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

More fun in the yard

Ella and St. John are back in Hawaii and are having a great time exploring the new parts of the yard that Mark worked so hard clearing. We just wish Abby and Mason were here, too!

Atticus and Joey

Came across this pic and had to share. We love our new puppies, but we still miss these two guys...

More land to play on

Mark has been clearing more of our land lately. We can't wait to plant some grass and watch it grow.
Obviously, Lucy and the puppies love playing in the wide open spaces!

Around the house on Labor Day

Lucy loves playing with sticks and pulling up weeds. Unfortunately she doesn't know the difference between a weed and a squash seedling! I have had to keep a close watch while she is near our garden.


Ella's zinnias.



Our puppies are getting bigger and still have more growing to go.

Ella and SJ return to the South

Yesterday I put Ella and SJ on a jumbo jet to fly from Honolulu to Atlanta. We will miss them while they are with their Dad, but know that they will have a great time seeing all of their family and friends in Birmingham.
They are even going to go back to their school for a few days. The beauty of a small private school....your kids can return for a few days with no paperwork, no signatures, no fuss! Thank you!!
The school I am referring to is Red Mountain Community School (http://redmountaincommunityschool.com/). This school is one of the main things that we miss about Birmingham! It can be such a magical place(and I don't mean like Disneyland).


Ella and Sj about to board for a 9 hour flight.

We've started school.

School has started in the Carder household and therefore we have been especially busy! The kids are adjusting to our new schedule and seem to enjoy most of what we are learning so far.

Here is a picture of Ella and SJ completely a nature study of ferns in the yard beside our house.