Smile! Trey, 1, is so full of life and activity.

Viva Casa Hirabayashi/Kennedy!

One month after we moved in, I am finally posting pictures of our home for all to see. Here are some of the highlights and memories to remember from this experience thus far:

• We love being homeowners!  And are accepting the fact that this house is our holiday to Thailand, new places we yearn to explore, etc.  For now, we'll stay in Seattle and nest. 
• Spending all of your time and money at Home Depot, Lowe's, Target, Goodwill and other useful household supply stores, is actually quite normal. 
• Cleaning a home that's nearly 2000 sq ft takes a bit longer than our former little apartment home. 
• Entertaining 10 or more people is great fun and much more comfortable in a house. 
• Unpacking is slowly becoming very lame and really uninteresting to me. 
• Purchasing a home has changed our marriage in many ways- for the good! 

Big huge thanks to everyone that helped us move-Ann, Frank, Nick, my parents, grandpa, dL and anyone else I may have not mentioned.  We are also thankful for our friend and interior decorator/designer, Carisa.  Not only has she helped add flow to our living spaces but she also finds us great free and/or very affordable items.  We are blessed with so much help and love!

The cute blue house on the corner

Our front yard and home!  We have great plans for the screen door, which is a bit uninviting, if you ask me.  I envision some carvings or changing the fence-like look to it.  Over time, we will work on the landscaping and the sinking, collapsing front flower bed area.  It is a good size yard.

Intimate kitchen

Our kitchen is a bit intimate and one day, we'll renovate the space entirely.  The storage space fooled me a bit at first.  The "drawers" directly beneath the counter are actually painted pieces of wood nailed to the wood.  The previous owners didn't spend any time or money on adding/completing the drawers.  We are very strategic about our kitchen storage space.

Comfortable living space

Here is our living room and this is what you see when you walk in the front door.  It's warm, still evolving and such a great place in our home.

Living, living...

Here's another shot of our living room from a different angle.  Since this picture was taken, we've rearranged the furniture, but you get the idea.  We were blessed/cursed with lovely, old school blinds that have been successfully collecting dust for several years.  We did our best to clean the blinds and just need to decide what to do.

Fire!

Here is our beloved fireplace.  We love to drag our floor pillows around for an evening of warmth, light and a glass of wine (or maybe two glasses...)  It's old 70's style design is gorgeous and the way the ceiling beams highlight this area of the room, makes this my favorite place in the home.

Where we all come together.. the dining room.

For many years, Si and I were a bit transient, living with my parents when we returned to the US, renting from friends (and we are very thankful for their generosity-Sarah and Laurel!).  Along the way, we inherited various items of furniture.  One item is this beautiful Danish table that happily seats 10. 

Tonight my family will come over for a chili and baked potato evening.  My Mom and sister always host our family dinners so I am honored that we can host the clan. Tonight, we dine!

Mirrors... seeing into your soul

Our dining room has not only some serious wood paneling/decor, but also these old mirrors... a wall of them!  At first, I didn't like them at all.  Simon wasn't sure either way.  Carisa LOVES them!  She raved about how beautifully authentic and coveted they are in interior home design.  The mirrors DO open that area and make it feel bigger and it's a convenient place to check your lipstick, rather than run to the bathroom... but, I'm still not sure.

Our bedroom!

So photographing bedrooms with my little digital camera isn't that rewarding.  The entire house is painted white which means it's a blank slate for our color creations.  Right now, we're just trying to get a feel for it all.  Simon plans to make a really cool bed frame for us, too. 

Downstairs bedroom

This is the largest bedroom stemming from the basement area.  It's not insulated so it will be great for the summers and too cold for the winter.  We plan to make it into an extra room, for guests, possibly media and hopefully to hang our new hammock that we dragged home from Mexico.  Right now, it's where I hang all of our laundry. 

