hello beautiful life!

Aloha!

2012-02-09T17:19:00.000-08:00

The last 2 weeks have been busy with friends, Curtis and Amanda,visiting us from home. Curtis is a fantastic gardener and was a great help in the garden. They both enjoyed the fresh food and the warm weather! Their visit went quickly and before we knew it we were saying good-bye!

The kids are enjoying having their own headlamps. (Hooray for free shipping from REI!) We use them a lot here as we try not to have lights on much at night, and they end up being our reading lights. We also use them when we go outside to see the stars making sure we don't step on a centipede.

This in my new pa'u skirt for hula practice. I got the fabric on Maui in December and enjoyed sewing it up this past week. It's just 4 yards of fabric with six rows of casing around the top (with elastic in every second row of casing). Super easy to make. I have fabric to make another one as well. Yesterday one of my hula sisters and I took some swatches of fabric to our Kumu (teacher) and broached the idea of making skirts for everyone out of one lovely fabric. He loved the idea and today I ordered 64 yards of fabric for 15 skirts and some sashes for the kanes (the men). When the fabric comes in we'll be BUSY!!!

Garden fresh tomatoes! This morning I baked fresh bread so lunch was tomato and pesto sandwiches with roasted eggplant and fresh salad greens! YUM!

Yesterday the kids and I cleaned and sorted the puka shells we've been collecting.

I've had fun making some simple little bracelets for the kids and I. There is a woman at the Saturday Market who sells all sorts of beads and beading supplies. I've been able to get everything I need for making jewelry from her.

We are enjoying some quiet days and getting ready for John's folks to arrive early next week. We're all happy and healthy and enjoying life to the fullest. Aloha!

This and that!

2012-02-03T22:27:00.000-08:00

No rhyme or reason to this post... no theme.... just our last few days in pictures!

Watching the waves at our favorite beach (Kepuhi Beach)

Little pixie girl

We didn't swim that day but it was amazing to watch! I never get tired of watching the waves.

Thor's little friend - he's becoming the gecko whisperer.

I LOVE tropical flowers. I buy them every time I go to the Saturday Market.

My latest thrift store purchase. Not sure what I'll do with it, but couldn't leave it in the store!

My makeshift sewing area! An old ironing board frame covered with a beach towel does the job! It feels good to be sewing again. So far I've done some alterations on that dress in the photo (for hula performances) and made myself a new "pa'u" skirt for hula practice. Will post of photo of it sometime soon. I bought some fabric while in Maui in December, so have a few things to work on.

A tropical smoothie ready to blend - mango, banana, pineapple. passionfruit and frozen coconut milk. Yum!

Bread ready to go into the woodfire oven.

It's been a good week!

Last week in pictures

2012-01-29T23:40:00.000-08:00

This past week we were the lucky recipients of some new (to us) outdoor play things. Some of our new friends had a trampoline and teeter totter to pass along and the kids are LOVING them! Our formerly empty yard has been turned into a private playground!

They have spent so many hours on the trampoline already and we are all so happy that they have something fun to do outside!

Zara having fun!

Bella and I got our hair cut short last week. I was concerned that Bella would regret it once she went so short but she was determined that this was what she wanted and she's been loving it. We've had 3 weeks of calm windless days, but the wind is back and we are so happy to not have hair blowing in our faces!

We're the short haired chicks in our family and Thor now has the 2nd longest hair out of us 5!

Such a cute little pixie!

Some of our good friends took us out on a boat last week and it was wonderful to be out on the ocean for the first time (besides the ferry to Maui). We saw humpbacks, sea turtles and a big manta ray.

John found this little guy while moving some rocks around. At first he thought it was a huge worm, but upon closer inspection realized it was a tiny snake! It must have been a snake that lived underground as his eyes were barely visible. Thor loved it and played with it for ages. At one point he finally put it down on the deck and it wriggled through the cracks and fell down below - much to the snake's relief I'm sure!

Some up-to-date photos of the garden.

John took the opportunity during these past calm weeks to put up some windbreaks. The plants will now be more protected and hopefully the soil won't dry out so quickly.

We all enjoyed a break from the wind... the plants as well as us humans. It felt like we could finally relax deeply rather than bracing ourselves against the force of the wind. We're all thriving and growing and blossoming!

Enjoying the moment

2012-01-28T00:20:00.000-08:00

It never fails to amaze me how much the beaches here can change from day to day. Last week we were at our current favorite beach (pictured in the previous post), enjoying a quiet, mellow day with the kids in the tide pools. The next day we went back and it was a very different scene! The waves were much bigger and there was a waterslide leading from the top pool to the bottom pool, which was now about four feet deep. It wasn't so safe for the little kids, but us older ones certainly enjoyed it!

A big wave pouring over into the bottom pool.

Bella and Thor just couldn't be left out of the fun, so they stripped down and jumped in for a quick dip during a smaller set of waves.

Just a few days before this the kids were moaning about how much they were missing H2O, the pool and aquatic center in our old neighborhood. Who needs a pool when you've got a waterslide and natural aquatic park at the local beach?! No chlorine and it's free!

The fun at this beach lasted a couple of weeks altogether, and now the tide pools are buried under a couple feet of sand! A good reminder to enjoy each moment! Life is changing each day as well. We never know what the next day will hold so let's just enjoy each moment!

Gardens and things!

2012-01-06T23:17:00.000-08:00

Our garden is thriving, (thanks to John and Virgil's hard work!) and we are enjoying some of the harvest already. We've had some beautiful, windless days this week and we've all been out there planting and getting our hands in the dirt. Almost every night we enjoy a big green salad straight from the garden. Hmmmm, fresh greens! Radishes are abundant as is the basil! Pesto party anyone?

This area is planted with squashes of all types, cucumbers, melons and potatoes. We've harvested a few patty pans and a cuke so far. Lots more coming on!

A good size salad turnip. I was so excited about planting these but they are SUPER spicy. There must be a more mild variety. Has anyone planted these and found a variety they love?

Playing with the roly-poly bugs.

The tomatoes are growing like crazy. Apparently they are really hard to grow here as they often

get infested with maggots. So John is covering each group of tomatoes as they develop with a little stocking that slips over them, in hopes of keeping them safe from the bugs that lay the maggots. Here's hoping for lots of salsa and pizza sauce in the near future! As well as pesto! The basil is thriving.

We've found a new favorite beach! The winter waves have taken away a huge amount of sand from this beach, leaving these wonderful tide pools for the kids to play in.

Depending on how big the waves are, every now and then a big one causes water to pour over the top of the rock outcrop and creates a little gentle waterfall from the top pool to the bottom. We've been spending HOURS here. It's amazing to listen to and watch the waves crash just on the other side of the big rock but have this safe space to hang out in. It's a magical spot.

One of my new friends on the Island is an amazing artist (as well as a carpenter and unicycle rider!)This amazing, multi-talented woman painted an entire studio condo in beautiful murals for the owners who live in Italy most of the time. We went over and had a look last week.

The kitchen is a fairy forest scene. Even the ceiling is painted a pale blue with wispy clouds.

This sunset is incredible - the sun absolutely glows. And the baseboard even has sand on it.

One of the fairies from the kitchen scene.

The bathroom is going to be an underwater scene. Only the dolphins are done so far, but Trace will be adding all sorts of fish, coral, etc.

For someone who loves color (like I do!), this would be an amazing place to vacation! I must meet the woman who owns the condo and requested the murals. I'm guessing she's pretty neat!

The flowers around the condos are so beautiful. Thor just loves them. He picks the fallen plumaria blossoms up off the ground and collects handfuls of them, admiring their beauty and their scent. He picks the prettiest hybiscus flowers and brings them to me to share... no matter how many times I remind him to leave them on the plants for others to enjoy, he just can't resist! He's captivated by them. I hope the gardeners there don't mind the extra pruning going on! The flowers are one of the beautiful things about this place and we're all enjoying them. Aloha!

Happy New Year!

2012-01-06T01:01:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year to all our family and friends! We enjoyed the holiday season here even though it never really did feel like "Christmas"! With being so removed from the hustle and bustle that usually goes along with that season (not to mention the lack of snow!), it really could have been any time of year. We celebrated Winter Solstice with dinner and a fire on the beach. We ate, talked, sang, the girls danced hula and we had a beautiful evening.

We sure were missing our friends and family across the ocean, but at the same time felt so blessed to be celebrating at the ocean (in shorts!)

Please excuse the grainy photos.

With friends Bill (in white hat) and Virgil ( in red hat)

The girls dancing hula to "Christmas Luau".

We had dinner with a group of friends on Christmas day, a gift exchange and more singing and playing our ukuleles. On New Years Eve, we had dinner and a fire on the beach again at a different location, the kids had fun playing with sparklers (firecrackers and fireworks are BIG here for New Years!) and we layed out under the stars, listening to the waves. We were in bed by 10pm but the New Year arrived even though we weren't up to ring it in!

We got to the beach in time for sunset.

Hanging out on the beach before dinner.

Horsing around!

I LOVE this photo! Such a handsome little man!

Playing in the waves.

And now we begin fresh... a new year. 2011 was a wonderful year for us. We made some huge changes in our lives, travelled to some amazing places, I turned 40... lots of adventures! Who knows what this year will bring, but I'm trusting it will be more adventure! And more incredible experiences. I am SO happy and grateful for this beautiful life.

Family time - Part two

2011-12-27T02:10:00.000-08:00

Aboard the Molokai Princess.

We spent the last 4 days of Mom and Dad's trip on Maui. Dad flew over earlier in the day to get a rental van and the rest of us loaded up on the ferry and made the rough trip across the channel. As someone who has spent MANY hours on BC Ferries, I thought... "It's a ferry ride. How bad can it be?" Let me tell you, this crossing was different than anything I've experienced before! One by one, people left the top deck to seek shelter underneath as the waves splashed up and soaked anyone above. John and Zara stayed up there the entire time and loved it! But almost everyone else was down below just holding on for dear life! The roughest part only lasted about 30 minutes, and then we came into calmer water near Lahaina. But when it was rough, it was ROUGH!

Good-bye Molokai...

Hello Maui!

A gorgeous sunset as we pulled into Lahaina. (Mom even caught a whale blow in the photo!)

We all stayed in a gorgeous 3 bedroom condo in Kihei right between Kamiole 1 and 2. The kids had so much fun at the beach (which was just a stones through from our lanai) and we all enjoyed the calm, shallow water.

Fun in the sun!

Thor sporting Zara's new shades!

I got to spend some precious time with my dear friend Caroline from Vancouver Island. They left to fly home the day after we got there.

We enjoyed seeing the Iao Needle - very beautiful. But so many tourists! Wow! We've become so used to sleepy Molokai that we were almost overwhelmed by the number of people and cars on Maui.

A vist to the Maui Ocean Center. We all love that place!

Scuba Santa even made an appearance.

It was wonderful to have my folks on Molokai and we loved showing them around and giving them a glimpse into our life here. But Maui was a vacation for all of us and it truly was blissful! Swimming, amazing snorkeling, great food (after 2 months on Molokai, just eating out is a treat!!), exploring, shopping, thrifting, relaxing.... we didn't want to leave!

And we really didn't want to say good-bye. It was sad and tearful dropping Mom and Dad off at the airport. I have such a hard time saying good-bye when I don't know when I'll see that person again. Anyways, we said our sad good-byes... then went for some retail therapy at Savers (like Value Village)!! All of us girls found some cute sundresses and Thor even picked out some new t-shirts. Even shopping at a good thrift store is extra special after life on a sleepy island.

We stayed one more night in Maui after Mom and Dad left and enjoyed one more blissful day at the beach before heading back to Molokai. That ferry ride was even worse than on the way over and we all felt green. I experienced sea sickness for the first time in my life and now have a lot more compassion for those who are prone to it. We were so happy to step off that ferry and be back "home". It feels like we've had to settle back in all over again though. We got pretty used to being with extended family and it's been a bit tough embracing the miles between us and loved ones. There have been tears and some extra sensitivity, but I know we'll get through it. We have each other and we've been enjoying some quality family time lately. And we have lovely memories of our time together.

