Memorial Day

Finau Leka's first beach outing
beautiful havaiinei

about to go in
(thanks grandma for my swimming shorts!!
I love the animals on them)

smiling and laughing before he fell in

The boys out in the water

Contrary to what everyone thinks the waterpark is so OVERRATED!! The natural waterpark is THE WAY TO GO & IT'S FREE!! Finau's been having trouble sleeping because it's so stuffy and hot right now so he had a good sleep all of Monday morning. I made breakfast for Filipo and then we woke the little man up and went to Malaekahana. We bought Finau a floatie a few weeks back so he got to use that. Two minutes in the water and he accidentally fell in so he was coughing for a bit. Then his whole little body started to look cold so they went out and came in for about 15 minutes before we left. I spent our whole two hours just relaxing in the water. It doesn't make sense to me why people go to the beach but don't go in the water especially when it's overcast (which it was for the last hour), I mean come on I can do that in the comfort of my own home. So then we went home and perfect timing because it started to POUR while Filipo was outside washing the car...too funny. It was nice to take Finau to the beach for the first time and just spend time together as a family because we're never together with Filipo's crazy work schedule and everything we have going on. I can't wait til we're done with school so we can spend some quality time together.

His super cute honu (turtle) floatie!!

Fale Fo'ou

We just realized that we never said anything about moving. Well we had to move out of our apartment because they're moving missionaries into our building so they moved us into a two-bedroom. We had a lot of choices but we finally decided on a building that was still in our ward. It's across from one of the families that watches Finau sometimes. The little kids came over all the time when we moved in to watch movies and their dad always came over to yell at them to get in their own house when none of us where there. It was pretty funny since we were cleaning out the old house and we couldn't find any of them and it turns out they were inside our house haha.....

It's a really nice apartment since it's only a few years old, it's one of the new buildings in TVA. The rooms are bigger except for the kitchen which is annoying since Filipo spends so much time cooking for all the people that come over. Finau has his own room now but Filipo always drags him in with us. There's doors for everything so we can separate the rooms/bathroom from the rest of the house which is nice when there's lots of people over so we don't disturb Finau while he's sleeping.

We've been here two weeks but we're still working on finally getting settled. I did tell Filipo it felt like we moved from a home to a dorm room because all the furniture is the dorm furniture! What is that about?!! At least we finally have a new couch! We can't wait to finally get Nau Leka's room all sorted out. I think once that's all done we won't have any trouble keeping the house clean but now it's kind of the "dumping ground" for EVERYTHING. Hey at least we've only had one refugee so far! LOL...

Sunday Breakfast

Even Finau wanted some of the good food

French toast, Eggs, Sausage,
and
my favorite strawberry/mango smoothies!!

Yummy breakfast!

[Finau ready to eat! And NO I didn't even
notice that knife until I was uploading this]

I decided we're going to have a nice family breakfast on the weekends and just sit and talk since that's the time we're usually home together. I made french toast, eggs, sausage, cinnamon rolls, and strawberry/mango smoothies! It was so yummy and we are definitely doing that again!! Yeah for summer time and making smoothies every day in the heat!!!!!! Gotta Luv It!

*On a side note we went to our friend's house and they served us poison 'otai!! LOL.....It was super bitter but they couldn't figure out why. I think it was the milk but then they finally decided it was the watermelon which I still don't think cos I tasted that alone and it was fine. Anyway it was funny because another of our friends came over while we were there and they poured him some and he said it was fine and so he tasted Filipo's and made this horrible face and spit it out! TOO FUNNY!!

put a smile on your face

I couldn't help but smile, how cute is this?

tonga pride

how precious is that....proud to be a tongan boy...

Photo Shoot

Our friends got some photos taken of their family and they were so nice! I wanted to get some of Finau to frame and have so we could send them to Tonga. We finally had them taken last Friday. It was so much fun...until the security came to kick us out! We were done anyway but it was a lot of fun. Finau loves being around people and he loved smiling for the camera. LeeYen took some great photos for us. It was really good even though Filipo was clashing with Finau and then he got really restless when we wanted to take some of the two of them wearing their taovala's. As soon as I get the rest of the pictures I'll post them up!

Spring Break Continued

Monday April 13

We were all kind of lazy and slept and worked around the house. It wasn't too cold and so Filipo worked with dad outside on the pond. Dad still hadn't finished it but it had been cold so he hadn't really had a chance and then they found a hole in it so it took longer than they expected. While Filipo & Dad worked outside Finau spent the day inside sleeping with grandma.


Filipo likes this one...

When mum & dad left Tonga Filipo's family gave them
mats, tapa, and other gifts. They hung one of the tapa mat up in
the family room and this is the only pic I got of it when we were home.
I LOVE IT [ I made them hang it up for our wedding reception party
HOURS BEFORE it started,
that's how much I love it ;) ]

working hard obviously

Finau spent most of the trip lounging with grandma
and SLEEPING

Tuesday April 14

I love going to the temple. It is such a blessing to be living in Laie and having the temple so close so I was so bummed when it closed for renovations. I would love to go to Kona but with no money it's difficult. The favorite part for me going home was being able to go to the temple but alas it was not going to happen. I was sure I had brought my recommend with me but I didn't so Filipo went by himself. I was really sad about not going but mum bought me clothes and we just had a good day spending time with just us and Finau. We did take some photos when we went to pick up Finau so I guess that made up for it. Afterwards we spent the day shopping with Filipo & picked dad up from work and went out to eat. It was a pretty good day.