Pardon the poor lighting and photography.. but here's our basement

We are blessed with a completely finished basement that also has a separate bedroom and half bath.  Additionally, there's a big storage room, but I'm too embarassed to post a picture of it because it's full of unpacked boxes.  Plus, this is where Simon can house his drums.  So much space compared to our 700 sq ft apartment that we moved from.

Last but not least... Si's drum kit!

After years of storing my Uncle Mike's drum kit, Simon finally gets a chance to play drums on a daily basis.  The pink camo "curtain" is the perfect touch, isn't it?  We plan to get some real curtains or blinds sometime soon.  Play on!

Back to Blogging... Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!  Xin Nien Kwai Le!  Feliz Ano Nuevos!   Akemashite omedetou gozaimasu!   What a year this will be!  In addition to visiting the Yucatan Peninsula for the Christmas holiday, we also bought a home! 

I am also reviving this old blog, with more pictures of what's happening in our lives.  This is mostly for our family back in New Zealand.  We want Mum Margaret,  Dad Lyle, brother Daniel and other family members to stay more informed and up to date on what's happening in our Seattle lives.   Much love to you all in this new year...

So, here's some fun pictures (not seen on FB) of our travels... Enjoy!

Chichen Itza... Kulkukan

Chichen Itza is one of the largest Mayan ruin cites of the Yucatan Peninsula and it's translation is "Magicians of Water" as there were many sources of water under the ruins and from natural cenotes.  This large site had many areas of worship and more.   This temple has several steps that once could be climbed by tourists, until someone fell to their death.  We just enjoyed seeing it from the ground. 

Chichen Itza was a highlight of our trip and well worth the cost, the heat and the bugs.  We learned a huge amount about the Mayan culture and history.

Marvelous Mary!

Our tour guide, Mary was excellent, informative, very sweet and patient.  We dragged her all over the site and she carefully answered ALL of our questions with great detail.  I'm sure we got our money's worth of the entire experience. 

Not only did she speak Spanish, but she also spoke Mayan and explained that the language is still alive and thriving today.  It's estimated that 1 million speak Mayan and some schools teach it.  The written Mayan language is very complicated and difficult to learn.  One symbol can represent hundreds of words! 

Thousand columns

This is 1000 columns of the great site (although we didn't count them).  These once held up a roof, but it's unknown what they actual structure was for.  They are perfectly lined and it's intersesting to imagine what kinds of ceremonies or daily business was conducted here.

Temple of Nuns

This Mayan temple was really beautiful.  Not only did it have a tall piece with interesting carvings, but there were also a series of rooms one for each nun or priest.  The sheer strength of each of the pieces we saw were jaw-dropping and so impressive.

Poc de Poc

In Mayan culture, there was a game played called Poc de Poc and this is the arena.  You can see at the far right a throne like structure where the high priests sat and watched.  The teams played for two days and their goal was to get a ball with the weight equivalent of 3 gallons into the stone "hoops" that you can see on either side of the arena.  The trick is that you can't use your hands or feet to do this.  Amazing, right?  The other fun fact is that the winning team's coach is executed after winning.  It's an honor to die for your team.  

Cenotes!

Cenotes are essentially sink holes that are naturally made.  Some are above earth, like this one and have interesting roots, trees, bushes and wildlife all around it.  You can visit them and for a small fee, go down and have a swim.  Simon swam in this one, but I decided to just hang out.  Turns out I am a rather picky girl when it comes to giant swim holes in which the water is hazy and I can't see if there are or aren't any creatures swimming about.

When touring Chichen Itza we saw a cenote, similar to this one.  We learned that it was used a sacrificial site where small boys and infants were given to the gods for water and other reasons.  Also, many jewels and other valuable items were sacrificed.  At one point an English business man "bought" the area and drudged the bottom gathering all of the goods and jewelry.  Sounds a bit sad and sacrilegious, doesn't it?  Apparently, the items are now exhibited at a Cambridge musuem. 

Another cenote!