Aloha to you all!

Family time - Part One

2011-12-27T01:18:00.000-08:00

We had such a wonderful time with my folks here. We just enjoyed every minute of our time together. Rather than write much, I'm going to make this post a photo recap of our (almost) 2 weeks with them.

Their plane was late coming in, and we'd arrived at the airport early, so it was a long wait! We were all so happy to see them when they finally got here! We greeted them with plumeria lei that we had made at the flower farm earlier that afternoon.

Papohaku beach

Mom and Dad brought 2 extra suitcases full of stuff for us - mostly things that I had requested that we can't get here and then some gifts. Thor loved this special gift from Grandpa.

At the library after Zara was finished "working".

We spent one morning caroling with my ukulele class - 2 preschools, Coffee's of Hawaii, then to Kumu farms where we sang, played and had lunch. I borrowed an ukulele for Dad and he had fun playing too!

We spent a day exploring the east side of Molokai.

All the way to the Halawa Valley - the end of the road.

We walked into a tropical flower farm and had a look around.

Flowers being washed for the street market the next day.

These old vehicles, completely overgrown, are a fairly common sight.

The beach in Halawa is beautiful!

Everything on the east end is so green and lush!

Visited a macadamia nut farm. Thor enjoyed cracked those nuts with a hammer! What a treat to eat the mac nuts right out of the shell!

My first hula performance!

Getting ready for our mule ride down to Kalaupapa (former leper colony, now a National Park)

First glimpse of the peninsula below. We decended 1600 feet in 3 miles - 26 switch backs down the side of a steep cliff! We were hanging on and just had to trust that the mules would get us there safely! I have a whole new respect for these steady, amazing animals!

Mom was happy to get off her mule at the bottom. (We all were!)

We took a 4 hour tour of Kalaupapa, through the town, some of the churches and the scenic areas. It was very beautiful and peaceful there, but also very melancholy. This place has such a tragic history.... the sadness was deep and you could feel the spirits of the 8000 people that had been sent there to die. In this photo above, you can see some of the marked graves of the priests and church people sent there to help and attend the victims, but that big green field on the other side of the wall is the site of thousands of unmarked graves.

If you look closely at the photo above you can see some trees sticking up at the top of the cliff just right of center. If you follow the top of the cliff over about an inch to the left you can make out a cut line that starts to drop down to the left. That was the start of the mule trail up top and we just zigzagged our way down the cliff. As we were getting on our mules after the tour to go back up, we were sure hoping the return trip would be easier! And it was! I really enjoyed it. I found the trip back up really peaceful and I soaked up every moment of being alone (sans kids!). They stayed home with John as a person has to be over 16 yrs old to make this trip.

This was an experience that will stay vivid in my mind for the rest of my life. Amazing.

A sweet moment at the beach.

John at the woodfire oven. We've become a great pizza making team... I make them, he bakes 'em!

That's a lot of photos in one post! I'm going to do a "part 2" for the second half of the trip!

Finding peace in the midst of chaos

2011-12-05T00:28:00.000-08:00

This past week has been so busy! Virgil (owner of this house) shipped down a big container full of stuff from Alaska for the house and property, so we've been unpacking, sorting and reorganizing. The house has been turned upside down as renos were done and furniture moved around. When things get crazy busy or hectic, my intention is always to find peace in the midst of chaos. Sometime's it happens, other times it doesn't! Rainbows help!

The kids decided to paint coconuts. They are a work in progress as layers of paint need to dry before adding the next details. A fun project!

We've been having fun experimenting with the wood fire oven. We went to two Thanksgiving potlucks last week and we took this yummy spelt foccacia to one of them.

Cinnamon buns!

Sunsets are glorious here. No matter what we're doing, we always stop to admire the beauty.

A few days ago Zara told me she needed some one on one time with me, so today we went on a little adventure. We rode our bikes on a trail south of here for about 30 minutes to an old abandoned tent camp. It was so peaceful and beautiful. Gorgeous beach and amazing shells - two of our favorite things!

I love the spirals found in nature!

Zara just about tripped over this Monk Seal! It blended in with the sand just perfectly! These seals are found only in Hawaii and are an endangered species. Zara has been wanting to see one ever since we arrived so she was thrilled today to get a good look at this one.

We could have stayed here all day! We'll definitely be going back. Only next time we'll just hike in! We both ended up with flat tires on our bikes from the Kiewe trees (pronouced kee-a-vay) - a super spikey, thorny tree that grows all over here and is treacherous for bike tires but even more so for barefeet!

My folks arrive for a visit tomorrow - the kids have been counting the days! We can't wait to show them our new home and take them on some adventures. Fun days ahead!

Gifts from the sea

2011-11-21T22:28:00.000-08:00

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!

What I love about right now

2011-11-11T15:56:00.000-08:00

Last week my beautiful cousin sent me a link to a very inspiring blog post about helping to instill gratitude in our kids by taking the time to see the wonder in all the little thing around us. If you have a few minutes, you can read the post here. You'll be glad you did! I've been thinking about this a lot lately. In our family each night before dinner, we join hands around the table and take time to share a couple of things that we're thankful for at the moment or about our day. I love hearing the kids express their thankfulness and am constantly amazed by the things they share. It's probably one my favorite times of the day and I have been feeling inspired to add more of those moments throughout the day. Yesterday I read Heather's blog and she shared some of the things that she is loving right now. It's been on my mind so much these days that today I'm going to share my list!

You know what I love about right now?

A counter full of fresh, tropical, LOCAL fruit.

Smoothies made with all that delicious fruit.

Watching my kids enjoy it!

Rainbows!

One of the bonuses about the rainy season (besides everything turning green again!) is the rainbows. We see them daily, sometimes many times in the day. The sun comes up behind our house so the rainbows are right out in front over the ocean. Last night we saw the most amazing thing... a rainbow by the light of the full moon! John was outside and saw it, called us all out and we marvelled at the full arc of a nightime rainbow. It was so bright it some places that we could see every color.

A rainbow of colorful clothing hanging on the line.

Playing my ukulele. It feels so good to be making music and singing again!

Sea shells!

I love collecting them on the beach and love looking at them on our kitchen counter.

Zara and I spent some time at the beach collecting shells on her birthday and we had a lovely conversation about gratitude. We talked about not looking for shells with the attitude of "What will I find to take home today?" but rather with a spirit of awe and gratitude for the beauty of Mother Nature. When we find a shell that calls out to us, we say a little prayer of thanks for such a beautiful gift. I find the beauty and the individual design of each shell absolutely awe-inspiring.

Veggies growing.

Yesterday the kids and I went outside and sat down beside this tray of snap peas and nibbled on the shoots, delighting in the freshness and the luxury of being able to eat them this way. We planted lots more in the garden that we'll let grow big enough to produce peas, but we'll just continue to graze on these ones!

So much to be grateful for!

A winter garden

2011-11-09T00:19:00.000-08:00

When we were considering moving to Hawaii, one of the possibilities that seemed most exciting was being able to garden year round. So that was one of the first projects on the list once we got here. There is a big flat area out in front of the house on top of the septic field that looked like just the right spot for a garden.

A great spot, but it needed a lot of work to get it to the point of being able to plant. The dirt here is heavy red clay, so John mixed in gypsum and compost and has been working like crazy out there!

The rainy season is just starting and so we've had some torrential down pours. Each time it rains these gorgeous, tilled rows are turned back into solid hard pan. John has rented a rotatiller on 3 different occasions to get the soil to a point were we can plant.

Checking out the seeds that have been planted in seed trays.

I took these photos a couple of days ago and since then these trays have completely exploded with green plant life! We cut some pea shoots yesterday to put in our salad. Our first harvest!

Getting ready to plant.

Planting sugar snap peas.

Since these photos were taken we've planted so many more seeds. We've planted everything we like to eat and we'll just see what grows well! It's very exciting to see the seeds sprouting and growing so quickly. I will post garden photos periodically so you can see the progress! I do need to embrace this heavy red dirt. It's so sticky and slippery. When I'm out watering the garden, within minutes my shoes are coated in a thick layer of mud as is everything else. And this dirt stains like crazy. So I haven't been super keen to get out there and dig in. We are getting some mulch down in between the rows so that will help. Once again, it's just very different!

This weekend, while John was rotatilling the garden for the 3rd time (there was just no other way to break up the soil enough to plant), the rest of us went to the beach with some of our friends that live just down the road, right on Papohaku beach. Their names are Liana and Tim and they caretake a gorgeous property. Liana's cousin from Oahu was in town with her family so we joined them for some shell searching and a swim. Liana has chickens, pigs, a dog and a lamb (who thinks she's a dog). Ilio the dog, and Lucy the lamb joined us on the beach walk!

Lucy got a few funny looks! It's not everyday you see a lamb on the beach!

This beach is gorgeous. It's the one that's closest to us and we walk down here regularly to look for shells and watch the waves, but we've never swam here. This day we walked all the way to the north end of the beach where it's more protected from the wind and waves and it was a little slice of heaven! The water was so clear and beautiful.

Zara and JC pretending to be dolphins! This beach is 3 miles long... the longest white sand beach in Hawaii.

Thor getting rocked by a wave.

He came up smiling and didn't even get his hair wet!

After our walk we went back to Liana's for pasta and fresh pesto. She made the pesto the usual way but added lime... yum! It was delicious and the lime made it a beautiful bright green. I will definitely be adding lime next time I make it!

Every day this place feels more like home. We're spending lots of time with our new friends, seeing familiar faces almost everywhere we go and getting more familiar with our surroundings. Yesterday when Bella woke up, as she was lying in bed she said "I could almost cry, I'm so happy that we're in Hawaii. Look, I have some water running out of my eyes. That's because I'm so happy." It was very cute! We have our ups and downs most of the time we are really happy here. Aloha!

Life on the island

2011-11-02T17:34:00.000-07:00

We've been here three weeks now and are settling into a rhythm in our new setting. Sunday afternoon finds us at Coffee's of Hawaii - a small coffee plantation with a coffee shop and a big covered deck area where a Sunday afternoon family concert is held each week. A lovely group of local folks play their beautiful Hawaiian instruments, some of them dance hula, and lots of people in the audience play along on their own ukulele's. It's good, clean fun and always entertaining. In just three weeks we already know many of the regulars and many of them know us by name. It feels like we're part of the family already.

The audience... you can see many folks playing their ukes.

DJ and Aunty Julia dancing the hula. I've just started learning to hula dance with DJ and a group of amazing women!

All the ukulele players in the crowd go up and play a song with the band. Soon I'll be up there with them...this past week I started taking ukulele lessons twice a week.

The kids drawing with a new friend who was visiting for the week. It's a great place to meet people and lovely way to spend a Sunday afternoon!

Zara and Bella were really excited about Halloween this year and weren't going to let it go by without celebrating somehow! Thor was excited before hand, but when it came right down to it, he wasn't so keen, so we left him home with John while the girls and I went into town for a costume party on the lawn in front of the library.

Ready to go... Bella was a purple fairy and Zara was a Spanish Dancer. This photo doesn't show her HIGH heels that she tromped around in all week practicing for the day, or the big red flower in her hair.

Bella with our new friends at the library. YAY! We have new friends! A lovely young family from Portland, Oregon who have been here for almost 1 1/2 years. This is Melodie with her 3 sweet kids. They live just 2 miles down the road from us and are homeschooling their oldest too. We look forward to lots of time and adventures together!

Bella and Eyeris (dressed up here as a Rainbow Goddess) are becoming fast friends! The kids all enjoyed watching the costume contest and taking in the festivities. There were some very creative costumes! The people here love to celebrate Halloween. Well, I think they are always happy for a reason to get together and celebrate, but Halloween is BIG here! After the costume festivities we headed up into one of the neighborhoods above the town and did some trick-or-treating. The houses were decorated and everyone was out celebrating. They set up little candy stations in their driveway and lots of potlucks and barbeques were going on. It was a big, neighborhood party! We just went up and down one street then called it good and headed for home. On the way home we saw 5 deer, an owl and lots of toads on the road!

