Android's 40th Birthday Bash at Ventura Yacht Club - Saturday June 23, 2007

Happy 40th Birthday Andy Killion! Tina threw a great party at the Yacht Club, complete with DJ, dinner, dancing and prizes!

Here we are!






Mark & Tami came from Miami!








Lots of candles (but less than Jim or I would have...)






Tami, Mark, Heather & Jim

Tina (trophy wife) and Heather (Andy was in my wedding and I got Tina drunk on strawberry daiquiries and talked her into living on a boat instead of living in an apartment)








Teenbob dancing...










Jim, Tami & Zipay the noodle head







One song made us spin...





What we did with our name tags at the end of the night...















Jim (D Dock gromet & mentor) & Andy (always cranky, finally old)








The birthday boy gets all the girls...
Most of us have known Andy for a long time!









What you DON'T do at 11:30 pm in the Yacht Club Parking Lot (unless it's your 40th birthday!)!! Thanks for the great party Tina!
Happy Birthday Andy!

Father's Day BBQ

Since Renee aka "Princess Renee" was here from NC we decided to do a family BBQ at John's house.



Had most of our side of the family (no Joseph and missing the other NC people), two cousins and four from John's side of the family. Thanks to Randi for taking the group photos!

Renee, Delaina & Jim






Had a ton of great food and great conversations!






Even got all the nieces to pose with their Grandma! So the plan is to do this every few months - sorry, John, but your house is the "central location"!

Santa Cruz Island with Renee & Randi

Our niece, Renee and her friend, Randi came from North Carolina for a visit. Renee hadn't been out to the islands since she was 10 so we had to do an island trip! We left the dock around 6 am and had dolphins escorting us out the harbor entrance! I was amazed the girls got up so early... but not for long. This is Renee...

Randi is out here researching landslides while working on her masters, so we headed to Prisoners to show her a few island landslides. For once we anchored in front of our spot... but Island Packers still found us!








And Captain Jason gave us ice cream sandwiches! Jim had to "hold" mine so I could take a picture...

Thanks Jason!








Took the dinghy to the pier and did the traditional hike to the "guard shack".




The brush and bushes look a lot better now that the pigs are all gone.










The girls were getting good at the "trespassing" thing after a few days of their landslide research... they couldn't resist another "no trespassing" sign!
Back to the boat so Renee could read and Randi could take a nap.
Jim & I went fishing.
Caught this squishy thing. He also caught a barracuda, but we let him go. No halibut today...










Then for a dinghy ride up to Pelican Bay. Said hi to some friends who were anchored, then hauled the dinghy up the rock beach East of Pelican - yikes. Good thing we have dinghy wheels. Also rescued another dinghy that was about to float away. Walked through this small cave (are we trespassing again?).




Renee under the rock.










Jim noticed some rocks that just didn't look right, so moved some and there was a geocache! We had just been explaining "geocaching" to Renee and Randi too! NO, that's not Renee's beer or Randi's wine (even though they are old enough). They just had to hold them for us, so Jim could play with the yoyo and I could take the picture!

We walked up the streambed to the spring. Randi hiked up a little ways and I brushed my leg against stinging nettle. Ouch. Then my leg started getting small blisters, so Renee took wet tobacco and put it on the blisters (took one of Jim's cigarettes and some of my wine...) IT WORKED! It took the stinging away, but we didn't get all the blisters, so I did feel some of them until about 10 pm that night.

We hiked around on the point by Pelican.









Renee and Heather

Past the flowering point Reminds me of San Miguel Island!

Back to the boat for turkey burgers, corn and baked beans. An early night for all!

Sunday was calm but on the gray side. Jim went fishing and lost a good sized halibut...

Then headed home. Saw a few dolphins but not much else. Renee and I sat on the bow and talked for a couple of hours. It was great to catch up with her!







Renee & Randi in the cockpit.

Had to throw a few pictures of the last time Renee went out with us! Only 11 years ago...

Visit from the D'Hulst Family!

We were happy to get a call from Chuck D'Hulst (one of my neighbors from 17-19 years ago...)
They were coming for a quick visit! We hadn't seen them for 6 or 7 years and WOW have their kids grown! Ethan was 1 or 2 when we met him before, and we hadn't met Aidan or Sydney yet. The boys were really excited, because they were going to get to sleep on a boat! Laura, Aidan (almost 4), Sydney (almost 2), Ethan (almost 8) and Chuck!

Ethan had been to the beach way back, but this was the first time for Aidan!






First time for Sydney too!




Too much sand in the eyes...





Back to the boat for Jim's famous burgers! We all had a great time. The kids (and Chuck & Laura) all slept great. Ethan was excited about telling his third grade teacher he slept on a boat! Then they headed out for the rest of their California vacation.