This cenote was the most stunning of all that I saw.  The waters were so blue and above the cenote was a hole where light came in.  Stalactites hung dramatically from the ceilings as we swam beneath. Birds flew around in patterns at the top of the cave.  The water was luke warm, but Simon being the fish he is, swam and swam to all corners of the area.  He found little cliff areas that he climbed up to and jumped in until the park guard yelled at him to get down. I was happy enough floating on my back, watching the birds, marveling in the piece of nature.

Casa Quetzal of Vallodolid

Vallodolid, which is a small town between Merida (the largest town on the Yucatan) and Cancun, was charming, quaint and so easy.  We stayed at a hotel boutique called Casa Quetzal.  The accomodation had rooms around this little courtyard and this is what we viewed every morning with breakfast.  It was such an oasis, we stayed an extra day!

Goddess of Sun...

There was an amazing wall of murals at the Policia Municipal.  This one depicts the Sun Goddess lowering light into the God of water.  I loved the colors and strength that each picture shared.  I spent tons of time with these murals, just taking in each detail and color.

Luces

At night, there's a light show at Uxmal, which is just beautiful.  

View of Uxmal

 

This was taken high above the main Mayan ruin area of Uxmal, which means "thrice built".  Often in 400-600.AD, temples were built and rebuilt as improvements to the current structure, and for other spiritual reasons.  We stayed across the road from this ruin and loved the quiet of the surrounding areas. 

Supposedly, there are jaguars in the wild near this ruin and other nearby environments.  One evening we took a long walk and marveled at the stars, the clear night and nearly full moon.  Hearing rustling in the bushes made us pause, but all was good and we were safe.

Nearly touching flamingos...well, as close as we could get.

Visiting Rio Largartos, we took a private tour and visited gorgeous wetlands with crocodiles, amazing birds and FLAMINGO's!  They are beautiful creatures!  Our perky guide, who was always smiling (seriously) said they are pink because they eat only shrimp.  I researched this and they do eat a lot of shrimp and prawns, but actually live almost entirely on algae and sea bacteria.  So that's why they are more pink in some places than others.

To get this close to these birds, we had to wade out in knee deep water over slippery sand with huge chunks of salt to navigate.  I was extra careful because I was carrying our camera to get this excellent shot.  I surprisingly never fell into the water and decided that this activity was much like rollerskating, in water, while drunk.  This may come as a shock to you, but the birds kept moving away as we got closer.  This was the best I could manage.

Isla Mujeres... the Island of Women

We ended our journey with a restful and enticing visit to Isla Mujeres, which is just across from Cancun by ferry.  The island was simple, laid back, full of beaches, little restaurants, bars, lovely people and more...  We entertained the idea of moving to such a place.  What a gorgeous little spot of Mexico and we wish we could have stayed longer.  Ah Mexico...

Where it all began! Simon, Me, Jill and Kim in the Coromandel. October 2005

While enjoying the Coromandel, I met Simon at a hippie festival. A bunch of friends spent the day together and I'm smiling because the dodgy train built by an artistic millionaire that took us up to the great view... didn't kill us. I thought Simon was dreamy, soft spoken and sometimes hard to understand, but so cool. The night before we danced under a huge tent to live funk music. He danced me-twirling, teaching, leading and giving me the butterflies. *sigh*

Come to New Zealand for a great PARTY!

Nearly one year ago, Simon and I were married. Now, we having another celebration in New Zealand. Please come! Here's the scoop:

When: Sat., Dec. 13th, the fun starts at noon

Where: Pauanui, Coromandel, New Zealand

What: A fun event bringing friends, family, great music, food and drink all together in the stunning Coromandel!

The party will take place in Pauanui, Coromandel, which on the North Island of New Zealand. Two homes will be used for the party and we're expecting a great turn out! The venue is a pretty, scenic drive from Auckland and you're more than welcome to stay the night! There will be some guest rooms available between the two homes and an additional home nearby, however, there will also be plenty of space to camp. Keep in mind December is the start of summer in NZ, so the temperature won't be as frigid as many parts in the US, during that time of year. If you want additional information about travel, contact me directly.

