but most of them stayed at U of N. Jillian has taken this ride from the house to the school many times, but never as the big fish in the little pond.


Jillian with her lunchbox at the front door of her school. Mama is behind the camera with giant tears streaming down her face.

Bike Rider

Our little girl has taken yet another step towards growing up - Jeremy taught Jillian to ride her bike today, without the training wheels.

She is doing amazing!

She will always be my baby though!!!!!!

Cat Hunting

THE HUNTERS

THE HUNTED

CATS FEAR THIS!

Jillian saw a stray cat across the street the other night and it was very far away so she came inside and got our binoculars to see it close up. However, by the time Jillian got back outside the cat was gone and so she went hunting for it. It got too late and so we made her come inside but promised that we would go back out and do some cat hunting. Jillian has been non-stop excited about the planned excursion for the last two days and could not stop talking about it.

Here are the cat hunting trip results:

4 mamba jamba cockroaches seen

14 slugs spotted

6 neighbor dogs barking at us

0 cats found

Swim Lessons

We decided that it was time for Jillian to take some swim lessons and the County of Hawaii has a great program at the Kona Aquatics Center for kids. Jillian goes to swim lessons four nights a week with a couple of other kids. She is in the youngest class right now and it is a perfect for for her getting used to the water without a floatie. Initially, Jillian did not even want to get in the water, but then her friend Joshua showed up and jumped right in, so she got a little more brave. Jillian has been looking forward to swim lessons all week!

Kula the Escaping Dog

Kula is a Golden Retriever that belongs to some very good friends of ours. Kula has separation anxiety disorder and her owners are gone to the Mainland the entire month of July. Kula was relieving some of the stress by consistently digging her way out of her yard and running the neighborhood. Kula eventually made her way to our house as a last ditch effort before the kennel because we have Athena and a five foot fence. No luck. Kula escaped three times in the day that she was here.

Jillian had instant affection for Kula. The day after Kula went to the kennel, Athena moped around the house like she had lost her life long companion instead of a dog that she knew for a little over 24 hours.

VBS

Vacation Bible School at Cornerstone took place in the middle of June. The theme was Saddle Ridge Ranch so everyone was in full cowboy and cowgirl attire. Jeremy was traveling to the Mainland all except for the last day, which happened to be parents' night. Jeremy really got put to work on parents night because he was the BBQ grillmaster and cooked up all the hotdogs and hamburgers for the whole crowd.

This is Jillian in her classroom with Auntie Grace and Uncle Matt.

Now for the feature presentation

This is what yummy looks like before it gets to your plate!

The whole point of the summer Alaska trip was to do some fishing (and see friends). Jeremy and Jillian drove to Ninilchik, AK on the Kenai to do some halibut fishing. The scheduled day for the fishing trip got weathered out so they spent an extra night and went out the next day. It was kind of chilly but the weather was good and not raining. Jillian stayed back at the cabin and played with Lara and Allison while Daddy went out on the boat with his buddies. The fishing trip was the last hurrah for the Alaska adventure before it was time to pack up and go back to Mama in Hawaii.