There are all sorts of critters here that we're trying to get used to and just accept as part of living in a tropical climate. Some are creepier than others! Thankfully, none are poisonous or lethal.

This gorgeous praying mantis was hanging out in one of our lime trees on the front patio. John found it while pruning the tree. Otherwise we probably would never have known it was there. Look how it blends in!

This scorpion was in our kitchen sink on the bottom of a sponge. I picked up the sponge to wipe something off and felt it move! Luckily I dropped it before it could sting me. Apparently they have a fairly mild sting.

And this big centipede is the one that scares us the most! It has a very strong sting... like a wasp but it leaves 2 little bite marks were it gets you. We have to watch for these when walking outside at night as that's when they come out. On Sunday night we had our new friends over for a pizza party and we didn't shut our big sliding doors until after dark. The next morning we found 3 of these centipedes in the house. They must have wondered in while the doors were open. We will definitely be more aware of closing the doors before dark from now on!

I've been thinking, as we've been settling in, that there is a trade off or a cost to everything we do or every choice we make. We have chosen to live on this tropical island for the winter where the air is warm, we have amazing fresh tropical fruit at our fingertips, lovely beaches to explore, windows open year round, a garden year round.... lots of lovely things about it. The trade off is a wind that never stops blowing red dust around, more isolation than we're used to, gecko poo all over the house, other creepy crawlies that skulk around in the night, limited provisions available on the island.... there are always trade offs. I guess it's a matter of accepting that and focusing on the positive. There are so many amazing things about living here that the negative things about it are not such a big deal. It takes time to get used to a new culture and just a different way of life, but we're getting there!

Celebrating a special girl

2011-10-28T00:45:00.000-07:00

My first born, precious baby girl turned 10 today! We celebrated her birthday with family before we left B.C. so it had been feeling like she'd already had her birthday. She was starting to worry that we weren't going to celebrate on the actual day, but I assured her we would mark the occasion with birthday festivities.

We started the day with pancakes and fresh fruit, and stories about the night she was born. Her prezzies were wrapped in towels and pillowcases! I'm so glad my kids don't mind the eco-wrapping! I picked up the colorful placemat she's using here at a thrift store earlier this week. (Yay! Molokai has two thrift stores!)

One of a her presents....a beautiful rainbow wind twirler made here on the island at a local kite shop. John and Thor got this for her! She said today that it made her smile everytime she saw it. Me too! It's gorgeous!

New art supplies... everyone enjoyed painting again. It's been awhile! Most of our art supplies have been in storage since May!

Lemon cupcakes with rainbow candles.

Served with vanilla yogurt and fresh passionfruit (here it's called Lilikoi). Yum yum!

Zara and I spent some time this afternoon at the beach closest to us (Papohaku Beach) looking at shells and just admiring the ocean. Everyday the beach and ocean are different. Today the waves were smaller and the shells were down lower, closer to the water. We just breathed in the ocean air and felt happy to be here. Zara got lots of birthday phone calls today which she so appreciated! After the call from Grandpa she said "And I didn't even cry". I asked "What made you want to cry?" She said "This is the first birthday I've ever celebrated without Grandma and Grandpa." There were twinges of sadness and missing her family, but she had a smile on her face most of the day and felt excited to be celebrating here in Hawaii.

Happy Birthday to my beautiful girl!

Living off the grid and a house tour

2011-10-25T01:19:00.000-07:00

For years I have dreamed about living in an “off the grid” house, so I was very excited when I heard this house was powered completely by wind and solar. But as I’m being reminded these days, the reality of something is often quite different than what you imagine it might be! Not necessarily in a bad way… just different. On the surface, the house looks like any other house… you can’t tell it’s off the grid. (Unless you notice the wind turbine and solar panels at the top of the driveway!) But we really have to watch how we use electrical power.

So the energy created with the wind turbine and solar panels charges a bank of batteries in the garage. Every time we use power, we draw on those batteries. John checks them morning and night and writes down what the charge is. On a sunny, windy day lots of power is being generated. We had a day like that last Friday and John came to me and said “today’s a good day to use appliances”. So we did LOADS of laundry (beach towels, sheets, bathing suits, clothes….everything!) – Actually I shouldn’t say “we”. John did all the laundry and hung it out to dry on our makeshift clothesline, then I helped fold and put everything away. One of the benefits of having a husband at home is that I don’t have to do EVERYTHING! I get help! While he was doing laundry, I was vacuuming the house and cleaning the lanai off of one of the bedrooms for Zara to sleep in.

When John came home from his reconnaissance trip to Molokai, Zara saw photos of the loft in the house and immediately claimed it as her bedroom! When we got here, we got it all set up for her and moved dressers and furniture up there. She stuck it out about a week then the creepy crawlies got to her! All night long she could hear little scuttling feet above her head and each morning she’d find heaps of fresh gecko poo all around her bed. (Who knew that geckos made such a mess!!) One night she woke up after having a scary dream about her room, and came down and crawled into bed with John. The next morning she informed me she wasn’t comfortable sleeping up there anymore. I can’t blame her! I don’t think I’d want to either!

So we moved her bed down and into the lanai. Then Bella decided she wanted to sleep out there too, so out went her bed! Now, this room is ALL windows, facing east, with no window coverings. Bella was up at the crack of dawn after her first night out there, or maybe earlier! The sky was just starting to lighten when Bella came to me and whispered “I’m going to go play Lego”. I thought “Are you serious?!?! Please go back to bed until the sun comes up!” She reluctantly went back to bed and when I looked over about 6:30am , she was sitting up on her bed, watching the sun rise up into the sky. Now she waits until the sun is UP then she goes out to play!

I got sidetracked there! Back to living off the grid! The batteries in the garage are on a trickle charge so that they can’t be over charged. IF the wind blows all night, which it often does, then there’s enough energy being produced to keep the batteries topped up. However, if there is no wind, then between the trickle charge and the ceiling fan in my room we wake up with low batteries and the generator has to be turned on. Within an hour, the batteries are at full charge again (and the generator is very fuel efficient). But I’m still baffled… I always thought that an off the grid house could make and STORE enough energy to (literally) get you through a rainy day. Not in this case. We are assessing our battery levels on a day to day basis. Anyways… we’re learning. Many nights there is not enough energy to run the dishwasher so we hand wash or run it the next morning. We have to be super conservative with using lights and toasters and any other electrical appliances. It makes a person extremely aware of how much we depend on electricity! But I also have to say it feels pretty neat to know that the energy we're using it being created right here!

I’ve been asked for some photos of the house and our living space so will give you a little tour here. I’ll narrate the tour below each photo.

The view of our house as we drive up the driveway. The wind turbine and solar panels are just to the right of the garage.

Walking from the driveway up to the entrance. Garage is on the right. Trees loaded with papayas on the left!

The covered entrance way. I love the big doors that open up. They were selvedged from a hotel in Maui. The kids spend a lot of time playing right here. It feels like part of the house with the open door way.

If you turn to your right while standing in the entrance way, you have this view. Behind the doors on the left side are the washer and dryer, and the hot water tank (which is solar). Straight ahead is the outdoor shower. The door to the right goes into the garage.

Welcome!

The main part of the living space has vaulted ceilings. It appears more spacious in these photos than it really is! Behind the sitting area, there are more open doors that lead to a big lanai. There's a ping pong table in there but it's a space that rarely gets used. The breeze coming through those open windows cools the house.

A lovely, fully equipped kitchen. Notice all the fresh fruit sitting on the counter to the left of the fridge!

This is taken from the kitchen looking across to area on the other side of the entrance. Straight ahead in the middle is a bathroom. On either side there is a door leading into a bedroom (and another bathroom). You can also see the loft were Zara WAS sleeping. I plan to turn that space into the kid's play area. The stairs leading up there are steep and super narrow. There's a nice dormered area with windows that let in lots of light. Zara spends quite a bit of time drawing at the table up there and watching the deer out back. Notice all our beach stuff sitting on that little sofa by the door and my basket beside it. We're always ready to go to the beach!

This is the bigger family room, eating area and the wood fire oven (aka the pizza oven!) This is currently where the kids play Lego. John's getting pretty good with the oven and we've enjoyed lots of hand made pizza's baked in there! Delicious! There's a door to the right of the table which leads out into the front (ocean side) yard and patio.

This photo just gives a bit of a perspective of that room in relation to the kitchen. Can you see the glass jar full of shells to the left of the bright red kettle? We're having so much fun collecting shells!

Here are the girl's beds in the lanai. Note the big windows on 3 sides! It gets hot during the day, but lovely and cool at night!

Well, that's it for now! Hope you've enjoyed the tour. You're welcome to visit anytime! We'll crank up the wood fire oven and have a pizza party!

Recent days

2011-10-23T00:55:00.000-07:00

We enjoyed a little piece of paradise the other day! This is a beach on the east side of the island called Murphy's beach, also known as Mile 20 beach. We spent the day here with a lovely family we met last week from Vancouver. We spent almost every day this past week doing something fun with them! It was so nice to have some new friends to explore with. They had 2 kids that Bella and Thor really enjoyed playing with.

The snorkeling was great here. And the spot itself was magical. I felt like I was at the quintessential "South Pacific" beach. The water was warm and there was shade under the tree! We ate, snorkeled, lounged, visited, checked out the birds and spiders in the tree, and just relaxed. Our new friends left the next day. We miss you guys!

Today we went to the Saturday Market in Kaunakakai. The kids wanted to try some fresh coconut water...mmmmm, so yummy! When we were done drinking the water the vendor cracked open the coconuts with his machete and we brought them home to eat. The market is tiny! But we bought some mangos, a HUGE watermelon and some passionfruit.

Bella eating a passionfruit at the beach.

This is the closest swimming beach to our place so we go here often. It's got a Hawaiian name but locals call it Dixie Maru (a ship by that name sunk off the point here). We just call it Dixie! It's a lovely, safe little beach and the water is warm. Bella and Zara snorkeled there today for the first time and saw lots of neat fish.

This was my anniversary present to myself! I saw it at the market in town last week and couldn't stop thinking about it. So today I bought it and LOVE it! We arrived here on Molokai on Oct. 12th, which happened to be our 12th anniversary. We got married in Maui so it seemed fitting that I should have a plumaria ring to mark the occasion!

This little frog hangs out in our bird bath with his friends each night. We saw them tonight while we were out watching the stars.

It's been another good day. We're all settling in well except Thor. No surprise really as he's generally the one who has the hardest time adjusting to change. He's just having a really tough time, missing friends and family and missing the familiarity of life "in Canada". "I just want to go back to Canada" he laments often. I realized last night that he needs more quality time with John and I individually in order to feel safe and secure and adjusted. We'll make that a priority starting tomorrow.

Good night!

Settling into life in Molokai

2011-10-19T18:39:00.000-07:00

Well hello again! It’s been absolutely ages since the last blog post, but now that we’re so far away from friends and family, I will definitely be updating regularly, keeping you up to date on what’s going on in our life. I’d also love to hear from you, either with a comment at the end of a post (anyone can leave a comment! If you don’t have a google account, just choose the anonymous option and make sure you sign your name at the end of your comment!) or via email. I miss you all! Communication with loved ones takes on a whole new meaning and importance when we’re far away from you all!

We arrived on Molokai one week ago and are slowly getting settled into a somewhat different lifestyle than we’re used to! We arrived with 14 (yes, 14!!!) pieces of luggage…. 9 suitcases, 3 rubbermaids and 2 large bike boxes. We are caretaking a house and property for a very generous man named Virgil, who lives most of the time in Alaska. John met him in Melbourne last year where they were both doing a Permaculture Design course. One thing led to another and now we’re here for the winter…or possibly longer….depending on how it all goes!

