Kevin and the Kittiwake

We have a series of huge rain cells moving through this part of the Caribbean which has thrown something of a wrench in Kevin's plans to see and do several of the local sites and activities that would be useful for his class.  We made do as best we could in the morning with a driving tour of some locations but caught a break in the afternoon as the rains let up just enough and the swells went down just enough that the Catamaran tour out to the newest natural reef, the sunken USS Kittiwake was able to happen.  We were able to snorkel the Kittiwake and a second site up near West Bay called Boggy Sands where a couple of French Angel Fish took a liking to Kevin and posed for us.

Here are some shots of the trip:

A school of Horse Eyed Jacks that has adopted the ship

The Bridge is now a natural aquarium

Kevin heads down for a look

Kevin resting after the long swim
on the front of the catamaran

The French Angel Fish

French Angel Fish coming for a closer look

Peeping Iguana

This morning as we sat in our living room we got quite a surprise on our window.  An iguana decided to look in and see what was going on.  He hung out for a bit but scooted off when Gypsy Bell came running to protect her turf.

Kevin arrived this afternoon and is on island for the next four days doing research for a course that he hopes to offer here in the Cayman Islands so we will get to spend some time with him and help him find some great spots for his students to get the real Cayman experience.  Arianna was very pleased to see her Uncle Kevin and wanted to be held by him throughout the afternoon.

First Day of School for Arianna

As Arianna approaches 16 months old we realize that she is now old enough and active enough to be out more.  We found a great childhood care center here in the island called Shining Stars and have enrolled her 5 days a week for 1/2 days.  On Mondays and Wednesdays it will be in the mornings and on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, the afternoons.  That enables Arianna to still be in her regular Tuesday and Thursday morning play groups and do her Motions visits on Friday mornings.  Today was her first day and we did a morning session so both of us could take her to drop her off.  They have a uniform that is a blue shirt and khaki skirt and we picked up two shirts for her today. The skirts are being ordered.   We both feel a little guilty about this but rationally realize that it will give Katie more time for herself, time to work that isnt based around nap times and alone time, something she hasnt had in 16 months.  It will also give us a chance to do some things during that time that we have basically given up since Arianna arrived.  Arianna of course ran off as soon as we arrived and started playing.  Her teacher is Ms. Tatiana and even at 16 months they start working on speaking, singing and other early childhood development activities.

Leaving for School

Arriving at Shining Stars

Uniform sans the khaki skirt

Meeting Ms. Tatiana

Second E.R. visit in as many weeks

For fifteen months we avoided the dreaded new parent visit to the Emergency Room and counted ourselves as among the lucky as all our fellow parents endured the experience for one reason or another.  Then last week with the Gastroenteritis it was visit number one for us and we no longer had the perfect record.  This morning was to be a Daddy-Daughter day out and about an hour into the outing Arianna decided it would be fun to swing from Daddy's arm while flinging herself at the ground simultaneously.  Daddy holding on to her hand so she wouldn't run off, as she is wont to do, didn't let go fast enough.  As a result, she managed to dislocate her elbow (something called nursemaids elbow we later learned) with the force of her movement.  At first I wasn't sure she was hurt or just frustrated but after 20 minutes of crying and her clearly favoring her left elbow we picked up Mommy and headed to the hospital.  We were lucky that it was a very slow day and they got us in almost immediately to see a Doctor and get x-rays.  Fortunately, the x-rays showed no fractures and the Doctor was able to pop her elbow back into place.  Once he did that the crying stopped and she pretty quickly got back full range of motion.  It was a frightening morning though apparently not that unusual event as Doctor told us that young children have loose ligaments making them more susceptible to this.  We told Arianna after that she has used up her quota of visits for the year and would appreciate not having any more.  She was fine rest of day even if her parents were a little frazzled.  Oh well, if this is worst she does to herself we will continue to count ourselves amongst the lucky.

Valentine's Day

Arianna is finally getting over her stomach bug and so things are a lot better around the house without that worry weighing on us.  Yesterday was Valentine's Day so Arianna and I got Katie a fruit mug gift from a local company.

Gastroenteritis and a Memorial Walk

The Cayman Islands are currently undergoing a pretty massive outbreak of gastroenteritis and both Kathleen and Arianna have been down with it this week.  The Health Services Authority actually released a special bulletin saying that at this time of the year they normally get 15 case a week but that in each of the past two weeks they have had over 60 cases a week reported.  We spent a good deal of Thursday in the Emergency Room to get Arianna checked for possible dehydration as she had been throwing up and suffering from diarrhea.  She has been good about drinking which has probably kept her from being in as bad a shape as the many toddlers they have actually admitted to the hospital instead of just examining, prescribing some anti nausea medicine and releasing like the they did with her.  Katie had come down with the stomach bug Tuesday and been under the weather for a couple of days before Arianna also caught it.  My father was on island for the memorial walk that we hold every year in February to raise money for the scholarship fund at the college and the college board of trustees meeting and even being very careful with contact he has come down with it too.  So far I have avoided it and with Katie and Arianna getting better and John headed home I am hopeful that this one will pass me by (knock on wood).

