More Visitors Escaping Snow

Our dear friends Rick and Wendy Picariello from Boston are visiting us this week.  We should just turn our home into a bed and breakfast!  We love having visitors and sharing our lives here with those we care about.  It makes it more real and continues that bond of special friendship.  Asher and Anna were quite devastated that their kids Isaac and Isabella didn't come along but the kids are still having fun tagging along on yet another Thorson tour of Hawaii.

Mary with Diana Carvalho and Wendy Picariello.  Diana and Wendy are friends from high school.  When Wendy heard Joel and I were moving to Hawaii, she knew Diana was here and hooking the two of us up.  Diana was the first person I met in Hawaii.  She came and rescued me and the kids from our long stay in a hotel every now and then when we moved here and were waiting for a house on base, and her family have become good friends of ours here.  Wendy has really enjoyed catching up with 2 long term friends.  Diana is my friend who just happens to see all the Lost actors.

The Thorson's, Carvalho's, and Picariello's enjoying dinner together.

And OK "Losties"...you know how we have been here a year and I have been trying to hunt down Lost actors and filming locations to no avail.  Well, Rick and Wendy have been here for 4 days and just happened to stumble upon them filming today while driving around the island in a car we lent them.  They don't even care about the show!!!  Unbelievable!

When did Asher grow up?

Asher decided last night that he wanted to take his training wheels off.  Joel was ready to run next to him and I was getting the band aids ready.  Joel helped him get on and then Asher left him in the dust.  It wasn't at all like we imagined it to be.  He is so excited and proud of himself.  I got a few tears in my eyes thinking that this is our first born riding a two wheeler.  Where did that baby go?  This morning he scarfed down his breakfast, speed dressed, and was out riding his bike by 7:30 am.  and that was all he did all day.  I do have to run out there every so often and help him get started, but he zooms around on it like he has been doing it for weeks.

"Dada"

Jesse said his first word today!!  Joel was wrestling him on the ground and Jesse reached out his arms and said "Dada".  We both looked at each other with a shock on our faces and then wrote it off as a fluke, but then he kept doing it.  So we are pretty sure he associates it with Joel.  Yey Jesse!!!  This is the first time that a parent is our baby's first word.  Asher's first was "thank you" and Anna's was "book", so Joel feels very very special.

Growing Up in Hawaii

Joel and Asher learned how to throw a spear at the Polynesian Cultural Center last week, which is the a great place to learn about Hawaii's history.  

The view from my favorite hike in Hawaii, Makapu'u.  There is a lighthouse at the top as well.  You know me and lighthouses.

Jesse enjoying the sand and breeze at our favorite beach.

Anna and Joel building in the sand.

Jesse getting an early start on boogie boarding.

A view we see almost every day and can take for granted.  The waterfalls coming down are a treat in that it only happens after heavy rains.

I really just wanted to share some of these photos and moments.  As I said in my last blog, site seeing with our friends from MA has renewed our appreciation for our time in Hawaii and the things we get to experience.  God is so good.  We only hope our kids will remember some token of it.  Well, I guess Jesse won't but he can always say that he was born in Hawaii!

The Duncan's in Hawaii

Our friends from MA, Avin and Kathy Duncan, arrived last week to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary in Hawaii.  We have been doing our best to show them all the best sites and help them enjoy this paradise to the fullest.  The kids have been having a blast with them and it has been awesome having the reminder of how beautiful this place really is.  I know that sounds silly but it is easy to start taking your surroundings for granted.  Experiencing it again with Avin and Kathy has given me the awe back all over again.  God's creation is amazing.  The sites here just bring me my knees in awe of Him and His beauty.  Whenever I worship the Lord, Hawaii's beauty and the peace its surroundings give me will forever be what I see. 

Avin in awe of the waves on the North Shore.  We were able to picnic with some sea turtles, see "Lost" sites, watch surfers on the big waves, and feel bad for Kathy when a wave knocked her into a rock and she broke a toe and got scraped up.  Anybody else want to trust me as a tour guide?

Jesse, our beach bum.  Boy is it tough being a baby in Hawaii.

Here we are with Avin and Kathy on top of the Atlantis Submarine.  We went 90 feet underwater and enjoyed a 45 minute excursion exploring some reefs.

One of 100 pictures we took from the submarine.  Why is it that pictures never quite capture the beauty?

Kathy and Mary at a waterfall at the end of a mile long hike.

My friend Diana

"Losties", this blog is for you.  I love the show.  I am addicted to it.  I over analyze every aspect of every minute of the show and look forward to it every week.  The obsession is worse now that we live in the place where the show is filmed.  We have visited almost every filming site that we can from the "Other's" village to the beach camp, jungle sites, and have seen the fuselage.  However, I have yet to see one of the actors which is a big desire.  I don't know why.  I don't plan on mobbing them or asking for an autograph.  I just want to see them just to say I did.  Most of them live on the other side of the island in a town called Kailua, which is about a 30 minute drive from me.  My friend Diana lives in Kailua.  She has seen Hurley at Jamba Juice a number of times, and also at the grocery store (they shop at the same one).  She has seen Juliet at the mall and was in line behind her at a local drugstore (and had a conversation with her).  Her kids played on the same soccer team as Matthew Fox's so she saw him just about every Saturday.  And then I got a phone call from her a few weeks ago that Desmond and his family were eating dinner at a table next to them at a pizza place.   GGGRRRRRR.  I think I need to go follow her every move until I have a Lost siting!  Yes, I am obsessed.