We are finally settled in our home!

This is the "front" of our home in Kailua. The gate
      that you see in the pic below is to the right of the garage.

This is where you enter the our beautiful private oasis! (Most homes have walls and gates for privacy because the homes are situated so close together.)

As you continue through the gate up the walk you see the kitchen straight ahead and the screen porch to your right. There is a door on the left that goes into our master bedroom.

The hairy stuff hanging from the trees was placed there by the previous owner (its not part of the tree). I am told it is living and the Hawaiian's believe it brings good luck:)

This is our kitchen and cute pink oven- who knew there were pink ovens? It is original from when the house was built in 1953 and still works great. We don't turn it on much because it is the hottest time of year here (the high around 85 and the low around 75) and the kitchen gets too hot!

There are 2 bathrooms like this one above and the one below is the outdoor biffy with an outside shower around the corner!

As you can see, the pool and yard is amazing! We have lots of privacy and room to play. Many places we looked at renting had little or no yard so this one is a great gift!

Molly with her friend Emilia having poolside tea! Lovely:)

Maddie with her friend Cherish

The "courtyard" is like a horseshoe with the car port on the left, the garage straight ahead and the screen porch (house) on the right.

This is the screen porch

This is the room that you enter from the screen porch.

These sea turtles swam up while we were standing on a boat launch at Kailua Beach Park (about 1 1/2 miles down the road). They can be seen swimming around even in busy areas with lots of people. The Hawaiians consider these turtles sacred so people are very careful not to touch or bother them. Aren't they amazing?!

Happy Birthday Isabel!

Isabel had her 12th birthday party with her new friends. These girls are such a gift to her!

Dad and Molly played a little game of chicken fight

This beach is 1 block from our house. This is about 2 miles north of where we lived at the pink cottage. This is Kailua Beach.  The waves are pretty big. They are good for beginner surfers and not-so-beginner boogie boarders!

Molly is getting pretty good with her boogie board. She had an unfortunate run in with a Portugese Man of War (like a jellyfish) last Sunday, though! OUCH! She is doing fine now but might need some convincing to get back in the water.

Maddie's friend Keaneu looks body-less!

These waves have taught us the #1 rule- NEVER TURN YOUR BACK ON THE OCEAN!

Lots of weddings take place on the beach- it seems to be a Japanese tradition!

This is our hike to Manuwilli falls which is here in Kailua. The jungle-like setting is like being in another world!


 Behind Maddie is Kaneohe Bay and the Marine Corps Base.

Maddie and Isa are climbing up to make their first jump!

Way to be brave girls!

Molly and Daddy getting their courage up...

Bombs away! Way to go Molly

It was a pretty tough, muddy hike to get to these falls. It took us about an hour each way but as you can see it was totally worth it!

We kept waiting for Tarzan to show
up!

We still love to hike the "pillbox"!


Liv has found some wonderful friends:)

Molly and Isabel found a great park down the street from our new house (below)

Isa had a little trouble-
good thing it was a soft landing!

The centipedes here are big and some are poisinous! Thankfully we have not seen any in or around our new house!

Mahalo (thank you) for all of your prayers and encouragement. We have had some rough, homesick times but God has been so faithful to us! For those of you who have been praying for Molly, she is doing much better!! We are settled in to our home and doing very well. Blessings to all of you. Aloha!

HaPPY 14TH BIRTHDAY MADDIE!!!
Maddie has a Lei around her neck which is given to anyone who is having a special day. Lei's can be worn for a retirement, anniversarys, graduations,etc.


Lei's can be made from many different materials including shells, seeds and leaves.

We celebrated Maddie's big day at dinner at our favorite outdoor Italian Cafe called Zia's.

 

This past Sunday we took a trip around the SE side of the island
(we are on Oahu)
and saw many beautiful sites. These sites are within 15 miles of where we live Kailua.  The island is so
amazing for so many reasons, but one thing about it is that
the terraine changes very
quickly as you go along the shore.
 There are no rocky cliffs on
the shore where we live but just
 15-some miles away the rocky
cliffs are enormous.
As you drive south and
west from where we are, the land becomes very arrid and  desert-like. 
 

We climbed down the cliffs
and found a little cove to swim in and some fun caves to explore!

The waves at this beach were pretty big and we all took a good a few good tumbles!
RUN MOLLY!

Who says the old lady can't body surf?!
The only problem is that body surfing causes sand to be in places it should definitely NOT be!!

Can you find us?

The picture below is the Halona Blowhole.When the waves are big they go under the cliff and blow out the hole. 



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We made a visit to China town in Honolulu. We ate lunch at their version of the food court. It was very interesting food-not sure we will be back to the food court any time soon!

Minnows for lunch anyone? I didn't have any takers!



The girls' new friends have taught us about crab catching. It is a fun thing to do after dark on the beach. They are little sand crabs that come out at night (there are tons of them!) but are fun to try and catch because they are so fast. They can't outrun our girls:)



The girls (and usually Paul) love to go and snorkel at our beach. They have seen many different fish, eel, blow fish and sea turtles!

As you can see, it is evening and they are still swimming. The neat thing about the ocean here is that the water is nice and warm! The breeze at the beach is very warm this time of year so its even comfortable to swim in the evening or early morning.

It is the warmest time of the year here right now. The weather is pretty much the same every day. The high is about 87 or so and the low at night is around 74. We hear the beach and ocean are cooler in the winter but the temps only vary slightly from season to season so we will see what "winter" in Hawaii brings!

Thanks so much to all of you for all your thoughts and prayers! We have found a long term rental place and it is going to be GREAT.

God continues to be so kind and faithful to us. We will be moving into our place (and getting all of our stuff from the ship) in a week!

We continue to adjust to life here on the island are enjoying it very much. We miss you all at home terribly and pray for your well being also.

May the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

Aloha!