Smartest dog ever

I woke up this morning and Pilot was sitting at my feet reading Tolstoy's "War and Peace". I asked if he wanted to go for a walk. His answer: well, I think his look says it all.

All in a day's work...

This is the view from my office last week: Cape Canaveral, Florida.
The white building is the Kennedy Space Center.

A rough day at the office...

... at least it has a view of San Diego Bay!

REWARD: Missing Crab

MISSING: Crab
Answers to the name "Fiddle"
Escaped from tank
May have been eaten by a little black dog (AKA "Pilot")

Last night after Kenny got back from a weekend trip to Aspen, we shot over to Walmart and picked up a cute new addition to our fish tank. Fiddle settled right in and didn't even seem to mind the fish. This morning when we checked on the tank we noticed we were missing the newest member of our aquatic family.

Kenny searched the house high and low, but Fiddle is officially gone. Hopefully we don't find him in a few days... after wondering why our house smelled like rotten sea food...

Goodbye Fiddle, we hardly knew you :(

He is a bit crazy

The other day we tried to post the video of Pilot after his bath. After 3 days of trying, Google video finally worked. So, without futher ado.. here is our little guy going a bit crazy after his bath...






Yeah. After we clean him, we always have to clean the house.

Kenny was home all weekend!

Yippee!!! This was the first weekend in a long time that Kenny was home both Saturday and Sunday. It was so nice to have him home and have nothing that had to be done.

Saturday we went shooting and then caught a movie.

On Sunday we decided to go hiking to check out the waterfalls up in the mountains. This year we have had so much rain and everything is green. The rivers are flowing more than they have in years and we figured we'd better seize the moment to check out the waterfalls before everything dried up again.

The falls were beautiful and Pilot had the time of his life. We are convinced that he is part spaniel, part antelope... a spanielope, if you will :) He was going crazy running and jumping over boulders along the trail.



Although the hike was fun, we found several ticks hiding on our clothes, so our poor little puppy had to get a bath. Doesn't he look miserable?



Here he is after the bath. He hates baths and they make him go a little crazy...

From Snow to Surf

San Diego is the coolest place to live... ever! And trust us, we have been all around the world.

On Sunday we loaded up the Explorer and headed up to the mountains 20 minutes away. There was still snow and Pilot had a great time playing in it. It was so deep in some places he would fall in if he landed too hard!

After spending some time in the mountains we stopped at home and swapped out the cars and headed to the beach for a little surf, sand and seafood.

We had a great crab and shrimp dinner and then went for a walk on Crystal Pier.

Yep, San Diego is the best. Where else can you spend the day playing in the snow, watching dolphins play in the ocean, and walk on the beach... and in 72 degree temperatures the entire time. We love this town!


Snow







Surf

Done with Christmas

This year we packed up our Christmas stuff sooner than most years... maybe because we decorated the day after Thanksgiving, maybe because our Christmas tree was a poster child for the "Fire Hazzard: Live Trees Ruin Christmas" campaign (seriously... one stray spark and our whole house was toast!) or maybe we were just taking our cue from Pilot... apparently he wanted us to know he was tired of the decorations and if we didn't take them down, he would do it for us...




How soon do you take down Christmas decorations? We know a little puppy dog who would love to help.

A boy and his dog

Jeffrey & Pilot had a great time this weekend playing together. Jeffrey is crawling, so he is now on the same level as poor Pilot!

Last time we were up at Mom & Dad's, we bought a tree swing for Jeffrey. Since everyone was at the house this weekend, we decided to put it up and see if Jeffrey liked it. Well, Jeffrey AND Pilot LOVED it!

I think they are Best Friends Forever now!

Isn't he cute?

Just another picture of Pilot. Man, if we are this bad about forcing people to look at our puppy, just think how bad it will be if we have kids ;)

Pilot Loves Aflac

Last year Jen's parents gave Pilot an Aflac duck. It was sooo cute and fluffy! When you squeezed it it shouted "Aflac, Aflac, AFLAAAAAC!"

Pilot absolutely loves his Aflac. Even now as I am writing this I can hear the poor duck scream "AFLAAAAAC!" in the background as he plays with it.

Needless to say, Aflac has seen better days after a year of abuse... err.. love... from Pilot :)

Pilot at Balboa Park

Sunday we took Pilot to Balboa Park for the first time. He loved it! So many people to see and things to sniff. He had fun helping us find some geocaches and even located one for us that we couldn't find. We only stayed at Balboa for a few hours and then called it a day because it was soooo hot. We can’t wait for the cooler weather so we can go Geocaching without risking heat stroke.

Animal House

We have a new roommate that has been living with us for the last few days. No wild toga parties, but her and Pilot have been “hitting the sauce”

Yum! Pilot & Buttercup love gravy!!!

Don't worry Danny & Tonita... Buttercup didn't have too much...


...but Pilot did. He just didn't know when to stop!

Merry Christmas!

We can't believe it is Christmas time already! This year has flown by... as always. It seems that every year goes by faster than the one before. This year has been very busy, but fun. A quick recap...

Early this year we purchased a new airplane for our flight school, Rison Aviation. It is a cute little Cessna 150. Rison continues to grow. We have three instructors and many wonderful students. It is great that Kenny has a job that he looks forward to every day. Flying is a great way to make a living!

Jen is also doing well with her business, Blue Yonder Girl. This year we again went to the Miramar Air Show as a vendor. This year it once again rained! Despite the rain, we had a great time.

Jen is still working at Kennon S. Shea & Associates. She has been there for 5 years! This month she received a promotion and is now the Financial Analyst in the Corporate Office.

This year was filled with many travels and adventures as well.

In March we went to Ventura and camped a few days at the beach with Jen's family. While there we celebrated Jim & Jolene's 25th anniversary!

In April we visited Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon along with Kenny's brother Eric. We had a great time camping and Geocaching (our new hobby).

In May we moved! That is right, we no longer live in a hangar at the airport. We moved into our new house at the end of May with lots of help from both sets of parents.

In June we went to Hume Lake with Jen's family. Jamie & David celebrated their one year anniversary and we celebrated out 5 year!

In September we started school... yes, we are back in school. We are finishing up our undergrad at CSU Chico. The great thing is that all our classes are online. This year we also enrolled in the law degree program at Southern California University. We will be done with law school in 4 years and will then take the dreaded Bar Exam! We would like to practice aviation law.

In September we also were able to check one of our goals of the list... we went to Alaska! We had so much fun visiting with friends and seeing the beauty of God's creation. It was a great adventure and one that we can’t wait to do again.

This year also brought a new addition to our family. That is right… we were tired of waiting and so we adopted… a puppy! We found our little guy in the pound and just couldn’t resist. Pilot… yes, that is his name… is the perfect little dog and fits in great with our family. He is just over two years old and the cutest guy you will ever meet… his pictures don’t do him justice.

All in all 2005 was a great year, full of adventures and blessings from the Lord. So much happened that it is impossible to fit it all in here. We can’t wait to see what 2006 will bring. We hope that you all have a Merry Christmas and a wonderful 2006!

Blue Skies!

Kenny, Jen & Pilot

Pilot

Here is our little guy.

His eyes aren't normally blue :)