One of our patios with the view of the ocean in the background.

Sunset from the patio.

We’ve spent our first days unpacking, deep cleaning the house, hanging out at the beach and checking out this end of the island. We‘re living on the very dry, windy west side of the island! We have found some lovely beaches, some safe for swimming and some just plain gorgeous but with huge waves and strong rips.

The little village closest to us is called Maunaloa – about a 20 minute drive – with a small “grocery” store, a post office, a cool kite shop and a rec. center. (I’m going to check out a Zumba class at the rec center this evening!) For real grocery shopping we need to go into the main town called Kaunakakai (pronounced Caw-na-ka-kye) which is about a 30 minute drive. The town consists of a couple of streets with a handful of stores, a nice little natural food store, a great little library (we got a card the first day here and have already been enjoying our library books!), a community center, a school and a gas station. I have not been buying enough food when we’ve been in town to last us until the next shop! I realize I have to stock up… buy 3 pineapples instead of 1! I’ll have to get more organized, perhaps create a week’s menu before shopping each week!

One of the treasures on this island is Kumu farms – a beautiful organic farm with a farmstand and lovely produce. They are open 4 days a week, so again… I’ll have to plan my days in town accordingly!

We’ve been enjoying delicious papayas off the trees around the house. Sweet, tree ripened papayas with a squeeze of lime (off the neighbor’s tree!)…. Yum! The neighbors have also gifted us with bananas of f their tree and fresh eggs from their chickens. Lucky us!

Yesterday we went on a bit of an adventure. We took a crazy 4x4 road to a gorgeous white sand beach where we spent a good part of the day swimming, snorkeling, and collecting beautiful shells. The kids loved playing in the clear water, had fun in the gentle surf and enjoyed playing in the sand.

John drove the truck, Bella rode shotgun and Zara, Thor and I bounced around in the back! The beach was truly gorgeous, but not sure we’ll be doing that drive again anytime soon!!

Some of the shells Zara and John collected while snorkeling at the beach!

Our nightly entertainment has been watching the big screen….. the sky that is! Most nights we sit out after dinner (it’s pitch black by 7pm), snuggle up with blankets and just watch the stars. With so little light around here, the number of stars visible is mind blowing! We watch planes come and go from Honolulu (we can see the city lights way off in the distance from our patio), we oooh and aaww over shooting stars and listen to the night song. A few nights ago we saw the most incredible shooting star drop straight down out of the sky with a massive, bright tail…. we were all afraid it was going to land right in front of us! I have no idea what is was….a meteor? a comet? Perhaps a once in a lifetime sighting!

We checked out a neat group yesterday for Zara called Youth in Motion. They meet twice a week for stand up paddle boarding, kayaking and other watersports. Zara paddled for hours yesterday and really enjoyed it! Next time we go I’ll wear my bathing suit and paddle too!

I have been surprised at what a transition it’s been to move here. I’ve had a hard time reconciling the difference between the reality of being here vs. what I thought it would be like… my expectations. It’s not like we’ve moved to China…. I mean we’re still in the USA! But it feels so different… I have to admit there were a few pity parties going on during those first few days! More than just a few times I thought “What the heck was I thinking?!?!!?” BUT…as the days go by it feels easier. I’m trying to live in the moment and just BE here, with my family and embrace the adventure with all its ups and downs. As you can see from the pictures, we're seeking out the beauty and enjoying what this island has offer. Aloha from all of us!

summer fun (sun or no sun!)

2011-07-25T16:29:00.000-07:00

It's been a lovely break to be out of the motorhome for a few weeks! As much as we love being on the road, we're enjoying having a bit more space around us and just being in one place for awhile! It's been an unusually cool summer in the Okanagan but we're making the most of it and enjoying every moment. We've all been enjoying the pool at my folks. We're out there almost every day, sometimes all day if the weather is nice!

Bella has learned to swim without flotation and is LOVING the feeling of floating through the water. She's an absolute fish and spends HOURS at a time in the pool.

Thor's loving the water too! Especially if he's in the pool with his mom or dad!

We're so happy to be in the Okanagan during fruit season! We gorged on fresh strawberries for a couple of weeks. We picked 3 times and froze lots for the summer and just filled our bellies with the rest. I've been totally inspired by my friend's blog and all of her yummy recipes and ideas for strawberries! We ate strawberry shortcake and strawberry fool for dessert on quite a few occasions... yum! Now strawberries are done and we're filling up on cherries. The kids have had cherry belly (tummy aches) a few times lately! But it's so hard to stop eating these juicy delights once you start!

Bella sporting some cherry earrings!

We hit the basil jackpot last weekend, so turned it into LOTS of delicious pesto! We've been enjoying it on everything ...fresh bread, pizza, pasta, polenta.... it turns an ordinary meal into something extraordinary!

There are lots of these beauties flying around the yard at this time of year. We love watching them. This one was so intent on the nectar it was drinking that it paid no attention to us watching it. Thor was absolutely enthralled!

We had a picnic on the boat this past weekend. It was busy and wavy, but nice to be on the lake. Only John was brave enough to jump in! The rest of us are waiting for a warmer day and calmer water!

It's been a great summer so far! We're planning to enjoy another week here, then will hit the road again at the beginning of August. I'll keep you posted!

the rest of the adventure

2011-07-25T10:44:00.000-07:00

Whew, it's been awhile since I've posted anything! We got back to Kelowna on July 4th, and have been enjoying summer here. Lots of relaxing and swimming in the pool! The last week of our road trip was fun but I got a bad cold and was pretty eager to get back. Here are some photos of that last week:

Enjoying Glass Beach in Fort Bragg, Northern California.

Glass Beach was the local garbage dump back in the 1950's. It was cleaned up long ago, but all the glass that was dumped over the years continues to show up. It's a facinating place to explore!

From Fort Bragg we headed north to visit Paul Bunyon. The kids remembered him from last time and couldn't wait to see him again. He "talked" to us all and made it a very memorable experience! I saw him when I was 2 1/2 years old on a trip to California with my parents and he's my first memory from childhood.

This time we hiked through "The Trees of Mystery" - an absolutely gorgeous forest of big old trees behind Paul.

We took a gondola up to the top of a mountain for a beautiful view of the ocean and the mountains beyond. Zara and Bella rode down alone - they loved the feeling of independence! Such big girls!

There were lots of wood carvings on our hike back down out of the forest. This one was my favorite!

We spent a night at Crescent Beach - the kids loved playing on the big beach. They drew a HUGE house in the sand with sticks and played for hours out there. We camped just across the road. It was lovely!

In Southern Oregan near Humbug Mountain, we stopped at Prehistoric Park. It was a bit cheesy, but the kids enjoyed seeing the life size dinosaurs!

The Oregon Coast was WINDY! So windy we could hardly walk on the beach without getting totally sand blasted. My cold was at it's peak at this point and I couldn't stand the wind. I don't like wind at the best of time, but while sick it just drove me crazy!

So we left the coast after a day and headed to Eugene. We got there on Saturday morning in time for the amazing weekly Saturday Market. This was by far the best market I've ever seen... 2 blocks of everything handmade and a block of beautiful organic veggies and fruit..... all set in a lovely park with trees and shade and grassy spaces. We stayed there for hours just soaking it up and eating good food! It was bliss!

The next day we drove up to Northern Washington to visit GG Nybo again in Port Susan near Marysville. We had a lovely evening with her and her friend, then drove "home" the next morning - on the 4th of July.

Bella in the motorhome with her daisy chain crown and new feather hair extentions from the Eugene Market.

We were happy to arrive back in Kelowna and get off the road for a little while. We've been swimming, relaxing, enjoying the fresh Okanagan fruit, enjoying the farmer's market, catching up with friends and just enjoying life!

the mendocino coast

2011-06-27T23:07:00.000-07:00

We had a leisurely morning today with a walk down the street to two of my favorite shops - Trader Joe's and Cost Plus World Market. I love browsing these stores and finding sweet treats and fun things that you can't find elsewhere. We got some neat magnetic games at Cost Plus and some yummy dark chocolate peanut butter cups from Trader Joe's (they came highly recommended!) After a quick stop at a huge toy store on the way back to the RV park, we were on our way. We drove up Hwy 1 along the gorgeous Northern California coast to Mendocino. It was a long, winding drive but so scenic! I love all the little tiny villages and towns tucked away along the coast.

Midway up the coast we needed a break from driving so we stopped at Manchester State Park and had an awesome time on the beach.

We were all jumping off a big sand ledge and when it was Bella's turn, she launched off but rather than stopping she kept on running, gathering far too much speed for her little legs. It wasn't a happy ending! She did the biggest face plant I've ever seen! Face in the sand, legs and hips in the air.... she got up with a mouth full of sand, one eye covered in sand, sand up her nose.... oh my.... she was not a happy girl. But we got her cleaned up and enjoyed the rest of our time there.

Can you tell how fast she's going?!?! Trouble ahead!

We put an offer on a little beach shack... it's a bit of a fixer-upper but the location is fabulous!!! What do you think?!

Looking forward to more exploring tomorrow!

the big sur coast

2011-06-26T23:50:00.000-07:00

We had a lovely time with John's family in Santa Maria. We got caught up with his siblings and the cousins had fun playing together. The kids LOVED having time with Gram and Gramps. We ate yummy fruits and veggies from the local farmer's markets.... it was a good relaxing week. Unfortunately I gave my camera a week off too so I have no photos to show for our week there. But the memories are firmly embedded in our minds and in our hearts.

After big hugs and some tearful good-bye's we headed north up to the Big Sur coast. This is one of my favorite places in California. It's rugged, somewhat remote, and completely magical. On the way up we stopped to see the elephant seals just north of Cambria. This in another one of our favorite stops! They are so entertaining to watch and observe.

It was really foggy the day we drove up, so we didn't get to enjoy the spectacular views along the coast. We stopped at Salmon Creek for a hike up to the waterfalls - fun except for all the poison oak. John reacts terribly to that stuff so we are all very leary of it. It was EVERYWHERE along the trail! When you're hiking with 3 kids, it takes a lot of the joy out of it when you're spending all your energy trying to avoid the poison oak. We decided to add to our list of criteria for a possible homestead.... no poison oak!

We spent one lovely morning at one of my favorite places in Big Sur - the Nepenthe - oh how I love this place! I love the weathered wood, the lush plants, the Phoenix gift shop with wares from around the world, the pillows outside of the restaurant, the yummy pastries and drinks at Cafe Kevah. The smell of the sea air, the ocean breezes, the view..... the energy of peace....

I could have just sat here for hours, soaking up the warmth of the sun and enjoying the tranquility.

While on the Big Sur coast, we spent an amazing day at the Esalen Institute. This is a place I've wanted to see and experience for years, so we arranged to spend a morning volunteering in their garden in exchange for meals and use of the facilities for the rest of the day. The gardens are beautiful! It was so wonderful to have our hands in the dirt again and the people we were working with were so welcoming and kind.

We harvested flax seeds, cleared and prepped beds, transplanted flowers, and planted seeds. Zara worked right along with us while Bella and Thor loved digging in the dirt, and helping out with the harvesting. They were enchanted with the baby chicks so spent lots of time sitting on stools in front of the brooder, watching and giggling at their silly little antics. They were so good at entertaining themselves while we worked. It was fun to be in the garden working as a family - hard work but so wonderful too. I loved hearing the waves crashing just below us and watching the fog lift throughout the morning. When it finally cleared and the ocean came into view it was just the icing on the cake! The food was yummy too! We left late that afternoon to return to our campsite, exhausted and happy.

The next day we continued north to the Santa Cruz area and had a wonderful time with our friends Dave and Marcie Kirby and their two wonderful boys and Marcie's sweet mom. We spent a day at the beach in Capitola watching a paddle board competition, cheering Dave in after a 12 mile race, and just enjoying the hubbub of race day. We got to help Marcie celebrate her 40th birthday at a yummy mexican restaurant in Santa Cruz later that night with a group of their friends. Another wonderful re-connection and another bittersweet goodbye.

