last hurrah

Uncle Jeff sold his house so we had one last swim weekend there after he'd moved out nearly all of his belongings but before the new owners took possession (they're going to knock it down and build something else, by the way).

The girls are going to miss his pool, that's for sure. Cousins Brian and Jake and Brayden came to swim with us and so did some friends of ours with their son and daughter. Even Jeff's daughter Sydney was in town. Jeff hadn't moved his grill yet so John cooked some burgers and hot dogs and it became a nice, final swim party.




The crew of potential lifeguards:






It was fun to take the pool cleaner's hose and use it as a water gun.



We bought this boat last summer, or maybe the summer before that. The kids had fun floating in it, and then later, jumping into it from the side, which tore out the bottom. Then it was fun to jump in from the side through the open boat. By the end of the day the poor old cheap boat was definitely "done", but that was good timing. Sadly, we won't have a pool to use it in anymore.

summer so far

Summer has been busy. The question everyone asks is how our house is coming along and whether we'll be moved in by the time school starts. That was the original goal when we bought it, but here are a few photos from about two weeks ago. I think we're a teeeeeeny bit behind schedule.

Back of the house:


This will be the kitchen:

Taken towards the kitchen from the living room.


It's got a lot of that open, airy feeling. The new windows are in, but no need to open one in order to determine the weather outside.

The girls are in German summer camp, as they've done for the past couple of years. "What do they do in German camp?" various people have asked us over the past couple of weeks, "Prepare to invade the French camp," John answers.

"I know they're just a bunch of little kids and camp is only four weeks long, but, c'mon. It's the French. I hear the kids there make white flags at arts & crafts every day."

The girls are also back in swim lessons. The fabulous swim school I found for them last year closed so we enrolled in another recommended by a friend. They are in a class all by themselves, in more ways than one. Their teacher is a college student-aged young man who was very impressed with their swimming at the first lesson and is now teaching them news strokes. Currently they are working on the butterfly.

They've been enjoying swim days at Uncle Jeff's house also. They can jump in and swim anywhere now and they never seem to get bored or tired.






When Uncle Randy was in town for business recently he came over and helped Erin and Kate with diving. Kate caught on much faster (see video below), though Erin did get one good dive in, which I luckily got a picture of, at right.

relaxing this much is hard work

One of the things I thought the girls would really enjoy is snorkeling. There is a great reef with tons of varied fish to see right off the resort's beaches and water sports equipment is available to any guest. John got some gear and decided to let the kids try it out in one of the pools first.

Allison got the hang of it right away, she was a natural. She and John snorkeled together I think 3 or 4 different times. She loved it.


Kate did just as well and enjoyed snorkeling around the pool quite a bit, but wasn't enthusiastic about trying it in the ocean.

Erin was a completely different story. After John got Kate and Allison going in the pool he sat and worked with Erin for nearly an hour, but she couldn't get the mouthpiece in and around her teeth correctly so that she could actually breathe with it. Her unconventional jaw shape and overbite were the problems, and she really tried, but couldn't make it work. Not surprisingly, orthodontics for her is already scheduled to begin as soon as we returned home.

Apart from new water sports, the girls made their own seashell necklaces, and enjoyed a Hawaiian BBQ complete with singing Hawaiian cowboys.


Terri and Randy took Erin kayaking:

Did I mention that Allison likes snorkeling?

And the girls swam nearly all day, every day. They put on their swimsuits first thing in the morning, attending breakfast each day all suited up and got into the water soon after eating. It was nearly always about 82F and the water was always warm too. Anytime was swimming time. We had to practically drag them out for meals each day.

Lawn games:

Visiting one of Kona's smaller beaches with black sand. Allison was ready to snorkel once again, Kate found the whole idea too much work.




Since Erin couldn't snorkel she just wore fins and a vest and her goggles and held her breath to look under and see the plentiful fish.

Cousins Laura, Tim, and Sydney joined us and Allison asked to be buried.

And then some fine black sand castle construction.

Another scene on the property, walking back from the black sand beach to the kiddie pool area.

There was a lot of climbing on each other's shoulders, especially on John's shoulders, and the size of the climber didn't seem to matter.


On Christmas Eve John got the idea to have the kids try surfing. What a great idea, the resort had a number of boards right there for anyone to use. The kids never went out far and the resort's beach doesn't have much for waves since the beach lies in a little cove. Still, it was surfing and Kate LOVED it.



Erin and Allison were successful too, but neither kept up with it the way Kate did.

Twin surfing:



On Christmas day we went back to the beach and all Kate wanted to do was surf, and she did, off an on, for probably 2 hours.

More kayaking for Erin, with cousin Laura this time.