Aloha! The view from our wonderful suite at the Hilton Waikoloa was spectacular! We enjoyed sitting on the balcony watching birds and the surf come into the bay. The hotel is HUGE covering 62 acres! The place is so big that we had our choice of taking the tram or gondola taxi to our room. We swam in several of the massive pools with water slides, played putt putt golf, and swam in the gigantic sea lagoon that house many sea turtles to play with.
We were worried about the kid's ability to hold it together on the 9 hour plane ride, but they were extremely well behaved! Unfortunately, Catie had a sour puss sitting in front of her that kept falsely accusing her of kicking his seat... Stiv had to have some words with the fellow... They were in heaven with the built in TV's on the back headrests with unlimited movies! 
Everyone was no worse for wear after the long flight and were excited to board for the quick flight to Kona.
Jax and Catie are ready to start ther "Dolphin Quest" experience. They have been looking forward to swimming with the dolphins for over a year and were so excited for it to actually become a reality.
They had a blast learning about dolphins first hand and were in the water with them for over an hour. It was amazing how long the smiles and giggles lasted. Of course, Jackson had an endless stream of questions for his trainer while Catie was passively listening and following directions. 
Even dolphins like to be tickled... For some reason Catie loved the fact that she was feeding the dolphins "dead fish".
Ms. Lion riding the lion statue... another case of potential poor parenting...
Stiv and Jackson had the mother of all checker battles. After lots of smack talking and intimidation tactics, Stiv pulled out the victory on the last move possible! After a few tears, they finally shook hands after the fierce battle.
Saturday was the Ironman World Championships in Kona. We were excited to watch this event and it did not disappoint. We have not experienced anything quite like this before, it was one of most inspirational and exciting things we have witnessed. The athletes and their friends and families came from all over the world, making this a true international event. The swim started with Hawaiian drums playing a slow but steady beat in the background while thousands of spectators surrounding Kailua-Kona Bay excitedly waited, building up to the firing of the cannon to set off the 1800 swimmers powering their way through the ocean like a giant school of fish ...it gave you the chills!
Mother and daughter moments before John's big day was to start.
Jackson saw a few kids with Vuvuzela horns walking around in Kona and wanted one "real bad". So as only Jackson can, he started to investigate how to get one. After several "conversations," he discoverd the only place to get them was in a private hospitality suite sponsored by Blue Bicycles for their best customers. Once he found where the suite was located, Stiv had to follow him to it's location through a massive sea of people. Upon arrival, he proceeded to introduce himself to the "guard" at the door and explain why he was there. Two minutes later he had his Vuvuzela and we were on our way! On a side note, never let anyone you know have a Vuvuzela... after about two minutes they become unbearably annoying!!!
The family after lunch at the Royal Kona Resort. We took a nice break from the action while the athletes were out on the 112 mile bike portion of the race.
Here we are roadside waiting for John and our Dynamo Multisport friends to come by on the run. We found a great spot where they run by twice in a 45 minute period.
Here is the eventual winner Chris "Mecca" McCormack running right by us at mile 8. He was in second at the time, but he looked great and we thought he had a good chance of winning. The lead men were running at sub 6 min/mile pace through the first part of the marathon!!!
Here is Ann's buddy Rinny ready to blow away the women's field. We were really disappointed that Chrissie Wellington did not start because of the flu, but we are big Rinny fans too! 
Abby was wiped out by the end of the day, but many people still had hours of racing ahead of them! 
We spent a moring at the Hupona Beach State Park that is just a few miles down from our hotel. The beach was awesome and it was one the best on the Island. The sign above says "beware of falling coconuts"... our trap did not work!
Jackson loved playing in the ocean jumping waves and body surfing to shore. The perma-smile on his face was so nice to see! 
Abby was kind of tentative with the beach. She was not sure if she liked the sand on her feet, but loved dumping it on Daddy's head when he was not looking!
Thanksgiving started off with our running the Thanksgiving day half marathon along with a couple of our friends... Oh wait, only Ann ran this year because everyone else was either out of shape or nursing an injury. The race conditions were absolutely perfect for a long run as the temp was mid 50's and overcast. Sadly, our license to eat on this holiday is coming to a close as this annual event is being moved to October next year. We are not happy about this as another great tradition bites the dust.
Ann is heading out for her run through the hilly streets of the ATL on a brand new course that everyone seemed to agree was an improvement.
She must have had a good run because she is still smiling heading into finish!
We bumped into our friend Casey toward the end of the run. They both look like they could turn around and run the course again!
We invited ourselves along with Grandma Schwartz over to the Shores for Thanksgiving dinner again. This year we even made several of the side dishes. Stiv was supposed pickup two pies at this special bakery, instead he just bought them at Sam's Club and just told everyone they were from the "special" bakery...
Issac is a huge Michael Jackson fan and has Catie engrossed in a Michael Jackson movie. We think the boxing gloves were an attempt to keep Catie inline!
Ariel and Abby are playing their favorite game Cariboo.
More silliness and TV watching kept the kids busy while the adults ignored them during dinner. Our Thanksgiving at the Shores was great fun with fantastic food and company. Unfortunately, it all came crashing down when the Abster barfed all over the dining room table just before dessert was served! Not a good scene...
The next morning we were all up early to set up the Christmas decoration. The kids were big help and actually helped carry up the supplies from the basement before doing an outstanding job of decorating the tree.