How to get there: Fly to Auckland and plan to drive (we can help arrange a ride/carpool or rent a car, which is a good idea if you'd like to see other parts of NZ while visiting) and follow these directions:

Address: 46 El Dorado Leader, Pauanui, Coromandel, New Zealand
Home of Dawn and Clyde Kennedy

Driving directions:
1. From Auckland, get to the Southern Motorway 45.7 km
2. Take the ramp onto (State) Highway 2 17.0 km
3. Turn left to stay on H 2 17.3 km
4. Turn left at Highway 25 21.6 km
5. Turn left to stay on Highway 25 1.7 km
6. Continue on Kopu Rd 1.0 km
7. Turn right at Ngati Maru Hwy 0.9 km
8. Turn left at Kopu Hikuai Rd 27.9 km
9. Slight left at Tairua Rd 1.4 km
10. Turn right at Hikuai Settlement Rd 11.0 km
12. Turn left at El Dorado Leader
- Drive towards the end of the street. You'll see us on the last corner in the road. We're on the right hand side in the large, 2 storied, U-shaped duplex. If you hit the sea you've gone too far.

Any party attendees from the US, contact me for additional information. We'll be visiting the country, Simon longer than me, but there'll be time for lots of fun! Hope you can join us!

Please no gifts!

View of the Coromandel... breath-taking! Come see for yourself!

We met MICHAEL FRANTI!

Me, Andrew, Alan Blackie and Simon at Stanley Park-with the cool, rock balancing sculptures behind us.

Simon admist the lush trees on our way to Breitenbush!

Our Breitenbush cabin was quaint, simple and so cozy with birds chirping and trees whispering everywhere.

Annual Update

It seems that my blog updates have been occurring less and less since we stopped traveling. Shocking!

At any rate, our lives have been jam-packed with activities-moving, work, family fun and a little travel. In the last few months, I've started working with a family as their nanny, personal assistant and helping with a new foundation. Simon is busy working with a contractor, renovating a home in Ballard. He's learning new skills every day and coming home dirty and tired, but loving it!

Last spring, we went to the Sasquatch music festival in eastern Washington. The venue is a gorgeous outdoor amphitheater with multiple stages and I forgot how jaw-dropping beautiful. I hadn't been there since college, which was a just a few years ago. :)

Kristine, Simon and I camped out, enjoyed excellent music by The Cure (one of Simon's all time favorites), REM (they performed as it rained lightly, and most people stayed away. Fools! Michael Stipe is just a dedicated and blissful performer), Crudo (who was recently created by Mike Patton, formerly of Faith No More and such an amazing, kooky performer. He's definitely a little crazy, but so fun!), MIA (who looked tiny from where we sat, but she rocked the whole place), The Breeders, and the highlight, Michael Franti and Spearhead! Not only did he perform away in his very cool, sometimes reggage, sometimes funk, always engaging music, but WE MET HIM! He was gracious and so sweet. He kissed my head. I haven't washed my hair since.

For the 4th of July, our friends Rich, Sheryl, Alan and Ellen, gave us a gift certificate Breitenbush, which is a hot springs resort in the deep forest, south of Portland. For a few days, we enjoyed amazing hot springs and pools, beautiful walks, amazing vegetarian food, intense massages and lots of rest. We met some really interesting people and had lots of quiet time, too.

The entire location is surrounded by trees, mountainous terrain and a deep, rolling river. It's a community owned and operated community with a calming atmosphere. We spent a few nights in the hottest hot springs, laying on rock slate, gazing at the amazing sky that was littered with immense, textured, layers of stars. What a sight! We loved it! Thank you, guys!

We have been visiting Vancouver lots this year, as our close friends Angela and Mark, who we met in Taiwan, moved there. Vancouver is such a fun, bustling, delicious city. Similar to Seattle, it's surrounded by mountains and water. Each time I visit that city, I think about moving there. Oh Canada!