The kids had so much fun playing on this rope swing! Bella pretended she was an acrobat in the circus!

We ended the weekend with an afternoon and evening with more great friends - Phil and Lara Grace and their kidlets. They live just north of San Francisco in the Marin area. Phil came and picked us up at our RV Park and took us back to their house where we swam, visited, ate good food and enjoyed the heat and good company.

We've been on the road exactly 6 weeks today - hard to believe. It's gone so fast and has been so wonderful. Tomorrow we are heading up to Mendocino and Fort Bragg for a few days of Northern California loveliness! Ahhhh.... life is so good!

family, friends and beach time!

2011-06-19T11:11:00.000-07:00

So you may remember me writing about our weekend in San Diego, reconnecting with John's uncle and aunt, Neil and Carolyn. If not, you can read about it here. They have 2 older kids - Annie working in New York and Emily at university at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo (Central Coast of Cali). Zara slept in Emily's room while we were there, and tried on all her old costumes and paraded around in her highest heels. Zara also did some texting with Emily on Carolyn's cell phone and just felt a real connection with her. So we were all thrilled when Neil and Carolyn stopped by GG's place on the way home from picking up Emily at the end of her school year. Zara loved Emily before even meeting her, and they just clicked right away!

GG with some of her clan. It was a super short, but super sweet visit! We were all sad to say good-bye... again. We also said our farewells to GG as our time in LA was ending. We look forward to visiting her in Washington again this summer!

The next day we drove up a long winding mountain road to Lake Arrowhead to visit Danny and Nancy Eager, some friends that we hadn't seen for about 7 years. We ate lunch by the lake, then played in the park and raced go carts. Zara had never driven a go cart before and was bit nervous about it, but she just cruised around that race track! Bella loved being her co-pilot!

Zara doing a little happy dance after the racing!

We spent the night with Dan and Nancy at their lovely cabin, then headed back down the next morning to pick up the motorhome and make a beeline for the ocean! We arrived at Refugio State Park that afternoon - what a beautiful spot! A lovely sandy beach, bordered with palm trees, dolphins swimming by! Blissful!

Bella doing her "Stick tricks" (Musketeer moves!)

The view from the RV! A sweet spot!

That night after dinner, the sun had set and the sky was turning a pinky grey, when Zara yelled "Dolphins!". We raced outside to the beach and there were 6 bottlenosed dolphins hanging out in the bay about 50' off-shore. They were playing, interacting, rubbing up against each other, jumping, spyhopping, just enjoying each other and in no hurry to get anywhere. What a gift to witness these magnificent creatures! We watched them for about 20 minutes before they slowly made their way out of the bay. Wow! We said good night and thank you to the dolphins and went to bed!

The next morning we loved exploring the point with all the amazing rocks.

We spent most of the day on the beach. There was a cool breeze blowing much of the day that kept us deceptively comfortable! We all ended up getting a bit sunburned - we're not used to being out during the hottest part of the day! We won't let that happen again. It was just too beautiful to leave!

Late that afternoon we headed north about 45 minutes to John's folks place in Santa Maria. We've now been here for almost a week, enjoying time with family, and taking some down time after a busy month on the road. We are now more than halfway through this part of our adventure! We'll enjoy a couple more days here, then will hit the road again. I wonder what adventures are waiting for us just around the corner?

fun at the magic kingdom!

2011-06-18T20:50:00.000-07:00

We spent a day last week at "the happiest place on earth"! At least that's what some people call Disneyland. I think that might be pushing it a little bit, but we did have fun! It was busy and the line ups got long, but we found little quiet spots throughout the day to rest and relax and catch our breath in the shade.

We got on a little train that chugs around the entire perimeter of the park and this sign was right in front of us. Bella said "So I guess you're not allowed to dance on the train. We have to stay sitting down"! I thought that was such a cute interpretation of this sign!

The girls loved seeing the princesses. They no longer wander around the park so we had to see them at this show and meet them afterwards. I love the look of wonder on Bella's face as she met Cinderella!

We saw the new "Mickey's Soundsational Parade" - the floats were great as was the music. The girls were excited to see Arial on her float.

I'm not sure who was having more fun on Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. Thor loved "driving"! We all finished the day tired but happy.

The next day we drove to Pasadena to visit an urban homestead that I've been reading about online for years. Here's the link if you'd like to learn more about them. The Devrae family homesteads here on .10 of an acre! They grow enough for themselves as well as some restaurants and a porch farm stand. They also have bees, chickens and a goat! So inspiring to see it firsthand!

From there we visited Kidspace - a very fun, interactive kids museum. The kids enjoyed all the different things to do and explore.

We are now on the Central Coast with John's folks and family, enjoying some downtime and connecting with family. Before I get to that though, I'm going to do one more post to get caught up from last week.

fun in the sun in southern california!

2011-06-10T23:36:00.000-07:00

As much as we enjoyed our time in the desert and the gorgeous red rock landscapes, we were very happy to arrive at the coast! We've been enjoying Southern California since middle of last week, catching up with family and friends. We've spent some time with John's very special grandma - the kids call her G.G. (for Great Grandma). She's recently moved into a beautiful facility for active seniors with a pool as well as so many other amenities. We've loved visiting in the courtyard, swimming, and having dinners with her.

4 Generations - G.G., Bruce (John's Dad), John and the kids

Last weekend was spent reconnecting and getting to know John's Uncle Neil and Aunt Carolyn in San Diego.... what a fabulous weekend! The kids swam in their pool, we had a picnic on the beach in La Jolla, saw lots of seals and enjoyed the ocean, did a bit of thrifting, played games, ate lots of fresh fruit and other good food and LAUGHED! We were all so sad to leave!

The billboard behind them says "Brave men run in my family"!

Little Miss "9 going on 19"! She had so much fun dressing up in Neil and Carolyn's girl's old costumes and beautiful shoes!

On the way home from our lovely weekend, we stopped at Venice Beach.... what a gong show that place is! Super busy, people hawking everything imaginable, a freak show, a drumming circle on the beach, ice cream, lots of people on bikes .... a little bit of everything.

The kids in front of the drumming circle on the beach. Some of these folks were groovin'!

Another neat place we spent an afternoon was at the La Brea Tar Pits near downtown Los Angeles. This is an area where tar (asfault) bubbles out of the earth and as far back as 40,000 years ago, animals were trapped in the pits and their bones were preserved amazingly well in the tar. Thousands of animals have been excavated from the pits here - mammoths, sabor tooth cats, giant sloths, dire wolves and many other prehistoric creatures. The pits are now in the middle of a city, but the tar continues to bubble up.

We drove home through Beverly Hills - always a fun drive - with a side trip down Rodeo Drive.... just because! Beautiful streets lined with palm trees, and fancy cars everywhere... including this Bugatti. (The most expensive car in the world.) Ahhhh.....only in Southern California!

a visit to sin city!

2011-06-04T21:17:00.000-07:00

When I was a kid, we had a cat named Tuffy. He was put outside every night then came back in every morning. Sometimes I’d take Tuffy up to my room at night and snuggle with him until my dad came looking for him, then I’d reluctantly turn him over. While we were waiting for my dad to come find him, I’d sometime rub Tuffy’s fur backwards in the dark to see the static electric sparks fly off his fur. He was patient for a short time, then he’d scratch me or nip me to let me know he didn’t like it. Why am I telling you this story?

Well, we spent a day and half in Las Vegas at the beginning of this week and most of the time we were there, I felt like I think Tuffy must have felt when I rubbed his fur backwards! Unlike many of the other towns we have visited on this trip, Vegas is NOT a place I’ve ever wanted to go. But we figured since we were so close we may as well see it. Well, right from the moment we drove in I knew it was not where I wanted to be! Smutty billboards of mostly naked women plastered everywhere didn’t make it a nice welcome. They call it Sin City for a reason!

The afternoon we got there we swam in the pool, which the kids enjoyed, then headed over to Circus Circus. We had parked our RV in the KOA “campground” behind this casino. (If you can call a hot asphalt parking lot a campground!) The kids loved the rides at the Adventure Dome at Circus Circus. They enjoyed it so much we went back again the next day and spent more time. Zara and I rode the rollercoaster then she went on all the other “scary” rides alone. Zara was fearless! Bella and Thor enjoyed the little kid’s rides as well.

That next afternoon I decided to catch a bus down to the opposite end of the “the strip” to get tickets for the Lion King Musical that night. During the bus ride there and the walk back I just couldn’t get over the excessiveness of all the big resorts. Everything in Vegas is BIG, grand ….. over the top…. and I couldn’t help thinking of all the precious natural resources that went into building them, then running them, not to mention keeping “the strip” lit up all night, every night. What a waste of energy! This is a smallish city, smack in the middle of a desert, with a massive ecological footprint. I just didn’t feel comfortable there. It rubbed me the wrong way and sent sparks flying!

Speaking of sparks…. on my walk back, there were men on many street corners handing out flyers for “women to your room in 20 minutes”. The streets were littered with cards and flyers of naked women. These guys were shoving cards into the hand of every man who walked by INCLUDING men walking with their wife or girlfriend! I found it appalling and disgusting. If you had been near me, you would have smelled the smoke from all the sparks!

On a more positive note, that night we completely and totally enjoyed the Lion King - a fabulous show with amazing costumes and beautiful singing. It was a fun, late night outing! It ALMOST made the trip to Vegas worthwhile!

I hope that anyone reading this who likes Vegas will not take offense to my thoughts on this city. Everyone sees things through their own unique filters, and personally, I just couldn’t see past the excessive and ugly side of Vegas. It felt so “in my face” most of the time. I’ve seen Vegas touted as a family get-away….. oh my…. I can think of so many better places to take my family!!! This is certainly not a place we’ll be returning to!

It likely didn't help that we had just come from 6 blissful days in Sedona, a spiritual mecca with the most amazing energy! Vegas is at the absolute opposite end of the spectrum and the contrast was shocking. Two "h" words come to mind when I think of the contrast! Any guesses what those words are?!?!

From Vegas, we drove to Los Angeles, and have been having a lovely time with family. It was so nice to get out of the desert and to an area that is lush and green and full of beautiful flowers! The purple jacaranda trees are in full bloom as are the bouganvilla and so many others. Will post more about that soon. (I promise my next post will be much more positive!)

a walk through town

2011-05-30T09:44:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we ventured out of the calm of our campground, into the chaos of hoards of tourists here in Sedona for the Memorial Day long weekend. We rode a free shuttle into the uptown area to look around. Found a cool store with lots of masks and we all had fun trying them on!

After icecream cones and little snack we were happy to leave the crowds behind and head back to the area of our campground. We explored some of the art galleries nearby and the amazing works of art that grace this town.

Kicking back in a surprisingly comfortable rock chair!

Gorgeous views in every direction!

Then back "home". We've been here for 6 nights and have loved exploring this area. Sedona will certainly hold a special place in our hearts.

another day in paradise!

2011-05-29T21:42:00.000-07:00

We've been spending lots of time down at the creek that runs right behind our campsite. It's the same creek that we enjoyed at Slide Rock State Park - Oak Creek. Before I get to today, here are a couple of photos from our afternoon at Slide Rock. It was such a fun place!

The creek is the kid's favorite place to be around here. Our campsite is right in front of the path leading down to it, so we're regulars there! It's shady, cool, and there's water! What else could you ask for when you're in the hot desert?!

Sweet time with the kids, playing in and enjoying nature. Taking time to breathe.

loving life in sedona!

2011-05-28T21:47:00.000-07:00

It’s been fun to explore so many places that I’ve heard about for years and have wanted to see. Sedona’s another of those places and we’ve been enjoying our time here. (I was here as a young kid, but have no memories of that trip.) We found a wonderful campground right beside Oak Creek with big trees and lots of shade and some HUGE blue heron nests. There are baby herons chirping constantly and big adult birds flying around. The kids are enjoying watching them and getting a closer look at these majestic birds.