The Memorial walk chose as its theme this year a traditional Caymanian saying "Try come so walk wid me nah" which translates to lets take a walk together.  We had about 50 walkers and everyone wanted to know where Arianna and Katie were.  We did get a special t-shirt for the memorial walk made for Arianna when we planned to have her walk with us and here she is in it.

USS Kittiwake

This afternoon we hired our regular sitter who watches Arianna while Katie teaches for some weekend work so we could do a snorkel together of the USS Kittiwake.  The Kittiwake is an American naval ship that was in operation from 1945 to 1994.  It is a Chanticleer Class Submarine Rescue Ship and its most famous duty was the recovery of the black box after the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.  After it was retired, it was donated to the the Cayman Islands by the United States Government and was refitted over a fifteen year period to become a man made reef.  It arrived in late 2010 and was sunk off of Seven Mile Beach in January 2011.  It sits in 65 feet of water but because it is four stories high, it is a fantastic snorkel (as well as a world class scuba dive).  We rode a catamaran out to it and spent a good thirty minutes swimming over, around and when we free dove almost in the upper parts of it.  The trip also included a second snorkel out to a site off West Bay that we hadn't been to before called Boggy Sands.  Katie and I realized as we were riding the boat out that it had been several months at least since we had last snorkeled together so this was a great early Valentine present to ourselves.

National Heroes Day

Today the Cayman Islands celebrates National Heroes Day with a ceremony at Heroes Square in George Town.  It is  a national holiday and the celebration this year honored educators.  Among the honorees were the founders of ICCI.  Arianna got to attend part of the ceremony and posed with a few of the honor guard members after they left the square.  The heat forced us to leave early but not before Arianna gave a running commentary as we walked down Fort Street to all the people off the cruise ships who were walking in the area about the sights she had seen. 

La Dolce Vitta

Yesterday evening Katie and I did another of our baby (really now toddler) swaps with Andrea and Darren and got a date night out just ourselves.  We decided to try a new restaurant in George Town on the water called La Dolce Vitta.  An Italian place that from the road side almost looks abandoned it turned out to be really good food with an incredible view of the water and the harbor.  We had two wood grilled pizzas with seafood on them as well as a combo calamari and shrimp appetizer.  Like all down town restaurants it was on the expensive side so we ate on a budget while others around us had some incredible looking dishes that we didn't even want to know the price of.  It was great to have a night out just for ourselves and Arianna was nice enough to stay asleep the whole time Andrea was with her.  This weekend is a three day long one as Monday is Heroes Day in the Cayman Islands, a national holiday.  We are working on finishing our paper to be presented at a conference in March over at the University College and plan to also get in a little beach time.

Friday at Motions and Saturday on Seven Mile

As Katie's sister Mel finishes her visit, Arianna is getting in some real quality Aunt time. Yesterday she went to motions and this morning we all headed over to Seven Mile for a couple of hours on the beach and in the water.

Several of Arianna's baby group joined us this morning and so it was like an impromptu baby group.

Tomorrow morning we put Mel on her flight home.  We had a very good first week of classes and a ton of late registrations and new admissions meant our winter numbers were not as bad as they looked like they might be two weeks ago so we were feeling pretty good by Friday.  With both of us teaching this term Arianna will be getting a helper two nights a week and we are interested to see how she reacts to that.  This week I am getting to experience the Cayman Islands court system as I am a witness in Grand Court.  Hopefully it will be quick and the experience not too painful.

First week of classes and Last week with Aunt Melanie

This week we started classes for the winter term and there was no pause after the rush of graduation as we jumped right into teaching and all the administrative work that goes into getting a new term started.  It is also the last week for Katie's sister Melanie here on island.  We have taken advantage of her presence to get a lot of baby sitting time in (mostly for work and for time on our paper for the conference that is due in a couple of weeks).  We also have probably insured that there wont be any cousins for Arianna for a while from Loski sister number two.  It is not that Arianna is so difficult its just that any 14 month old can exhaust you in a single afternoon and the experience of it over several days adds up.  Yesterday, Arianna got to paddleboard with her Aunt Mel up at Cayman Kai and found the whole experience very exciting.

2012 Begins

Though only seven days old this has already been an extremely busy year.  Literally every evening this past week we had events for the college from the faculty meeting to orientation to graduation and last night the U.S. seminar meeting.  We also have house guests finishing their visit to the Cayman Islands that include Katie's sister Melanie and some friends of hers.  That has caused this week to pass with a blur and we are just beginning to catch our breath.  Next Monday is the first day of classes for the college so there wont be much of a break this weekend before the insanity begins anew.  We are also both teaching this term in addition to writing a paper for submission to a conference that is due at the end of the month.  It has been a bit of an adjustment moving back to 80 degree weather after our visit north but we are acclimating back.  The winds this past week here helped as it cooled down into the low 70's for a couple of days.  We took the opportunity to turn off the A/C and open all the windows.