Recently, Alan and Andrew Blackie visited from New Zealand. They were in Vancouvery for just a day and we drove up to see them. The Blackie's are good family friends of Simon's family and it was great to meet them. We enjoyed a little sight-seeing, including Vancouver's annual dragon boat racing and a nice walk through Stanley Park. They continued on through a road trip through parts of Canada and we headed south, stopping only for our favorite border perk... Duty free shopping!

Finally, this summer my nephew Reagan visited from back East. I love the babies in my life and he's a true blessing! He is just over a year old and his personality, warmth and the joy he exudes is just so sweet. Simon and I spent lots of time with him and my brother and sister-in-law while they visited. I couldn't get enough. We also bought him his first pair of sneakers. Any excuse to buy shoes!

That was the last few months in a nutshell... I'm sure I'm leaving out some other great experiences, but you get the idea. We are moving to a friend's condo in a few weeks in a great hood in Seattle. More on this soon! Peace.

Sun and snow... what else does one need? :)

Views, views... everywhere!

Allie, Sean, me, Si, Peter and Dee... at a little snow covered lake. Beautiful!

Snow Shoeing!

Peter and Dee, good friends of ours, took us up snow shoeing at Stevens Pass. I had never been and LOVED it. I love skiing, but getting to know the snow in a different way was great. The sun gloriously shined down on us all day and we stopped at the top of a little summit for amazing views and a delicious lunch, complete with a little cocktail, which only added to the fun of trying to go down a mountain on snow shoes. We journeyed 4 miles in total. What a great day!

One of the things I LOVE about facebook :)

Honeymooners on a sunset cruise in Oahu

Surfers waiting for the next big one on Waikiki

The closest we've ever been to Eddie Vedder. We got his lounge chair, after he left. He and Simon shared booty space.

Me, my brother Kai and my cutest nephew Reagan with the blanket I knitted him for x-mas. His cheeks are so nummy!

Enjoying the snow on a perfect day for sledding.

Sledding in Snoqualmie with a huge group of friends. So much fun!

Andre, Maren, Si and me in cold, but dry Seattle!

Simon, Maren, Andre and Kevin trying to look warm on a cold, windy day at Stanley Park, Vancouver

Trudi, Simon and Mari along Venice Beach in LA!

Finally Burning Man pictures! Nearly each day, gorgeous sunsets filled the skies.

Huge wheel on the playa. Go Mag Rex!

Simon waiting in line for ice with Martshal... Lovely dress Si!

Center Camp!

Daniel ringing the "newbie bell" at the gates of Burning Man!

Time seems to evaporate...

As usual, time has flown by and I realize that I haven't posted anything since our wedding in September. Where has time gone?

After our wedding, we continued to adjust to life back in the US, not traveling on our every whim and settling down a bit. I must say that if it weren't for Simon, I'd probably have lost my mind by now, or moved to another country again. There is something very appealing about living in a foreign country, learning the language, figuring out little things like figuring out how to order a certain kind of food and feeling a sense of accomplishment when you make a connection with a local. However, coming back to Seattle has been comforting in a lot of ways. For me reconnecting with friends and family has truly warmed my heart and of course, everyone adores Simon.

Currently, I am ending my work as a nanny for a few different families. Recently, I've worked with children ages 10 months up to 3 years. My days are full of smiles, giggles, runny noses, careful attention, social outings (I love community centers!) and constantly explaining to people in public "No, this isn't my child. I'm a nanny" and getting a solid dose of birth control on a daily basis. I'm just not ready to be a mother yet! Simon is busying his time doing paint jobs and other tricks of the trade. He's a fast learner and a perfectionist so is up for the challenge when laying dry wall, trimming molds or other tasks come up. He's enjoying this kind of work and would like to learn more about construction, as he's taking a class on wood work at Seattle Central Community College.

I also have returned to school in the evenings as I am pursuing my career to be a Child Life Specialist. At a local community college, I am taking a few classes and one of them should be a super interesting class. The focus is on cultural relevance and anti-bias work. The class is taught by two very knowledgeable women who have long careers working with children and promoting cultural diversity. They explained to us that we come to class as experts in our experiences and everyone has the right to speak and share air time in class when discussing different topics.