A few days ago we spent an afternoon at Slide Rock State Park, swimming and enjoying this natural wonder. It’s a natural waterslide carved into the red slick-rock surface of Oak Creek Canyon. Most of us found the water pretty cold, but Zara was in there having fun for hours! She and John jumped off some small cliffs a few times. Zara had no fear or hesitation about jumping. Other people went up there and hemmed and hawed, but Zara didn’t even count to three! She just launched into the cold water below! (I haven’t downloaded these photos from John’s camera yet, so will post Slide Rock pics soon.)

On our walk out of the park, we watched some teenagers jumping off some MUCH higher cliffs into the canyon lower down. These cliffs were at least 60’ high and Zara asked “Can I do that Mom?” No way Zara! Maybe when you’re their age!

It’s been nice to have some relaxing days here. It’s worked well so far to have a few days where we travel long hours and cover lots of ground, then find a place we want to stay and settle in for a bit before doing it again. We were only going to stay here until Friday, as it’s a long weekend in the USA and everything was booked up. But when I went into the office to pay for Thursday night, the woman at the desk was just getting off the phone with someone who had called to cancel their weekend reservation. There was a wait list for the site, but since I was standing right there, they gave it to us! I love the way the universe looks out for us like that!

So we’ve had some good down time. The kids are enjoying playing with their toys, and making friends with other kids. Zara is loving having some young girls to play with.

It was quite a novelty to walk some dogs this morning. (Some of our neighbors are travelling with SIX little dogs! Can you even imagine?!?!?)

Yesterday we did a little sight seeing and saw some of the "prehistoric" buildings of one of the Native American tribes that inhabited this area from about 1000 - 1400 AD.

This was at the Tuzigut national monuement - remnants of a pueblo built about 1000AD. Some interesting history. Thor refused to walk anywhere yesterday! It was HOT and he just didn't want to walk in the heat. Bella was happy walking as long as she could take photos!

Montezuma's Castle was very cool. Even Thor thought so! This is a dwelling built into the side of a cliff. Zara enjoyed reading the interpretive signs, we watched lizards and imagined what life must have been like back then.

As much as we're enjoying Sedona itself, we have almost had our fill of the desert! It's HOT and dry! The ocean is calling us.... loudly!

One more photo of the gorgeous red rocks in the area. It is definitely beautiful!

more red rock and the grandest of canyons!

2011-05-25T21:37:00.000-07:00

Oh where to start! We are now in Sedona, Arizona, but I’m going to spend this post filling you in on what we’ve been doing since the last post.

In case you couldn’t tell from my last post, we LOVED Moab. There was so much to do, the scenery was stunning, and it just had a great energy about it. On Saturday last week, a dream came true for me when I spent the morning mountain biking near Moab. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for about 15 years, so it was wonderful to get out there and find out why the area is so well known for its biking. I went with a group of 5 others and a guide. They picked me up at our RV park and off we went about 20 miles to the trail head. We biked about 2 miles on dirt trails, then got up onto the slickrock and just climbed up and up and up. We saw dinosaur footprints in the rock, and amazing scenery all around. It was rough rock - not smooth at all - so my body certainly got jarred around. But nothing compared to coming down! At the very top, we left our bikes and hiked into a remote area of Arches National Park. So beautiful! Then down we came….. bumping all the way down the slickrock. Everyone else in my group had rented bikes with dual suspension, so I was the only one getting jarred around on my 17 year old hardtail bike with a trailer bike attachment on the back - I got a few looks! But I had fun and I kept up with a couple advanced riders in the group, so I didn’t worry about it! It was just thrilling to be out there. I kept saying to myself…. I’m mountain biking in Moab…. I’m actually here!

The next day we did something completely different and somewhat incongruent, a hummer excursion into an area called “Hell’s Revenge”.

This area is famous for its jeep track and people come from all over the world to drive over these fossilized sand dunes. (What’s also called slickrock, or sand stone) We were driving almost straight up some steep hills and coming straight down the other side!

It was quite an adventure. I probably wouldn’t choose to do it again, but we did get to see some areas we wouldn’t have otherwise and it was quite the experience!

That afternoon, we got into the RV and headed towards Bryce Canyon, stopping along the way at many other beautiful places. We stopped in at the Valley of the Goblins – a valley full of little hoodoos in so many different shapes and sizes. That was fun until the wind picked up and it started to storm! We took refuge in the RV then continued south-west. We drove through Capital Reef park, more amazing red rock and sheer cliff walls. We spent the night in the bush somewhere, then arrived at Bryce Canyon the next morning. It was very different from what we had been seeing but by then the kids were getting pretty tired of looking at red rock! So tired in fact, that we decided not to go to Zion as planned, but head straight to the Grand Canyon.

We did a long day of driving and camped at the Grand Canyon that night. Our first hike out to the rim that evening was so cool. What an amazing place! So grand, it’s hard to really take in the scale of it.

The next morning we saw the IMAX movie on the “Secrets of the Grand Canyon” – an amazing journey through the history of the people who have explored it. So well done and so fascinating. Then we went exploring ourselves!

It’s challenging keeping 3 kids engaged when we’re doing so much sight seeing! John and I were so excited to see the Grand Canyon - I almost needed to pinch myself to believe I was there. But the kids were squabbling, and cranky and just wanted to go back to the motorhome! Argh! So frustrating. But once we got to the rim and sat down and had a snack while taking in the view, they started to enjoy it.

We got on a shuttle bus and took a little ride into the Grand Canyon Village where we took in some more views of the canyon. The kids enjoyed watching the squirrels and chipmunks scampering around and the birds surfing the updrafts off the canyon walls.

I'm so happy we got to see this incredible place. I know the kids won't remember it, but I sure will! One day, when they are older, we'd love to go back and raft the Colorado River. One day......

From there, we beelined it for Sedona. We're here now, enjoying this magical little town. But more on that later. Internet access has been hit and miss and when we do have it, I often don't have time to sit down and write a post. It's amazing how much there is to do when travelling with 3 kids! It's not a vacation, but it's certainly an adventure!

magical moments in moab!

2011-05-20T13:46:00.000-07:00

We arrived in Moab on Wednesday and were so happy to settle in and not do any driving for awhile! It was raining when we got here and has been off and on ever since, but we’ve decided to stay and wait it out so we can experience this area in it’s full sparkling glory. When we arrived at our campsite, Thor asked for his cars and monster trucks, settled himself into a patch of dirt and played happily for almost 2 hours! Bella spread out on the floor with a bag of toys and everyone was happy just to stop driving. We unhitched our bikes, rode into town, picked up some groceries at a natural food shop called Moonflower and rode “home”.

Friday morning, braving the rain and trusting that the sun would shine through, we headed up to Arches National Park. The road was steep and full of switchbacks at the beginning, then we arrived at the top of a huge plateau and as far as the eye could see there were massive red rock monoliths rising out of the earth at random. It was mind-blowing!

We drove the full 18 mile main road with a few side roads, stopping at a few hikes that we had read were particularly suitable for young children. The sun did come out and it was warm and lovely and gorgeous! The kids loved the hike into Sand Dune Arch. We followed the path through some huge, fin shaped rocks, squeezing in between the opening where it opened up to a long narrow canyon, full of sand and a few bright green trees. We made our way up to the top of it where there was a beautiful arch and some fun caves. The kids loved climbing around on the sandstone. It’s called “slickrock” because the first settlers found it very slick for their horses metal shoed hooves, but it’s actually very grippy and feels like sandpaper. Great for climbing around on!

We ended our day up there with a hike into Double Arch. This area was absolutely awe-inspiring. We ran out of adjectives to describe the beauty all around us.

As we were walking in I could feel the powerful energy of this magical place and it moved me to tears. So absolutely incredible. I wanted to just lie down in the sun and soak it up! I climbed up to the top and looked out through one of the arches and the view was stunning. I stayed up there for awhile just taking it all in.

It was so fun to have the kids out hiking and loving it! They complained at first, but quickly realized how great it was and didn’t want to stop! We assured them we’d be hiking again the next day.

As we were leaving the park it started to rain again, and was still raining when we got back to our campsite. Keeping the kids happy in the rain has been challenging, but within an hour or so, the sun popped back out, Bella and Thor put on rainboots and had a great time jumping in the puddles! A great ending to our wonderful day full of sunshine, fresh air, red rock, and magical moments.

Have I mentioned that we love this place?!

it's still winter in yellowstone!

2011-05-18T19:15:00.000-07:00

We’ve seen so much in the last couple days! After leaving Missoula we headed east, then south towards Yellowstone. It felt good to get off the interstate and into the mountains where we saw rafters and kayakers and beauty all around. We spent that night in West Yellowstone just outside the park boundary, but before settling into our campsite, we explored a Bear and Wolf Discovery Center.

We do not like supporting animals in captivity so we were glad to find out that none of these animals had been taken from the wild to be put on display. The wolves were from a place in California that breeds animals for photo shoots and movies (where I guess they ended up with too many wolves). The grizzly bears were all “garbage bears” that would have otherwise been killed – mostly from Alaska.

It was interesting to see the animals so closely, but the exhibits in the info centre are what stays with me. They had so many facts about bears and wolves but what really got my attention was how misunderstood and poorly treated these animals have been and still are. Just as an example, when the white people arrived in California in the 1800’s they started killing grizzlies for sport…. torturing them, then killing them just for the thrill of it. They killed over 10,000 grizzlies in a relatively short period of time – KILLING EVERY LAST ONE. It just hit me so strongly and made me feel physically ill – to think of all the animals on this earth that have been wiped out because of human ignorance and/or greed. I could go on but enough ranting!

That night was COLD! It got down to below freezing and we wondered what the heck we were doing in the mountains! For some reason I hadn’t planned for cold weather! But the next morning we woke up to blue skies and headed for Yellowstone. I had no idea what to expect from this National Park, but let me tell you, it blew me away! Amazing! Animals wandering wild and free all over the park. Bison, elk, deer, eagles, hydrothermal water features, steam rising from holes in the earth, geysers …. incredible beauty in every direction.

I did not know that Yellowstone was a caldera in a very old volcano. We learned so much and enjoyed every minute of it. Old Faithful was magical. Just a steaming vent, then all of a sudden a massive geyser spewing superheated water into the air. The kids all enjoyed it too. We broke some rules and let the kids ride without seatbelts so they could be looking out the windows and taking it all in!

This is what Old Faithful looks like most of the time.

This is what it looks like what it's exploding!

From Yellowstone we headed south into the Grand Tetons, another area I’ve heard about for years and was keen to see. After being in Yellowstone though, it rather paled in comparison But still beautiful. Snow everywhere! The lakes were still frozen solid.

We stopped at a great Wildlife Art Museum just outside of Jackson where we saw all sorts of beautiful things. There was a wonderful kids area with costumes, crafts, stamping and other things all relating to wildlife. The kids played in there while John and I wandered around!

We stopped for supper in Jackson Hole, a place I’ve been curious about since watching Warren Miller ski movies as a teenager. A very quaint, rustic town set in a stunning mountain location.

I love these signs! They feel very appropriate right now!!

We arrived in Moab this afternoon but I'll write more about that tomorrow.

the adventure begins!

2011-05-16T19:43:00.000-07:00

We're on our way! After almost two years of thinking about such a trip, we’re actually doing it! The wheels were set in motion when we sold our house about 1 ½ years ago and things have continued to fall into place ever since. The last 5 weeks have been pretty crazy with packing, sorting, organizing, 2 big garage sales, and moving, along with several 40th birthday celebrations for me! With 3 kids to look after on top of all that, it’s been a BUSY time. Oh yes, and John got his Canadian Citizenship last week! Thank goodness for family and friends who helped out and kept me sane!

But that’s all behind us now and we are on the road! This is our rig – our home – for the next 2 months. My folks have kindly let us use it – what a blessing! We’ve used it many times before, so it already feels like home.

