Kauai 2010

Kristy and I were fortunate enough to have our first week away without Dylan.  Dylan done quite well (according to the grandparents anyway) and did not shun us on our return like when we left him to go to Vegas for 2 nights.  Thanks to Greg and Debbie for taking great care of Dylan, we know he was in good hands. 

I will bore you with some pictures and have to say that Kauai is my second most favourite destination only just behind New Zealand (and as pointed out today, Norwich).  We had so much fun relaxing, eating, snorkeling, zip-lining and taking a Helicopter tour.  The only negative was when I took the wrong trail hiking and turned up 2 hours later covered in mud and bramble scratches .... well I am a Johnson.

My parents went to Kauai and all I got was this louse shirt ... and a Ukulele

Alright, the Ukulele is cool but don't make me wear the shirt

Happy Birthday Kristy!

I took the risk and bought Kristy some art work for her 30th Birthday and it seemed to have paid off, even after all my persuasion that she might prefer an iPad.  The picture is in the background of the photo and my brother found the artist a while ago in London.  He is reasonably priced, great to deal with and ships worldwide so I will give him a plug. 

http://www.stephenleescontemporaryart.com/

I have been trying to learn Photoshop and was quite pleased with my first play with a picture I took at the zoo ... standby for the superimposed heads on celebrity bodies .....

Not many pictures of Dylan lately but I have to put a random one in.

Messing around on the river

As much as we love the little fella, we had a Dylan free day thanks to the Grandfolks.  A fantastic day was had thanks to my work friend Scott who took us rafting on the Kern.  We knew it was going to be a good day when we made our first rescue from the river .... a full can of beer.

Monday morning and dad did not want to go to work.  Thankfully Dylan stepped in until he realized he could not reach the pedals.

My little pony

Dylan's conversation skills are getting better but he took it literally when we told him we were dog sitting this week. 

Drowning our sorrows

Whilst trying to drown myself in the pool after the football this weekend, I snapped a few pictures of Dylan. As you can tell by his face, he was also very upset about the football results.

Down by the bay

We headed to the coast this weekend and celebrated one of our early dates. Morrow Bay was where Kristy and I had a scenic drive to the coast, a romantic meal at sunset overlooking the bay whilst sharing a bottle of our favorite wine 'Smoking Loon'. Fast forward 9 years and we had a frantic meal trying to get the little fella to eat his fish and chips then up at 6 am to fly the Elmo kite on the beach in the rain. We would not have it any different though and we loved our family weekend away!

Bumper blog

I have managed to set a record for not posting anything, so I hope someone still checks this! I have many excuses though.

The first post I missed was Easter (or as we are calling it, the Celebration of Spring). Dylan was a great egg hunter and thanks to his Grandma, kept regular with the prunes in his self filled eggs.

It was great to have my brother Ian out with his family (Lisa, Reece and Charlie), although they did become VAV's (Volcanic Ash Victims) as Scott Mills calls them. I'm sure they will be seeking counseling for the traumatic experience of having to stay in California for an extra 10 days and then drive to Las Vegas to get home .... oh to be a refugee. We had a fantastic time traveling around CA and it was nice to be back at my favorite piece of coastline.

For those not in the US, Reece and Charlie got addicted to the game show 'minute to win it'. The premise being a series of tasks using household items which the winner can get a million dollars. Charlie was disappointed to discover that the Johnson version substituted the million for a toy car.

Stack 3 golf balls in 60 seconds

Empty a box of tissues in 60 seconds

The aftermath

Shake your sillies out

Alright, where is my million??

My last excuse is that I had to go to Oman to teach a course last week. It was great to be able to visit a new country and it is a great place (if not a little on the warm side). I became a VAV myself when travel routed me through Germany instead of the UK where I had a ticket waiting for the last Norwich game of the season. Obviously, I was more upset about not getting to see my family ... but the atmosphere would have been good. Come on you Yellows ... Premiership 2011?

Football on the beach in Muscat

Dylan is doing well and his speech is developing. Worrying, his first words were 'more' and 'Stella', so it seems he is learning from his dad. Most of rest is random, taught by his cousins ... 'Norwich', 'Condors' and 'Knock, Knock'. I will leave you with some pictures of the little fella ...

Where did you bury the keys son? In the sand