The first night, one student, who is from Louisiana and perhaps has some different views about race and homosexuality, but is very well-traveled and confidently speaks out when she disagrees with a comment or issue, dominated a discussion about race issues, particularly related to the events related to Hurricane Katrina. In just a few minutes, this woman managed to anger quite a few students in the class and for a few minutes I thought the class was going to get all Jerry Springer. Out of excitement, I almost stood up and started chanting "Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!", but I refrained. This class is going to keep all of us on our toes this quarter.

In December, one of the families I work for, vacationed in Oahu, Hawaii and I went with them. We enjoyed 4 days in a beautiful rental home in the Kahala neighborhood, but unfortunately, the children were sick, so we were limited in our activities. However, the experience was fun and at the end of the trip, Simon came out to meet me for a belated honeymoon.

We stayed near Waikiki beach in an apartment that my father and step-mother own. They visit Hawaii often each year. Our days were filled with trips to the beach, relaxing, reading, taking naps, deciding what to eat next and more relaxing. It was a wonderful trip! We also met 2 girls from Cali (one was a kiwi) and their local Hawaiian boyfriends. The girls were visiting for a month and really having fun getting to know the locals, etc. We played with them for most of the week and enjoyed going to a local party, where we met lots of cool people with interesting stories.

We also rented a car and drove around the island one day. The Pipeline surfing competition was in full swing on the north shore, which is apparently the largest competition in the world. The surf is amazing and so strong! We hung out on the beach, enjoying the surfer's, then rambled home, stopping along the way for the freshest shrimp I've ever eaten. Also, lots of great fruit stands along the way back, too. Yum!

Right after Christmas, we were blessed with a visit from Andre and Maren. I met Maren years ago when working as a member of the finance team for Gencon shows. Maren and Andre currently live in New Jersey and were visiting Andre's family who just moved to Seattle. We had such a great time with them! One weekend, we all journeyed to Vancouver for a little trip. That city is excellent! In addition to the yummy dim sum lunch we enjoyed in Chinatown, we also ventured around experiencing as much of the local culture as we could.

In January, we took another weekend trip down to LA to meet Shelley and her new hubby, Darcy. Shelley is a good friend and ex-girlfriend of Simon's. I also got to know her when I lived in Taiwan, as she was living and working there at the same time. She's oodles of fun and we enjoyed meeting her new hubby. They are both kiwis and flew to LA, rented a car, then drove to Vegas to get married. We spent a weekend with them in LA after the wedding and had fun going out in West Hollywood, then acted like big kids at Universal Studios. I hadn't been there since I was little and the rides were amazing! What fun! Simon's cousin Trudi, who attended our wedding, also lives in LA. It was great to see her. She's such a special member of the family!

In January, we also were visited by our friend, Kara who we met in Taiwan. Kara's from the US, but was visiting family in the northwest. She is such a gem and it was GREAT catching up with her. Also, our friend Wez, a kiwi and old friend of Simon's visited, too. Wez lives in Sacramento, but was in town for some work. He's always full of crazy stories and good times. It's been raining friends! Hallelujah!

Since December, we have either been traveling or house-sitting for friends and family. Simon and I decided we are gypsies, constantly living out of a backpack or suitcase. Now, we are minimizing our moving and are moving in with our friend, Laurel. She has a great home in Tukwila, which is just outside of Seattle and we are so excited about the opportunity.

On Valentine's Day, we had our interview with Homeland Security and it went great! Simon should have his green card in just a few weeks! We had prepared all sorts of "evidence" of our relationship-pictures, all of our wedding cards, invitations, printed out e-mails, pictures on our laptop, etc. In the end, our interviewer didn't really want to see any of it, just our wedding invitation, one picture and one bank statement. We thought the entire process was going to be much more rigorous, but it went so well. We can breathe easier knowing that we don't have to worry about any immigration issues for at least a few years, anyway. Phew!

We are wishing everyone much love and happiness in the new year! Cheers!