We have a general idea of where we’re going but don’t have a route planned out. We'll see where the universe takes us! We’ll start by heading down through Montana to Yellowstone National Park, then to Utah (have always wanted to mountain bike in Moab!), Arizona (Grand Canyon and Sedona) then over to California and eventually up the Oregon Coast and back to B.C. That’s the loose plan, but we are open!

On Sunday morning we said our good-byes to my folks and set off. We stopped at an “old school” playground in Greenwood and burned off some energy. Old style merry-go-round, big wooden and metal structures …. so fun!

Then just before we crossed the border into the US, we hiked up to see the Cascade falls – an incredible amount of water pumping through that canyon. (All the rivers and creeks along the way were so close to flooding.) A great place to stretch our legs in the sunshine. A good thing too as it started to rain shortly after that and poured all afternoon and night.

We drove all the way to Missoula, Montana that first day – 13 hours in the RV (including our stops)! A long day but it felt good to be on our way!

wrapping up our Aussie adventure!

2010-11-17T23:29:00.000-08:00

We've been home for a month now after our 5 weeks in Australia, but I still want to do one last post about our adventures there.

After our week in Western Australia we came back to Sydney and then went up to a beautiful little beach town called Avoca for 5 days. (About an hour north or Sydney) We were there with my cousin Cherry, her husband Brent and kids, staying at my uncle's family's beach house. The house is perched up on top of a rocky bluff looking out over the ocean, the beach and the town. From there we watched dolphins, humpback whales with their babies, surfers....stunning views....an absolutely magical place.

The kids had so much fun playing in the waves, boogy boarding, building sand castles... Zara even got a surf lesson from Brent. She was thrilled to catch a couple of waves on her knees!

From Avoca, we drove a few hours further north and ended up at a beautiful spot called Pacific Palms. We stayed in a lovely beach house across from Boomerang Beach. We had fun exploring that area. We spent a day at Seal Rocks, walked up to the lighthouse, admired the amazing views and had fun beach combing on the incredibly gorgeous beaches.

We found some whale baleen on the beach....so interesting to see it up close and get a better idea of how the whales use it to filter out their food.

The Australian coast is so beautiful. We just saw little bits of it, but every corner we went around, there was another lovely beach!

I love Bella's rainbow skirt! So colorful on a grey day! (Oh, but she brings color into our lives in so many ways... not just with her skirt!)

We all fell in love with the Kookabura's in Australia. The first night we were there, Thor was terrified by their call (or laugh). It's VERY loud and very different than anything he'd heard before....he thought it was some crazy goblin hiding in the bushes. The next day we went for a bush walk and saw lots of them and heard them calling. He realized then that they were nothing to be afraid of, and rather quite facinating.

We were always thrilled to see one in our travels and usually stopped to watch and listen. Such beautiful, cheeky little creatures!

The other animal we completely fell in love with was the koala. On our way back down to Sydney we stopped at the Australian Reptile Park and we spent at least an hour watching these amazing animals. There were alligators, crocs, birds, lizards, kangaroos and wallabies, tasmanian devils, wombats, a platypus, spiders and more. But where were we? Glued to the koala habitats! There were 3 mamas with their babies, and they weren't just sleeping. (like all the others we'd seen!) They were climbing around, the babes were nursing and the mamas were eating.

The park staff came with fresh gum leaves for the koalas while we were there. This sweet mama jumped down out of the tree and paced back and forth rather impatiently, waiting for her share.

How could we not be enraptured by her and her babe? Does it get any cuter than these two? Oh my!

While I was mesmerized by these two, Zara listened to a very interesting talk on the koalas. She learned all sorts of neat things about them, but the one thing that sticks in her mind is this little tidbit: when baby koalas start to wean they can't start eating the gum leaves right away - the leaves are too strong for their tummies. So the babies eat their mom's poo instead which gives them the predigested gum leaves and helps prepare their digestive systems for the fresh leaves. Isn't that interesting? And aren't you glad I shared that little fact?!?!

Thor liked the wombats.

This bandana was a gift from Daddy... he thought it was pretty cool!

And then before we knew it our time was almost up! We spent the last few days in Sydney with Pete and Marti, and Cherry and kids. One afternoon we took a ferry from Manly Beach into the city. We watched an aboriginal guy playing his digeridoo to a wicked bass beat. The kids were groovin'! We got pizza and sat and ate near the water, watching boats come and go. Then is started to pour rain so we ran for shelter, bought some incredibly yummy gelato, and enjoyed the ferry ride back. We got to see this beautiful building one last time. I love the Sydney Opera House!

And then, it was time to come home. We had very mixed feelings about that! We had such an amazing time there and were in the travelling rhythm. Part of me felt like we could just keep going. But we came home. Zara and I had tears in our eyes as we taxied down the runway in Sydney. It was a very special trip. It felt so wonderful to share that beautiful country with my kids especially with them being the exact ages I was when I visited there as a child. I felt like we'd come full circle somehow.

14 hours after leaving Sydney, we arrived in Vancouver...tired and jetlagged, but happy to be back safely. The sun was shining on the North Shore mountains and the sky was clear blue - a lovely welcome home!

These 3 little world travellers were a joy to travel with.

We will DEFINITELY be doing that again!

beautiful western australia

2010-09-30T20:53:00.000-07:00

We have had a wonderful week in gorgeous Western Australia! What a pretty place. It's been so special to spend time with U. Dave and A. Christine and Katie. We are loving staying at their house...in the country surrounded by green hills, cattle, wildflowers and trees. So peaceful.

We've been enjoying the beaches with their white sand and turquoise water. The kids have enjoyed building sandcastles and running in the waves.

We did a day trip down to Mammoth Cave near Margaret River. There are lots of caves in the area with just a few open to the public. We each had an MP3 player and earphones and went on a self-guided tour. It was a huge cave where they had found bones of all sorts of creatures....huge mammoth wombats, giant kangaroos and many other prehistoric type animals. It was all good until we had to climb 160 stairs to get out. Not the best when the kids are tired and hungry! But we survived!

On the way to the caves we stopped at a place called Channel Rocks. The ocean pounds into a little pool between some big rock outcrops. It was beautiful!

Zara and Katie out on the rocks.

We found a HUGE playground in a little town called Donnybrook - a beautiful little town full of apple orchards. Everything was in bloom and so pretty. We all loved this fun merry-go-round... spinning fast and getting dizzy!

Uncle David has been very generous in lending us a car to use. We drove this fun little mini for a few days while Katie was working. I'm really enjoying driving on the "wrong" side of the road!

Yesterday we saw dolphins.....LOTS of beautiful bottlenose dolphins!! First we saw them right near the beach. We were standing in about thigh deep water and just watching them swim around nearby. Then we went out on a boat tour and had a wonderful time. It was dolphin soup out there! We were watching them feed in an area where the river was flowing into the ocean. There were lots of nutrients coming out of the river that the fish were feeding on, then the dolphins were eating the fish. We learned lots about dolphins and were thrilled to see so many of them. Thor's hat blew off in the wind and by the time we got the hook out to grab it, it had sunk. Thor and Bella had a big cry and then the guide said "Tomorrow if I see one of the dolphins wearing your hat, I'll try to get it back for you!" Thor burst out laughing and they were fine after that!

A dolphin bow riding right below us!

I wondered how long it would be before the kids "played"wedding after seeing Sally and Lachie get married! We bought this pretty white nightgown for Zara at A. Christine's shop and she gave Bella this bouquet of flowers....a perfect combination for a wedding! Katie raided some wisteria flowers off A. Christine's vine and hung some lace....voila...the stage was set! They practiced their lines a few times and then called us out to be part of it. Bella and Zara walked in to some pretty music, then when Katie asked Thor if he would be Zara's husband he said "NO WAY"! and threw the ring at her! So Zara and Bella got married instead!

We can't believe how quickly time is flying by. Zara is very distressed that our time in W.A. is almost up - she's not ready to leave! So we are trying to stay in the moment and just enjoy every minute of it. Zara has spent some time with A. Christine in her shop, putting shop stickers on bags and helping her unpack boxes of new merchandise. We're all having a lovely time and enjoying being with family that we don't get to see very often!

5 days in Melbourne

2010-09-25T19:01:00.000-07:00

The day after Sally's beautiful wedding, we packed up and flew to Melbourne. My cousin Tathra (aka Tad), lives there and it was wonderful to spend 5 days with her. We stayed in a motel near Princes Park, looking out at a pretty pond and a huge green space. It was a 15 minute tram ride into the heart of the city and just 5 minutes to busy Sydney Rd where we could buy food and anything else we needed!

Tad took us to Hanging Rock - an amazing volcanic outcropping of rock in an otherwise quite flat area of countryside about an hour from Melbourne. We hiked up near the top and enjoyed playing in the rock and taking in the views.

Afterwards Tad took us to her friends place nearby, who has a lovely acreage with an apple forest on it. Not an orchard with trees in a line, but a forest with the trees planted randomly. On the property there were also some lovely mud-brick cottages and buildings as well as a dam for watering. This property was a great example of permaculture....neat to see.

Alice, Tad's friend, had introduced her a few years back to an author named Robin Grille who's written some amazing books: Parenting for a Peaceful World and Heart to Heart Parenting. I'm about 50 pages into Heart to Heart Parenting and just loving it. It's not so much a "how-to" book, but rather about trusting our own parenting wisdom and connecting with our children with compassion and empathy by remembering how we felt as a child, and trying to see the world from a childs perspective. I feel like I'm not describing it very well, but can certainly say it's worth a read!

On our last day in Melbourne we visited Healesville Sanctuary about an hour from Melbourne and saw lots of neat animals. They had just acquired 2 wild baby dingos. Apparently there are only about 40 pure bred wild dingos left in Australia. All the rest (and there are thousands I'm sure) have been crossbred with domestic dogs. This (non-breeding) pair are from a breeding program that is attempting to increase the number of purebred wild dingos, or at least save them from being wiped out completely. They were cute little things and we enjoyed getting to see them close up and petting their soft fur.

We also got to see platypuses - very cool. Such amazing little creatures. They were at the top of Zara's list of things to see in Australia so she was thrilled! There were huge ibises walking around the park, scavenging like seagulls. They have big long black beaks (see photo below).

Bella was sitting in her stroller eating a muffin and one came up and pecked it out of her hand. It just sent her into a panic and she was quite fearful for the rest of the day, freaking out anytime a bird came near us. Two animal sanctuaries and two scary experiences for Bella!!! Oh, I hope it doesn't turn her off animals for life!

After the sanctuary, we headed back into the city to an area called St. Kilda's - a beautiful area right on the harbour. We walked out onto a long pier and then walked around through Luna Park. Tad and Emma hung out with the kids while I did a quick walk down the main shopping street. Fun to see all the beautiful things!

We had such a good time in Melbourne.The only thing we didn't love was the weather! It was pretty chilly much of the time. But we loved spending time with Tad and Emma. Also went out for dinner with Mike and Troy (Tad's dad and brother). It was really nice to reconnect with them all.

Good bye Melbourne..... Western Australia, here we come!

(I have some other photos I wanted to post, but blogger keeps flipping them sideways - they are lengthwise photos...anyone know how to prevent that?)

a beautiful wedding

2010-09-21T16:47:00.000-07:00

My beautiful cousin, Sally, got married to her sweetheart of 8 years, Lachie, on September 18th. It was so fun to be in the midst of wedding preparations and to help out where we could. It was a backyard, black tie wedding and it was magical! This post will be mostly photos as my internet time is limited!

Sept. 18th was also John's 40th birthday. We celebrated with a delicious brunch, compliments of Holly and Jeff! A. Marti got a delicious cake and we all enjoyed it outside in the sunshine.

The girls with curlers in their hair...preparing to get gorgeous! Sally with her rose colored glasses on!

Waiting for the ceremony to begin.

Here comes the bride!!

The kiss

Zara LOVED hanging out with Sam

Old friends!

