By some miracle, Jeremy and I had the Friday before July 4th off from work and Jillian's summer school stayed in session! That never happens! If we're off from work, school is definitely closed. We took advantage of this day and went down to Kealakekua Bay. We rented a kayak and kayaked out to the Captain Cook Monument for some awesome snorkeling. Here is a picture of the beautiful bay.

Here is Jeremy about to get in the water. I have to be honest and admit that at the last minute I decided not to go snorkeling with Jeremy. I stayed on shore and took a nap. It was lovely. And he had a great time in that crazy water!

A picture of the monument.

Another picture of the Captain Cook Monument.

Here we are with the cute kayak on top of the car. This day was so much fun!

More Cute Ohio Cousins

Brian's sister, Tiffany, has two little girls - Ciara and Abbey. I think Jillian and Ciara are around the same age. One evening, Dale and Carol invited everyone over to play. In this picture I am holding sweet Dylan and chatting with Tiffany and Rochelle. I sure do wish we lived closer! It would be so fun to visit like this more often! Our children would be great buddies.

Ciara, Jillian and Abbey are enjoying popsicles and playing with a BBQ bubble machine. Logan was playing with them too - he is sitting on the opposite side of the table and you can't see him in this shot.

Jillian got jealous when I held Baby Dylan! I have never seen her act like that and I thought it was silly. I probably did not react well - because it made me laugh.

Jillian and Abbey swinging on their very fun playground! We can't find anything like this in Hawaii and it is such a bummer. The only thing available in town are the old-school style swing sets that have the metal frame and need to be cemented into the ground. Remember those? K-Mart carries them in the summer.

The Akron Zoo

There is this cool thing among the zoos across our country - the reciprocal zoo list. You may already know this, but it was new to us. On this list are more than 150 zoos across the United States, members of one zoo on the list are afforded membership privileges to all of the zoos. Pretty cool, right? Our membership to the St. Louis Zoo allowed us to get in free to the Akron Zoo.

Jillian's favorite animal on this day were the Flamingos. They are so pretty!

Jillian took a break from the very hot Ohio day to eat some strawberry ice cream - Yum!

There is a climbing wall inside the neat jellyfish exhibit - (with a little help) Jillian made it to the top.

Watching the tortoise walk by - they are quicker than you might imagine!

On a caterpillar in the beautiful gardens.

The petting zoos are always fun, especially when you can buy a $2 cracker to feed to the sheep.

Jeremy - not quite the wing span of an eagle.

Brothers

Jeremy and his little brothers. :) Justin, Jake and Jeremy at Nanny's.

Uncle Brian and Auntie Rochelle

Auntie Rochelle is helping Jillian sit with Baby Dylan.

Uncle Brian is helping Jillian hold Baby Dylan.

Jillian LOVED the baby! And Dylan is such a sweet little guy.

Auntie Rochelle is playing ball with Jillian and Logan (Dylan's big brother).

Jillian and Logan are eating their picnic lunch.

On To Ohio

Nanny and Jillian are hanging out on the couch - and they match! How cute are they?

Jillian is playing football with her two uncles - Jeremy's brothers - Justin and Jake. She had so much fun playing with them.

Blowing bubbles on the front porch with Nana, Nanny and Uncle Jake.

Sitting in the car with Auntie Eileen and Nanny. We are on our way to do one of our favorite things - eat out! Canton, OH has the best mom-and-pop restaurants - So Yummy!

Playing with Papa Dan, Jill's fav jungle gym. Her favorite thing to do was to climb up him and flip over -our little gymnast! And Papa Dan never said no - he is nicer than Daddy and Mama. :)