Rick Keil & Family of Seattle

Kayaking to the ‘best’ snorkeling spot on the bis island was awesome (but hot).  Too many fish in the way so we couldn’t see the coral very easily…  Hmmm…  And those pesky sea turtles…  why are they always around us blocking our views?  Oh, and even more spinner dolphins?  Criminy, do they always have to do that ‘leap out of the water and spin around right in front of us’ thing?  We were trying to look into the distance to see the shoreline.  Darn wildlife!

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Yep, who would have guessed that it would rain on us while we were in Hilo – they only get 200 inches of rain there each year…  Oh well, we missed the lunar eclipse due to the rain over the entire island, and instead we went and hiked to some waterfalls, back worked our way back to the Kona side via Wimea.

We toured a coffee plantation.  Pretty exciting if you (still) drink coffee, but if not, well there were these animals in the trees.  Rick got friendly with a chameleon and couldn’t sleep that night.  Was he thinking of the chameleon, or was it the caffeine high from the chocolate-covered beans he ate?

Okay, snorkeling with spinner dolphins!  OMFG!  woah!  Okay, some pics but really you will have to wait for the video to be posted on Youtube.  Awesome!!!!!  BTW – so darn many turtles.  You practically have to push them out of the way to get into the water to snorkel.  Pretty cool….  Place of refuge?  Really neat.  Recommended…

Fun with temporary hand tattoos…  And watch out for falling coconuts…

Wish you were here – seriously.  We wish you were here with us.  Honestly, we wouldn’t say it if we didn’t mean it, we really really wish you were here.  Love you all…

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So we keep seeing sea turtles everywhere we go, and these are a few snapshots in this photo album, but the real highlight of the trip around the south side of the Big Island was the hike across the Kilauea Iki Crater and the exploration of three lava tube caves.  Awesome.  The crater is like walking along the moon, and you can go right up to the vents and stick your hands into the steaming hot vapor.  Not recommended, so of course all four of us did it!  Rick found a nice crack to stumble into – no broken bones, all smiles.  A really memorable hike.  Then we followed all the other hikers into a lava tube that is part of the hike – us and a tour bus full of retirees.  Hmmm…  Somehow that spoiled the tube experience for us.  But not to worry – our guide book gave us the coordinates for several other lava caves that were ‘off the beaten track’.  After driving around a while we were well skunked, but then as we gave up – what’s that up ahead?  Could it be a small path into the underbrush?  Let’s stop!  Yes!  Our very own lava tube, all to ourselves.  Four trekkers with four mediocre flashlights and a strong fear of the dark.  What fun!  Adventure!  What is that noise?  Is that a bat?!  Ha!  The cave was huge and ran off in several directions for more than a mile.  We could have easily gotten lost if not for  the white arrows painted on the walls every 25 feet or so as a guide.  Hmmm…. not so pristine after all, but hugely fun.   Next up?  Hilo and beard extensions!  Oh yeah!  Can’t wait!

more pics….

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Well, aren’t we the lucky ones – we get to holiday in Hawaii on the Big Island.  Rick has a student teaching cruise (read the blog) that starts on Boxing Day, so we all took the plunge and decided to have a tropical holiday this year.

We ran into Santa and one of his helpers at the airport – he and rick compared beards, and then we were off!

We rented a condo south of Kona that Rick thought was going to be a disaster – something on the back in our price range –  Fogetaboutit!  But he was wrong!  Full kitchen, beautiful view, three swimming pools, we are in paradise.  So, we are only in the first couple of days, but we are already having a great time.  We have gone ziplining – awesome!  Snorkeling with sea turtles – they wouldn’t leave us alone!  Exploring among the lava and discovering Kona town’s ice cream offerings.  We also got hooked on fried breadfruit chips – check out the photo of that – they are huge, pretty and delicious.

Next we are off to Volcano for some lava tube spelunking fun, over to Hilo for a day or two, and then up to Mauna Kea to watch the lunar eclipse.  Ought to be awesome!

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Our first Youtube video “Old Toy Trains” has just surpassed half a million views.   It is the most popular old toy train video on Youtube!  Wow, we hope to hit one million watches soon.  It is the holiday season and we are going up about 1000 hits a day!  Go watch it right now…

You can all Rick’s videos here

and all Allie’s here

As you may know, the Pumas have not historically been a first-tier team, but this year!  OMG!  The girls rec team came out the the gates strong and played a very competitive season, going 3-3-4.  Laura was an outstanding middle fielder and defender, and Allie was an excellent all-arounder.

Allie’s JV school team went undefeated and tore through the school schedule.  It was fun attending games at Memorial Stadium – seemed so professional.  Allie scored a nice goal during the last game of the season to lead off the scoring in a 4-1 drubbing of the school’s second team, giving the Wildcats JV1 team school bragging rights.