We took the kids back to the hotel about 6:30pm, got them to bed and they stayed there with a babysitter while we went back to the wedding and enjoyed the night "kidless". We danced, laughed,and visited and had so much fun!

life down under

2010-09-21T16:27:00.000-07:00

I have so much to post about, but will start at the beginning! After 15 hours on an airplane, we were so happy to arrive in Sydney. My aunt and uncle picked us up at the airport and took us downtown to the Opera House. It was a gorgeous sunny morning and a wonderful way to start our trip. I love the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. They are such amazing landmarks of this great city.

The next day we went to Koala Park - a wildlife sanctuary - near my aunt and uncle's place. I have so many memories of visiting this place as a kid. It was so fun to take my own kids there and see it through their eyes. We saw wombats, dingos, lots of beautiful birds, kangaroos and koalas.

Everything was going well.... we were feeding the kangaroos crackers and just hanging out with them. There was a group of Chinese tourists in with us and one guy squatted down beside a kangaroo to have his photo taken. All of a sudden another roo came up and leaned back on his tail, and kicked the guy with both feet and knocked him into the fence. The poor guy jumped up, brushed the kangaroo poo off his designer pants and the whole group out them were out of the kangaroo pen in 2 seconds flat. We giggled about that for awhile. Then.... out of the corner of my eye, I saw that feisty little roo stand up and put his front paws on Bella's shoulders. Next thing I knew, he leaned back on his tail and started kicking her in the stomach! I lunged over, gave the roo a huge shove and picked up Bella. She was freaked out and crying. I immediately lifted up her shirt to check for damage and thankfully, they wasn't even a scratch. Those roos have HUGE front claws and have been known to use them to rip open a dog or an animal they are fighting with. It could have been really bad, but thankfully, it wasn't! Just a bit scary! I have to admit that after that happened, we got out of that roo enclosure pretty quickly too!!

The rest of our first week in Sydney was spent getting ready for my cousins wedding, and hanging out with other cousins that had arrived for the wedding. We spent a fun morning at Collaroy Beach in North Sydney, collecting shells, jumping in the dunes and enjoying the sunshine!

We are all having a great time so far!!

summer so far

2010-08-04T22:20:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd share some photos of what our summer has looked like so far!

Many fun filled hours spent at the beach

Playing in the little wading pool and with water on the back deck

Swimming in the middle of the lake off of Grandpa's boat

Incredible sunsets off the back deck

Playing dress up

More beach time

Enjoying the hammock

Hangin' out, enjoying the lazy, dog days of summer! I hope you're having a great summer too!

a week of fun

2010-07-27T17:32:00.000-07:00

We just enjoyed a fun week away visiting friends and family, camping and exploring. The trip started with a visit to the Enchanted Forest near Revelstoke.

There is now a great new park there called Skytrek Adventures. Zara loved the ropes course!

Drivng through the Rockies was amazing! It's been years since I did that drive and was just in awe of the beauty all around! This is Emerald Lake near Field, B.C.

After a wonderful (but too quick) visit with Katherine and her family, we headed south to my cousin's ranch. It was a little piece of paradise!

We spent a morning enjoying the scenery and our family while riding in a beautiful wagon pulled by a team of gorgeous white horses.

Zara fell in love with a horse named Jed, who she rode all the way out and back.

We stopped for a snack and a break and Zara just couldn't stay away from Jed!

From there we headed back across the Rockies to Wasa Lake and Fort Steele. Of course we had to stop at the world's biggest dump truck!

This was our first trip to Fort Steele but it definitely won't be our last! We all loved it!

Helping make ice cream! It was good!

Our last stop was Osoyoos - a place so close to home but one that we haven't explored. This was at Nk'Mip Desert Cultural Centre. I LOVE the rammed earth building!

A fun time was had by all!

hooping fun

2010-07-18T23:40:00.000-07:00

Oh my, it's been so long since my last post! I'm just going to jump right back in here with a bunch of pictures from this weekend.

We have been having lots of fun hooping these days. Zara caught on so quickly and is hooping up a storm, doing all sorts of cool moves! We bought a couple of hoops from a local vendor, but then discovered that it's very easy to make our own hoops. This website has a great tutorial on making hoops and there are also lots of "how-to" vidoes on You Tube. Sara, over at The Happy Hoop, has been a huge inspiration to us - not only in her hooping, but also with her family's adventures as "full time RVers".

The first few hoops I made were wrapped in colored electrical tape, but that just didn't cut it! So I ordered some hoop tape and started wrapping.... we're hooked!

Zara is hooping every chance she gets!

And Bella is our aspiring hooper! She LOVES her pretty hoop and spins it around her and has lots of fun with it.

And while the girls hoop, Thor finds other things to do! Sometimes he gets in on the action as well, but other times he's happier playing cars.

I finally made this picnic blanket from Soule Mama's latest book. I've been collecting old vintage sheets for awhile now and am so happy with how it turned out. This one is actually a quilt rather than a blanket, and so it's a bit heavier, but I do love it! I used a full sheet on the back and cotton quilt batting between the two layers.

This afternoon we came upon an estate sale and I found a few little treasures:

I love the colors and just love this little covered glass dish. I've put it on the window sill by my kitchen sink to put rings in. It makes me happy each time I see it!

I hope you had a lovely weekend too!

sea shells

2010-03-19T08:00:00.000-07:00

We've got 3 little sickies in the house today, so we're laying low, taking it easy. I found these shells in the cupboard and we spent a long time looking at them, sorting them into groups, comparing them, etc. A good way to pass some time! I just love sea shells. They are definitely one of my favorite things. They hold the energy of the ocean and take me back to the beauty of the sea.

Big shells are beautiful and impressive, but it's the tiny ones that I love. When I used to guide sea kayaking trips, I would spend any free time sorting through the sand and shells, collecting the smallest, most perfect ones I could find.

The spiral is my favorite symbol, and I particularly love finding it in nature. Sea shells are so often a spiral shape.

These shells all hold beautiful memories of time spent at the ocean!

adding to my ever growing collection

2010-03-18T11:43:00.000-07:00

On a recent trip to the ~~Wet~~ West Coast, I stopped at almost every thrift store I came across! I found, as always, some great clothes for the kids and even some for myself. But my favorite finds were these gorgeous vintage sheets and pillowcases.

When I find vintage linens like this, I just can't seem to leave them in the store! I'm planning to make the beach blanket from Soule Mama's latest book. I've been on the lookout for something to use as the backing...something a bit heavier, like vintage drapes or a chenille blanket. But now I'm thinking this green flowered vintage sheet will do the trick. It won't be quite as heavy as it's "supposed" to be, but I will love both sides of the blanket/quilt!

I'm not usually drawn to the color yellow, but I just love this yellow sheet. I love the butterflies and flowers. This sheet is in amazing shape, and I'm thinking it would make some gorgeous skirts or dresses.

The two pink pillowcases may end up as matching dresses for Zara and Bella.

The little wool felted slippers are brand-new with the tag still on it. I got them for a fraction of the price that they are in stores. I LOVE finds like that. I'm going to give them to a friend who recently had a little girl. My kids have all worn slippers like this and loved them.

I love thrift stores. While I was in Vancouver I was thinking I needed a bumper sticker on my car that says "WARNING - this car makes sudden stops for thrift stores".

a little bit of sewing

2010-02-21T15:13:00.000-08:00

Here are a few things I've made lately:

A diaper pouch for a friend

I love this fabric combination!

A little zip pouch for Zara's DS

With a zippered pocket inside for her games

A bag for Jhovy

I love the owl ribbon on the pocket!

A cozy baby blanket

Zara needle felted the butterfly on a thrifted cloth napkin, then I made it into a bag for her Gram.

Fun, fun!

home sweet home

2010-02-08T14:33:00.000-08:00

After almost 6 weeks on the road, we're happy to be settling back into life at home. We enjoyed a wonderful trip - we drove down the Oregon Coast and the California Coast until we arrived in Santa Maria, just north of Santa Barbara. We stayed with John's family there for about a week and half before heading off to Puerto Vallarta for 10 days. When we got back to California, we spent more time with friends and family before heading home. The kids did pretty well, especially while travelling in the motorhome, but they missed our "yellow house" and asked about it daily. "Me miss the yellow house mummy". I heard that nearly every day. Overall it was a wonderful trip and we will definitely be doing it again next year!

On the Oregan Coast

Saying hello to Paul Bunyon at Klamath, CA. Seeing this was one of my first memories as a child!

Glass Beach, Fort Bragg, CA

This beach was the site of the town dump years ago. They cleaned it up in the 60's, but the glass remains.....gorgeous!

We all enjoyed exploring.

Pismo Beach, CA

We enjoyed so many beautiful sunsets in Puerto Vallarta.

Having fun on the rope swing at Rio Mismaloya, where the movie Predator was filmed. A gorgeous freshwater swimming hole.

This was the highlight of our Mexico trip for Zara and I!

My sweet little girl in her ballerina swimsuit.

We all loved the iguanas.

Neat dragonflies at the Santa Barbara Zoo

Palm trees in Santa Barbara .... I LOVE palm trees!

Elephant Seals on the Big Sur coast

At the Monterey Bay Aquarium

On the beach in Capitola, near Santa Cruz

Capitola Beach, CA

I made 6 of these little felt pouches before we left, then embellished them with felt appliques while the kids napped in the motorhome! Some had birds, owls, hearts, etc. A fun way to pass the time!

bartering makes me happy!

2009-11-07T10:00:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago a very talented friend approached me with an idea. She asked if I'd be interested in making her some little fabric bags to put her finished jewellery pieces in, in trade for a piece of jewellery. Of course I jumped at the opportunity! I've been coveting her creations for some time!

So I made her a bunch of these....

and she made me this stunning silver pendant with a blue topaz on one side and a cubic zirconia on the other side. It hangs from a really cool aqua colored cable. I love it!

i love thrifting!

2009-11-06T15:02:00.000-08:00

I had an hour to myself today so I used it wisely...I went thrifting! I came home with some lovely treasures!

Won't these jeans be cute on little B?

I love the detail on these mugs - handpainted and silkscreened in Norway.

Miss Z has an October birthday so this plate is for her. And check out the green mugs! I LOVE them!

Does anyone remember this Fisher Price cash register? We played with this as kids. We used to borrow the money from my mom's purse, iron it so it was nice and crisp, then play "store" for hours! There were two there, so I bought them both! One for me, and one for my sister! (for our kids, of course!)

Hope you're having a lovely fall day!

a trip to the ocean

2009-10-29T22:17:00.000-07:00

We just spent 5 days enjoying Vancouver and the surrounding areas. We visited the Aquarium, Science World, did a bit of shopping of MEC, spent time with family and friends, enjoyed the new Sea to Sky highway and the gorgeous little town of Squamish, spent an afternoon on a beautiful sailboat with friends, and hung out with the animals at Maplewood farms. I LOVE being near the ocean. It fills me up, feeds my soul and refreshes my spirit. Here are a few photos of our fun trip.

settling in

2009-09-25T17:27:00.000-07:00

We are getting settled into our new place - still unpacking boxes and hanging pictures but it's feeling like home!

Zara is loving her princess bed!

We stopped by a thrift store today and Zara found the sweetest little owl family! How could we leave them in the store? I've wanted a "cookie jar" for quite some time and I'm quite sure all of the pieces will get used and well loved. I found 3 lovely wool blankets too - something I've been on the lookout for!

Hoot Hoot

Wishing you all a lovely weekend!

~Jacq

on the move!

2009-09-22T09:04:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the long absence! We've been busy moving!

This is the just part of the amazing view from our new digs.

The day we moved we harvested our garden at the old house ~ amazing!

My favorite summer food! Fresh bread with pesto and tomatoes!

summer fun

2009-08-28T08:21:00.000-07:00

We've spent so much time in the pool this summer! As our time at this house comes to an end we're just appreciating every hot sunny day that we can be out there.