Our Holiday in the South

We've been in Alabama and Mississippi for the Holidays this year. We've really had a wonderful time seeing our friends and family. It snowed in Birmingham on Christmas day for the first time in recorded history, and we are glad we didn't miss it.

Ella and St. John at school

The kids are becoming more and more comfortable at their new school. I wanted to take a picture of them with their teachers and classmates.
I didn't get a chance to get a picture of SJ with his friends, but some of his best friends are Santiago, Zaccheaus, and Uriah.
Here is SJ with his teacher, Ms. Miulan. She wears muumuu's everyday. SJ really likes her.


Ella is friends with everyone in her class. Her teacher, Mrs. Cabral, is a real character. Mrs. Cabral collects pig statues and was born and raised on the Big Island.
Last week Ella came home and said she wanted to dye her hair black. I asked her why and she said because all of her friends have black hair and she thinks it's pretty.

Leaving the Islands

We are flying to Birmingham for the Holidays and won't be back on the Big Island until Jan. 7th. David is going to be staying at our house, taking care of our dogs and chickens. I've learned that it's FREEZING in Bham and I'm not really sure how my body is going to react. I'm planning on overpacking, which is good because I usually underpack. Now I just have to find all of my warm clothes that haven't been worn since we moved.
We are really looking forward to seeing everyone!

Might as well post a couple of silly pics, too.

Christmas Wreaths

Ella and I went to a friend's house yesterday and made Christmas wreaths! All of the materials we used to make the wreaths were picked in the neighborhood. You like see?

Random fun pics

We aren't doing much Christmas decorating considering we aren't going to be here for Christmas, but we couldn't help putting up some colorful lights on some of our ohia trees. Putting up Christmas decor in shorts can't be beat.


Lucy in her 80's workout attire.



The kids went to a birthday party yesterday and Lucy would not get off of the swing. Mark is now searching for a perfect place in our yard for a swing.

Thanksgiving 2010

We enjoyed a simple but very yummy Thanksgiving dinner at home this year. Yes, Hawaii is now our home and is actually beginning to feel like it. I remember Ellen saying it took her about 6 months of living in LA for it to feel like home, well that must be the magic number for me, too.

Bird Park

The Bird Park is located in the Volcano National Park and is only about 15 minutes from our house. It's an "island" of very old, very large trees where birds are plentiful. The reason it's an island is because this piece of land has not had a lava flow on it for a very long time whereas all around it has. There is a mile long trail that is perfect for our fam to hike.

Disaster and Dogs

We took the dogs in the car with us today to the beach. It ended up being a disaster. We took the dogs with us in a very shallow rock bottom part of the beach. Everyone enjoyed it, but in the car on the drive home one of the dogs got sick since he had been drinking ocean water. Then Kahiki had a very stinky accident on the back seat before we stopped so he could finish his business.
THEN, Indy burst a package of barbeque sauce from McDonald's in the front seat. So we smelled the bbq sauce very strongly most of the way home, which was better than the other two competing smells.
I took some pictures of the dogs in the car just as we were leaving the house, before they made our car smell like a dumpster.

Hot ponds

I took the kids to swim in the hot ponds today. It's basically a pool filled with a mixture of ocean water and thermally heated stream water. It is full of small tropical fish that have little fear of people.

Funny things about Hawaii

There are lots of funny, different things that I've learned about the people and culture in Hawaii. Here are just a few.

-Instead of your kid's friends calling you Mr. Mark or Ms. Emily, they say Uncle Mark and Aunty Emily, or simply Uncle or Aunty.

-At restaurants your waiter will ask you, "Are you pau?" which means are you finished.

-Trash is called Rubbish

-Men and children can go to Walmart, Home Depot, grocery stores, and most other establishments just wearing a swimsuit,
"No shoes, no shirt, no one gives a sh**."

-You can take your pets, especially small dogs, into the stores listed above, as long as they can ride in the shopping cart.

I can't think of anymore right now, but I will update this thread with more as I see them.

Family pic at Pohoiki

My Aunt Kay and Uncle Joe came for a short visit from Seattle last weekend. We had a great time showing them around the Big Island! They took this picture of us on the Pohoiki shore where Mark likes to body board. I wish we had gotten a picture of all of us, too!

Mac nuts

We have a few macadamia nut trees on our property that have been dropping the nuts like crazy lately! The picture of the mac nuts below is of the nuts that I collected today. On average we find two dozen every day! We've been reading about how you dry them and then roast them. The mac nut has the hardest shell of all nuts, so we are still working on the best way to crack them without completely crushing the meat inside.
Lucy and Kahiki like to help find the nuts, too.

Our puppies are turning into....

DOGS!!

Drive to Pohoiki

Mark has really gotten back into riding waves. He has been body boarding and hopes to get a surf board in the near future. He drives to a beach called Pohoiki a couple times a week and enjoys the view from the car almost as much as the water.

Our favorite garden park, Queen Liliuokalani Gardens

More pics from around the house and yard

Abby's chicken, Sunshine.


Our driveway.


Our chicken coop made from guava trees cut from our property. And Kahiki running down one our new trails.

Ella and St. John go the school

Here is the view as you walk out the front door


Yes, the kids started school today at a great public charter school in downtown Hilo. I stayed with SJ as they went on an excursion to Onekahakaha Beach and learned about ecosystems, watersheds, and much more. Here are a few pics from the excursion.

Coconut Island Picnic today

Today, we went to Coconut Island. It was so fun. We got to swim, and swimming was so much and I mean so much fun!! Mama didn't really swim that much, she just waded.
And we also had a picnic. the Food was super yummy, I had sushi. I think that Coconut Island is my favorite beach on the island.
-Ella