In April we visited Dominique and Kyle in Perth. They are all settled in and flourishing. Throughout most of 2025, Dominique was both a student and teacher. She’s teaching dance at a Peter Moyes Anglican Community School. Dance is compulsory for seventh graders and and elective after that. And she’s been studying for her Master of Teaching at Edith Cowan University, which she is finally done with and graduation is coming up in February. Kyle has been working at a job at Barnett Lab in The Kids Research Institute. This job is somewhat similar to his job in Seattle, but the focus of this job is the bacterial infections that lead to strep throat and potentially then to the more serious acute rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease, a serious problem for marginalized populations.
We took a trip with Dominique and Meggie’s friends, Beata and Magda Lisek, to Busselton where there’s a jetty at the end of which you can descend down into a submerged room from which you can observe beautiful fish in their natural habitat.
Dominique and Kyle flew into Seattle for Mikayla Kiyokawa’s wedding. Mikayla is a childhood dance buddy of Dominque’s. They had been dancing together since they were 3 years old, and they were also college roommates. This was a great opportunity for Dominique and Kyle to catch up with all sorts of friends and family while in Seattle. The photo on the postcard is from the wedding which was held on The MV Skansonia, Seattle’s last remaining wooden ferry, now a gorgeous event venue on Lake Union near University of Washington, where Dominique, Kyle, and Mikayla and her husband, Harrison, all went to school.
Meggie made five business trips to Japan this year, way more than she’d planned on making, but she’s the best, and she’s in demand. In June Meggie was able to break away from Tokyo for a bit and make a trip to Sapporo to visit her her sister-in-law Keiko. The photo is with Aunt Michiko and cousins, Kyoko and Atsuko.
Meggie made a side trip to Taiwan to meet with her friend Jane who is a Taiwanese native, who took her around in Taipei and Meggie got a flavor of Taiwan visiting various restaurants with Jane.
Scott is making a bit of a career change. He’s handed over his website development company, J. Hammock & Associates, LLC, to his assistant, Grace Bautista, and has enrolled in The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology to pursue a career as a mental health counselor. So far, one trimester down, eight more to go.
And lastly, Joey and Daisy. They enjoy life to the fullest. They sleep; they eat; they nap; they play, and they demand attention or treats, which they always get. Life could be worse.
Isla, Dominique and Kyle’s dog, gets her own section here because we miss her and look forward to seeing her again in February when we visit Dominique and Kyle to be at Dominique’s graduation ceremony. Isla, a solid mass of muscle, still thinks she’s a lap dog.
