Gifts from the sea

Where does the time go?! I didn't mean to let so much of it go by without a new post! We've been spending lots of time at our new favorite beach - the north end of beautiful Papohaku beach right near us. One day last week we drove in there exploring a dirt road that leads right to the cove. That makes it so much easier to get there rather than schleping our stuff and ourselves 20 minutes along the beach from the nearest public access. While we were checking it out we met a local guy who had just been snorkeling for shells and was leaving with a flipper full of gorgeous, whole shells of all shapes and colors. The next day we went back and Zara and John snorkeled for more than an hour. They were thrilled with the shells they found and with all the gorgeous fish they saw. We've been going back almost every day since! It's a beautiful place to hang out with friends, play in the clear water and find incredible shells!

That's Zara's head popping out of the water on the right.

Some of the incredible shells Zara's been finding. That one on the right is 4 inches long!

Bella and Thor in the back of the truck, ready to go to the beach.

When we're not at the beach, Thor loves finding little insects and geckos in the yard.

A TINY baby praying mantis.

Thor played with this little gecko for ages!

We opened a watermelon a few days ago that had no taste, so we took it down to our friend's place and fed it to their pigs! The kids had fun watching them snarf it down. One of these pigs is due to have babies very soon. We can't wait to see them!

Bella reading a story to her friend Eyeris!

Papaya and my new thrifted dishes!

Eating a yummy breakfast outside on the patio. We all have some serious morning eyes!

Virgil, the owner of this lovely house we're living in, arrived last week and we're really enjoying getting to know him. He already feels like part of the family! We had a little pizza party for him on the weekend and are having fun making plans for more projects around the property.

I'm feeling very grateful to be living in such a beautiful spot. Today as we were leaving the beach I turned around for another look and was just struck by the beauty of it. Almost every day one of us says "WOW! I'm so happy we're living here". Yesterday Thor said "I think I'll live here forever. I don't ever want to leave. Just for holidays back to Kelowna, then we can come back here"! We're loving life!