Samoa Fun

Mom and I have been doing a lot together:  grocery shopping, running errands, etc.  I had an appointment at the medical center (a.k.a. hospital) so I wanted to show mom around our facilities.  We stopped and had lunch at the cafeteria.  (Mom's chili had pineapples in it.  That was a first for me.)

We took mom and dad on the hike to the cannons at Blunt's Point.

 Looking east

 Looking west

A quick dip at Fatumafuti helped cool us down from our hike.

Some local kids were there, and they brought us this cute, squishy sea creature.

Mom and Dad babysat so Ephraim and I could go out for our 11th anniversary.  The kids enjoyed playing Doodle Dice (thanks Marcie!)

Happy 11th anniversary!

Christmas Day in Samoa

Christmas Day we opened presents, ate pastries, talked with most of you all, and then went swimming at Sliding Rock.

Going to Church with the Fillmore's

We squished into the van for a bumpy ride down our road, and then off to church.  Don't they look good in tropical attire?

(The boxes in the background are supplies going to Western Samoa after Tropical Cyclone Evan.)

Mom keeps the natives engaged while we're waiting in the car.  She's always ready with a fun song or story.

Isaac's smolder.

Samoa Projects

(copied from my blog)

Mr. and Mrs. Fix-It

My parents always leave a place better than they found it.  We've been so excited as they've done many projects to make life better for us.  

Dad brought down some tools for us and helped Ephraim replace the starter on the car.

Mom was amazed at how our stove pans had rusted so badly. And honestly, they're not that old either.  So we replaced those.

Ella and Grandma cleaned out the fridge as a Christmas present for me.

Notice how rusty the refrigerator is.

Mom and Dad decided to take care of that rust on the fridge and our deep freezer.

They also switched the handles and hinges so it opens on a logical side.

They also worked on a bike, fixed an end table and dresser drawers, and Dad even had a go at the dirt mounds on our road.  I love my handy parents!

Mom and Dad in Samoa

We're so happy to have grandma and grandpa here.  They're the best, aren't they?  It was so fun to talk to you all at Christmas.

I wanted to share some photos of our fun here.

iPad fun!!  Mom brought 2 iPads for the kids to play with.  She's a hero around here.

Ouch, mom and dad got scratched on the coral.

Stationery card

View the entire collection of cards.

This is the baby announcement I ordered from Shutterfly.  Look for yours in a mailbox soon! 

Three Outta Ten Ain't Bad

What do you get when 20 people cram into 1700 square feet for 3 days?

A WHOLE LOTTA FUN, THAT'S WHAT!

We were so excited to host Stephanie and Marcie's families this year at our house for Thanksgiving.

It was close quarters with every couch, mattress and inch of floor space used for sleeping,

but we had so much fun.

Marcie and Jason Francis pulled in at 7 a.m. Wednesday morning.  The cousins wasted no time in organizing nail painting, games, talent show sign-ups and Thanksgiving play auditions.  After napping, Marcie, Jason Francis and I made three pies, baklava, jell-O salad, candied walnuts and stuffing preparations.

We met the Soderborg's for dinner at Cafe Rio and Steph and True showed up there, too, soon after we arrived.

Thursday we had a busy but fun morning and afternoon preparing dinner.  Lots of kids helped with chopping veggies, arranging cracker trays and assembling dishes.

The cousins rehearsed the Thanksgiving play and made maize cupcakes.

Delight, Zeal, Sterling, James, Weston, Ruth, Phebe, and Praise are frosting cupcakes and adding jelly-bellies to resemble Indian maize. 

All the jelly beans were consumed, but very few cupcakes.

 To seat everyone for Thanksgiving dinner, we borrowed tables and chairs from the church and set them up in the living room.  The kids' tables were covered in butcher paper and bowls of crayons set out so they could draw what they were thankful for.  Annmarie provided place setting tags by making a word search with all of our names in it.  The name of the person seated at that place was circled, but we had to search for everyone elses names.

Dinner was served in the kitchen buffet style and we all ate plenty!

We are so ready to eat!  Someone, please bless it!

A good lookin' bird!

So much food!

Karly and Delight

Paige and Praise

Zeal

Weston is loving this holiday...James and food...doesn't get better!

Sterling, James and Weston

George

Stephanie and True

Jason and Marcie

Jason, Shellie and Phebe

After dinner we washed all of the dishes, made meringue for two pies, whipped the cream and prepared for the Struves to come at seven p.m.

The kids presented the first Thanksgiving play: Karly, Delight, Praise are pilgrims, Paige and Sterling are Native Americans, James is the narrator.  That night the Redskins beat the Cowboys...how fitting for Thanksgiving!

Arriving in the Mayflower

Huddling to stay warm through the first winter

Meeting the Native neighbors for the first time

A happy ending...a feast

Friday we took it easy in the morning.  Jason took some family pictures of everyone that day.  Annmarie also took some pictures and did a little Photoshop action to them.

Pre-photoshop action

Post-photoshop action

Friday night--and the whole wonderful visit capped off with a talent show.  Unfortunately most of the pictures didn't turn out, but here's a brief summary of the performances:

Karly...backbend, George...reading a Thomas book, Paige...jumproping, Praise...recitation of poem, Delight...drawing on the ipad, James and Weston...light-saber skit, Sterling...touching tongue to nose, Jason Brown...juggling, Annmarie...piano piece.

We had so much fun and we're grateful to the Treanors and Francis' for making the long drive to be with us this year!

Happy Thanksgiving!