Outside the Washington, D.C. Temple

Inside the Visitor's Center

Temipale

Inside with the Statue of Christ

Me & my little man
outside the D.C. Temple

Wednesday April 15

Filipo was knocked out and tired from the day before so mum and I spent all day shopping. I really wanted some nice dresses & skirts to take back with me. We found some along with a few goods for Finau. Filipo really missed out because they had some good guys clothes. We spent the afternoon watching movies and not doing much of anything else. That night we were all going to go to the movies but Finau wasn't really in the mood so Filipo and I went to watch "Race to witch mountain" with The Rock by ourselves. Before we watched the movie we went shopping for Filipo to try and use up all the giftcards we have from our wedding. It was nice to have some time away by ourselves, it definitely reminded me of last summer and living over here.

Thursday April 16

It was such a gorgeous day today! Mum and I woke up early while the guys all decided to get some sleep. While they slept we went out to do some more shopping :) and look for some things for Filipo Leka & Kalina's baby girl. I found all these awesome Disney movies but Filipo didn't want them so I left them there. I knew he would want them but it taught him a lesson because when we went back they were gone SURPRISE SURPRISE!! not really....

The whole family working hard all day

Finau was so happy to play with grandpa

Saipa'ia Boys

Finau & Lipo

A shot of the house and Finau with grandma

Filipo & dad working on the rock wall

Finau & mum on the porch swing
He loved it

When I woke up this is what I saw on the couch
Finau knocked out and chillin

Anyway when we came home the boys were outside working in the yard. They dragged Finau's bed outside so he could watch them work. He wasn't really happy about it or maybe it was because the sun was so dang hot. Mum spent time swinging with him on the porch while I took some photos. I've really come to love and appreciate Virginia so much more since I've been away from home. When I was there I didn't love the weather or living in the middle of nowhere and even church was rough when we moved but I am so grateful for it now. I miss the trees in the fall when the leaves all change colors and fall, the snowstorms/thunderstorms, the sunshine and the trees and flowers! I miss building bobsled runs in our driveway when it was way steep and sledding down after getting snowed in for two weeks. I miss going on trips to the mountains and being so close to family. I miss living in a house filled with windows and light and having a piano to play whenever I wanted. I miss having a clean bathroom and a house without tons of cockroaches/rats/ants/spiders/geckos/bed bugs and all the other nasty biting creatures that we have here in Hawaii. I miss the COLD! and the AIR CONDITIONING!! I miss piling on 10 blankets in the winter while having my ceiling fan go FULL BLAST ALL NIGHT! LOL...I miss turning on my ceiling fan and vacuuming and having all the photos on my magnetic wall fall down hahaha....I just miss it so much now and We were so lucky we were able to go back.

Friday April 17

We were planning on going around D.C. on Monday but it was so rainy we decided it wouldn't be fun to walk around and take pictures. We decided we would take pictures and walk around the sites on Friday. I grew up here so I've been to the mall tons and tons and tons. When we lived in Fairfax & Falls Church we use to come into D.C. EVERY WEEKEND. I loved going to all the different places. I can't even imagine what it would have been like if we had a digital camera then...Filipo mostly wanted to come so we could take photos of Finau since we came a lot last summer when we were here. We started off at the national cathedral. I like coming here to see all the stain glass windows which we learned are incorrectly labeled as stained glass but it's acutally hand blown glass...umm yeah...After going on the tour for that we ate some mexican food at the "best mexican restaurant in D.C." or so the Washington Post and all these food magazines say. Then we headed over to the mall. After only walking from FBI building where we parked to Einstein to Lincoln everyone else didn't have any steam so we stopped at the washington monument and waited while dad got the car. It was really funny because some tourists parked their car in a no parking zone and everyone kept having to get over but everyone once in a while someone didn't realize it was a parked car so they waited for five minutes honking and yelling until they finally realized no one was in the car!! LOL...

SATURDAY April 18
My dad decided we needed to have a party because so many people had wanted to see Finau while we were home. Saturday morning Filipo and I went to return some things and buy some things. When we got home we spent the day cleaning and moving the piano and furniture. The party was suppose to start at 4 but NO ONE CAME! haha...I know it's not really funny but it kidn of was. Then finally people started coming and we had a nice get together with everyone. It was so nice to see all of the people that I grew up around, our family friends. They LOVED Finau especially little baby Adam. Overall the visit was great but it was way too short! I can't wait until we can go back again.

As soon as I get home I'll post the pictures we took from the last two days but I figured I should get this post up for mom and dad so they can see some photos. Thanks for letting us come and visit, we had a blast! We miss you guys.