Mother's Day Island Style!

(I am still going to do a post about the last week of my family's visit, but I thought I'd be in the moment and post about today first!)

My lovely new friend Jeannine and I decided last week that we'd like to spend part of Mother's Day at Mo'omomi beach together with our families. This beach is on the north side of the island and is an area that we have not explored, so I was happy to be there. It is more rugged than other areas and because it's on the north side, it's the catch-all for the plastic trash that travels the oceans wide. We have seen very little plastic garbage on beaches on this island but apparently it's all here! After enjoying the area for a few hours, we pulled out 2 big black trash bags and filled them with fishing line, fishing nets, plastic bottles and other trash. We even found a child's plastic snow ski! Go figure!

Just as we were getting ready to leave, we spotted a sea turtle off these rocks. We watched it for awhile as it dove and swam... very cool. It's nesting season right now so we were hoping to see some on the beach, but had to settle for the one in the water! We also saw a monk seal sleeping on a little beach. It was a lovely morning with friends, in the sunshine, at the ocean.

 

 

 Bella was having so much fun with Nathalie (Jeannine and Paul's daughter) that she went home with her for a few hours! I picked her up before going to the Sunday concert at Coffee's. This week at the concert when they called up all the ukulele players, Bella came up with me to strum her new ukulele that Grandpa bought her for her birthday! She was in heaven!
(More on Bella's new uke in the near future - Family Visit Part 2!)

 

 

When we got home from Coffee's, it was such a glorious evening that we decided to take our supper down to the beach - North Papohaku....probably our very favorite place on the island. We enjoyed our yummy dinner of veggie wraps and the kids had fun playing in the sand while we watched the sun sink down behind Oahu.

You can see the silhouette of Oahu at the bottom of this photo - the view from our house.

This year I bought myself a Mother's Day present - a bracelet made by a very talented artist living in the San Juan Islands. He comes to Moloka'i every year to collect puka shells and sometimes to set up his studio. He is well known on this island and many people here have one of his very distinctive, beautiful braceletes. I've been admiring them on others for months and was thrilled to walk into the book and gift store yesterday where they are sold to see a new shipment had just arrived. I found a smaller one to fit my little wrist and said "Happy Mother's Day to me!". The shells will always remind me of this beautiful place, bringing me back to the beach on Moloka'i even when I'm far away! A beautiful gift from the sea. A work of art.

  

Happy Mother's Day...

I am so grateful for my mom and feel so blessed to be mothering three awesome kids of my own!

Love and hugs to all the amazing mama's in my life! xoxo