Hawaii

The largest volcano, Mauna Loa. It's active and slow flowing.

Remember when I said we were going to Hawaii but never said when? Well when is now and while it was going to be for a measly three weeks, the Lord decided we needed to move here instead. So, we have moved completely out of Kristen's house and moved into Jason's parents' house. We just couldn't take those extremes in weather in California and had to go more mild.

Our new home.

We flew in on Wednesday. It was a 5 1/2 hour flight and Anna did awesome. We had to wake her up at about 4:30 for our 7:30 flight but even so she did mostly great through the airport. She didn't like having to put her backpack on the belt to go through security but was better once it came back out. I realized that with all of my preparing her for the move, I forgot to prepare her for the airplane. Oops. I kind of explained what was happening before it did so she was a bit more prepared. When we were getting ready to take off, she said her baby was scared so I had her hold him and 'he' felt better. She didn't have any problems with her ears and fell asleep once we were in the air. During her hour and a half nap I realized I didn't take anything for me to do. I figured she would take up all my time. After she woke up, we watched Dora, colored, played with toys and explored the plane.

Our backyard with banana trees along the back and a bunch of palm trees. Palm trees don't have the dried, yucky parts that they have in California.

We are on the Big Island in Hilo which is on the wet side of the island. It is very lush and has rained a couple of times each day since we came. It's beautiful and warm and humid. The island is all lava rock under us so there are black rock walls for fences or on the front of houses and black on the side of roads.

We even have random black rock outcroppings in the yard. I wondered if that made it hard to grow things but apparently all you have to do is put a cutting in the ground and before too long you have a tree.


Along Hilo's coast, they have all park because in the 60s there was a third or fourth tsunami within 20 years. After that one, they decided to keep the coastline clear of buildings. One part of it is a really cute Japanese style garden that we walked around and visited a cute little island off our coast called Coconut Island.

Anna by one of the figures. For some reason, she started waving her arm and going up and down as if she was a ballet dancer at a barre. I have no idea where it came from but it was funny.

This sign on Coconut Island cracked me up.

Jason and Anna in the water off Coconut Island.

They have a little bit of beach and some sheltered pool areas that Anna loved playing in. The first time we went, she wasn't wearing her swimsuit so Jason said she couldn't get in the water because she would get her shorts wet. So she walked to me and asked if she could take her shorts off. We went back later with her swimsuit on, she didn't want to leave. Although we are not on the beachy side of the island (our coastline is mostly rocky and Kona, the other side, is the sandy side) I have a feeling I'm going to be down there a bunch in the near future.