Happy New Year

Today is our last day in Seattle as we head back to Chicago this afternoon and then on to Cayman tomorrow afternoon.  Yesterday, Scott and Arianna got a day together while I went shopping with Stephanie to celebrate finishing our sugar challenge (we didn't eat anything with sugar for 15 days).  The sun finally came out for the first time since we arrived in the Pacific Northwest and Arianna got to see her first snow, though it was in the distance on the snow covered Olympic Mountains.  Here she is at the Aronson's grand parents home which is right on the water in West Seattle with her "Aunt" Erika.  You can just see the mountains and while it is her first time seeing snow, we will have to wait for her first experience in it.

In the evening we went downtown to the Crab Pot Restaurant with all the family and had a huge seafood meal for our last dinner up here.  Arianna tried her first clams and loved the clam chowder.  After dinner Arianna got to ride on a huge carousel downstairs with her Aunt Stephanie and "Aunt" Andrea. 

We have had a great time in Seattle and want to especially thank Uncle Paul and Aunt Kris for letting us stay with them and the rest of our Seattle relatives for a wonderful week.

Whidby Island

Today we headed up to Whidby Island for a day with Grandma Cummings.  It was also to be the day that Arianna met her Uncle Alex but the U.S. Navy and emergency work interfered with the best laid plans.  There were some firsts though. Arianna got her first ride on a boat as we took the ferry from Mukilteo over to the southern end of Whidby Island early in the morning.  After breakfast and grandmas, we got to see her new thrift store and also went down to City Beach.  In the afternoon we went to Deception Pass and got to recreate my favorite photo of Katie and I with the bridge in the background.  I was paranoid about our little thrill seeker out on the bridge so we didn't do the walk across the pass.  After walking under the bridge in the Whidby side we had lunch at an all you can eat Chinese buffet.  Then we visited a farm and Arianna got to feed some animals and see a camel who loves to drink Pepsi's.

It was a great day and really good to see Grandma Cummings and spend some time on Whidby.  We headed home around five and got back to West Seattle in just two hours with Arianna sleeping the whole way after her exhausting day.

Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium

This morning we headed down to Tacoma and the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium.  It was a rainy Northwest Pacific kind of day but we didn't let the rain stop us from seeing the whole park and aquarium.  Arianna spent most of the day trying to get her shoes and socks off in spite of the cold weather.  The view overlooking Puget Sound was incredible and the clouds were kind enough to lift for a little while so we could take it all in.

 

This evening Russ, Paul and I headed over to a West Seattle sports bar to watch the Horns beat Cal in the Holiday Bowl 21-10 while Katie stayed back for a girls night at the house with her Mom, Aunt Kris, Andrea, Steph and Erika.  Tomorrow we head up to Whidby Island while Grandpa Russ and Grandma Gail head home.

Seattle

We arrived in Seattle Sunday evening after a four and a half hour flight from Chicago that was surprisingly good as Arianna slept for a good three hours of it and was distracted by presents for most of the other hour or so.  Arianna had charmed the gate agent for Alaska Airlines who moved us to a row where no one else was sitting so Arianna would have her own seat.  After landing we headed right to the Aronson's and got to have dinner Christmas night with the Loski and Aronson clans.  We got to introduce Arianna to her great Grand Parents Jim and Charlotte Loski as well as her newest cousin Olivia who was just born 13 days ago.  Arianna got to meet Katie's Aunt Kris and Uncle Paul Aronson and their daughters Andrea and Erika with whom we are staying in West Seattle. She also got to meet her mommie's Uncle Don and Aunt Julie Loski.  Grandma Gail and Grandpa Russ along with Aunt Stephanie also flew up to Seattle from Texas for the big family reunion.

The entire extended Loski clan (now with Aronson's and Cummings')
 with Jim and Charlotte in the middle

We had a restful day yesterday and the big family dinner yesterday evening.  Today we headed into downtown Seattle and went to the Pikes Place Public Market.  We got Starbucks from the original Starbucks store and had clam chowder on the waterfront. 

After the Market and lunch at Steamers we headed to the Aquarium which is also right there on the waterfront.  Arianna enjoyed seeing her fishies at the aquarium but was most enthralled by the Sea Lion and Harbour Seal literally climbing onto the ledge to look down at them swimming around.  She called out to them and was in a much better mood after seeing them.  Tonight we have dinner at the Great Grandparents and tomorrow is the zoo!

Merry Christmas

We have started our day here in Naperville, Illinois sharing Christmas morning with the Bernard family and with Grandma Cummings. Even though last year was Arianna's first Christmas, this year is really the first time she is experiencing it.  Arianna loves opening presents though it seems the presents themselves are far less important than the experience of opening them.  Yesterday, Aunt Johanna hosted a Christmas Eve brunch that went from 9 in the morning until about 1 in the afternoon, and many of our Koclanes relatives and family friends made it over.  Later, we went to Christmas Eve Mass at St. Margaret Mary Church and then had Chinese food for dinner before turning in and convincing the kids that Santa was on his way and we had to sleep so he could come.

Here are some shots from the Brunch.

And from this morning:

Later this afternoon we board our flight for Seattle and Christmas evening with the Loski's.