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Well we certainly did not predict that the Xbox and Rockband would be so popular.  Rick kinda figured this new toy would last as a recreational diversion only through the winter, but even over the summer and fall we all found time and reasons to play Rockband.  There were even parties that turned into ‘lets play rockband all night’ fests.  Beatles rockband is a favorite, but other Xbox games too – Fifa soccer for example.  Too bad Allie keeps kicking Rick’s ass at soccer, Rick is getting pretty bummed out… Continue Reading »

Fall is always a fun time.  Apple harvesting, pumpkin picking…  Now that Rick is old and decrepit, Allie and Laura had to pull him through the fields are we harvested fruit…

The girls dressed up as identical twin school girls with a slight goth twist, and each managed to politely collect over 5 pounds of candy.  We trick-or-treated with Maya and Tara Gorstein, who were a cow (really? – she looked more like Ladya Gaga to me) and death.

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Oh how we love Camp Seymour.  You gotta go visit.  Elizabeth missed out this year for family camp weekend, but Laura, Allison and Rick had a great time.  Pierre got the snorers a special yurt, so Rick was able to sleep without driving everyone else insane, and the challenge course was, once again, spectacularly fun.  Allie and Emma made it to the finals in the bean bag toss (alas, no victory) and Laura is becoming quite the pickle ball player…

Rick flew through the air as a flying squirrel, and a good time was had by all.  We got to meet Pierre’s new au pair, and Laura conquered the climbing wall.  Allie, of course, was all smiles – well, actually, we all were.

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Okay, we may be biased but we think our new niece is the prettiest baby in the world…  Here are a few pics from Elizabeth’s trip to Greece to meet up with Elli and Alkis and their newboard, as well as to see Ilia and George and their newborn.  Special times…

The addition to the house in Neochori is also finished! It looks awesome, nice stone work etc.  We can’t wait to try it out next summer when we go…

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Elizabeth went home to Greece to meet her new niece (see next post), so Rick and the girls stayed in Seattle and painted the front of the house.  We borrowed scaffolding from our friend Dave, and spent a hectic week painting.  This was especially challenging because Rick was also getting ready to go back to sea.  We also made progress on converting the play structure into a small play house and storage unit – but finishing that will have to wait until next summer.  It was the first time that Elizabeth left Rick and the girls to fend for themselves, and we are happy to report that everyone survived!

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Rick spent quite a bit of time at sea this year.  Some people thought less of that than others (see text on computer in picture on the left…).  Cruises out of Barkley Sound (March), Hawaii (June-July), Clayoquot Sound (September) and off the Washington Coast (September-October).  This link takes you to the lab web site, where you can see pictures of life at sea. Of particular interest this year were all the amazing students and former students Rick got to sail with, including Ben Van Mooy from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, and Miss Anna Belcher, who visited us from the UK and managed to win several major awards while she was sailing with us.  Way to go Anna!

Can you fly?  Laura and Rick tried and tried, but gravity kept winning.  Awesome fun when a huge tree trunk perfect for climbing and jumping from happens to be a stones throw from your camp site.  Best part of camping?  Camp fires!  Ukulele songs! melting chocolate over the flames! the smell of the forst! Burning marshmallows on a stick! …too hard to choose between them all.  We need to go camping again… soon!

We saw two neat trucks made from logs, and got in a few nice hikes through the regal trees.  The girls “complained” during our 10-mile loop but where gamers in the end.  Overall, an awesome road trip.  We stopped in Ashland Oregon on the way (no pics), home of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.   That is pretty neat.

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The trees are big, the coast is foggy and the crabs are mighty full of fight – check out the pics, esp the one of the crab leg attacking Rick.  We also stopped in the town where they filmed the movie “The Majestic” with Jim Carrey.  It is one of Rick’s fave films, so we had to get a photo of Rick by the entrance to the movie theater that played such a huge part in that film.    We also discovered a museum of pedal cars, some of which were originally from Fremont here in Seattle.

Oh, camping is still awesome – a great spot deep in the forest close to a stream perfect for swimming.

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Who can resist a Lincoln bound for the Pebble Beach Concourse de Elegance? Not Rick, especially when it is out of gas and in need of assistance.  Rick had a great time helping out, and got to go for a quick spin.  The car is part of the LeMay collection, located right close to us in Tacoma.

So, we made it to the Redwoods with no out-of-gas experiences of our own, and man-o-man, the trees there are big.  They aren’t kidding around…  Rick spent too much time in the forest and grew a moss beard.  Back at the travel trailor we made somores every evening and generally had a nice time.  However, it was soon time to journey even further into the redwoods and get to our campground.  Goodbye dank and smelly travel trailor…

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More Crater Lake – Elizabeth and Rick swam in the freezing cold waters.  One cool thing about Crater Lake is that there are these nifty spirals made of cooled lava spaced along the side of the mountain.  Not many tourons go there since it is not on the ring road.  We really liked these odd Dr Suess-esque shaped tubes and funnels.  Pretty neat.  When we finally got down to the Redwoods we spent a couple days in a rented travel trailor.  Pretty interesting, but definitely not something we will do again.  We do though have a better appreciation for what it must be like to live in those huge motor homes we see all around us.  Anyway, give us our tent and we are happy.

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Our summer road trip was to the Redwood Forests of Northern California. The camping aspect was fun, as usual.  Of course, we are car-campers, which seems to suit us.  Lots of water falls.  Here are the pics from the first days, when we stopped at Crater Lake.  Ah, you know – it is beautiful, blah blah, but we were kinda underwhelmed.  So many other places we have been that are spectacular beyond belief.  Crater Lake seems overdeveloped with the ring road and all us tourists, etc.

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Who is that handsome man with Rick?  Nice beard fella…

So, New York with Ken and Camille.  Sailing boats in Central Park, hot dogs at Gray’s Papaya.  Haven’t been there – then you have not yet lived my friend…  Subway rides, furry cats, the Met…  It is always fun to go visit our Auntie and Uncle.  This year we walked by the river and learned about Irving Berlin’s house, which is close to where Ken and Camille live.  Too cool…

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Well, the Keil clan is mostly in Chicago, so when we go visit a perplexingly fun time is had by all.  The trip to Six Flags Great America was awesome, as usual.  Terri hosted 4th of July at her house – swimming in the pool – yeah!  Of course, Rick dragged everyone to the Illinois Railway Museum, where we spent the day riding vintage trains including the great Nebraska Zephyr.  Cool pics of that.  Chicago has lots of art – a couple nice snapshots of some huge eyeball thingie as well as the reflective bean pod thingie.  Perhaps the best photo of the trip though was the girls standing by the painting American Gothic by Grant Wood.

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Okay, this pic is just Rick getting all ‘art photo’ again…

It has been a very musical spring and early summer.  Allie and the school band went a busking to raise money for a fellow student who’s house was destroyed in a fire.  A fun day was had by all and money was raised for a good cause.  We got a guitar!  Allie picked it up and can play better than Rick plays his ukulele.  Laura, Allie and Rick started working on a combo piece with violin, sax and ukulele.  Not much progress though, as there are few pieces written for that combination of instruments.

Also went strawberry picking with the Gorstein Girls…  Fun, if a bit messy.

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Spring time in the Pacific Northwest means challenge courses, mini tomatoes in the nose and other assorted lovelies.  Getting into harnesses and climbing through the trees was awesome.   Don’t miss the pics of Laura’s science fair project – the lemon battery – and Allison’s AWARD WINNING project on fruit ripening.  After Allie won the district award for most innovative science project, we went to Dicks Drive In for a lovely fancy-dancy meal.

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Playing around with cookies and cats in the early days of 2010.  Here we are with our great friend Avis, who taught Rick how to properly use such amazing words as ‘flummoxed‘ and ‘criminy‘.  Also in this set is a selection of Millie the cat pictures and fun with tiny cinnamon rolls (sorry to Anna Belcher, and others who hate cinnamon).

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Happy Holidays 2009!  We met Santa while we were down in Tacoma.   He said that you have been very good this year.  Thank goodness someone has been!

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A small selection of photos from this fall.  The Pumas soccer team actually won a few games this year!  We had great fun at Camp Seymour, including scaling the top of the climbing wall, dipping into Puget Sound on cold rainy mornings, working in the craft room, and winning and losing at bean bag toss and other games.  Laura and Allison were ‘Thing 1 and Thing 2′ for Halloween.  We trick-or-treated with our friend Margo.  Fun, and nearly 10 pounds of candy too!

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The second part of the trip to Greece in summer 2009.  Photos of our visit with our ‘big sisters’ Phaedra and Dimitria, and from our sailing trip with Elli and Alkis.

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Our summer trip to Greece to visit our family.  Part one of the photos.  We spent time in Athens with Auntie Elli and Uncle Alkis, and then went to Volos and Neohori where we spent time with Grandma Anita.

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What a wonderful spring we are having in Seattle.  Here is a selection of our favorite pictures from this winter and spring.  Included is a selection including sleepovers at our house with friends, Laura winning her award at UW, the cats playing ukulele, Allie playing sax and Laura violin, graduation day from West Woodland Elementary, and some spring soccer.

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Part two of our trip to New Zealand.  Pictures from Rotarua and the hydrothermal features nearby.  Native culture and Maori spirituals.  Lots of guysers and galsers, mud pots and parakeets.  We had a wonderful time on our trip.  Rick and Elizabeth especially liked the large fern trees.

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We just returned from our trip to New Zealnad and wanted to share the first set of images.   We stayed on the North Island because we didn’t have enough time to see both islands.  First we toured the northern shore, then worked our way to the worm caves and the active volcanic spots in the center of the island.

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From our hearts to yours, have a happy holiday season and a prosperous 2009.  Here are some of the best pictures of our family from 2008.  Some of our favorites include Elizabeth wearing an oven mit in order to clip Millie’s claws, Allison with the butterfly, and Laura putting her finger up the nose of the mannequin.  See if you can spot them.  Enjoy!  You can also see highlights of the year newly uploaded to our YouTube site. 

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