Thanksgiving 2013

For Thanksgiving this year, we were so happy to have my sister here to spend it with us.  Mele flew up and spent almost 2 weeks with us, which seemed like a lot of time at first, but it flew by way too quickly!  I was glad she was there with us, because at the time Fehi was going back and forth from Salt Lake to Pocatello, so I was getting quite lonely.  While she was there we just pulled the futon mattress into the living room, grabbed the TV from downstairs and made our bedroom in the living room in front of the TV.  Every morning, day, and night if we weren't out and about we were just chilling and watching movies, eating junk.

A few days before thanksgiving I was looking online for some activities to do with the kids, and luckily I had found that Discovery Kids (at Gateway Mall) had a canned food drive even that you could get in free with 2 canned foods, or non-perishable foods.  We spent about $10 on canned foods at walmart, and then went over to Discovery Kids and got in free.  It's normally like $8 (I think) for normal admission, which I would NEVER pay for, so I was happy that we caught this deal.   The kids had lots of fun, but as you could imagine it was full of kids!

Thanksgiving day we spent with both sides of our family.  We had lunch with my mom's sister, my Aunt Paea (in Saratoga Springs).  There we got to eat basically a traditional thanksgiving meal.  It was so delish, I'm pretty sure I fell into a food-coma not too long after the first serving. :)

Later that evening we headed over to my dad's brother, my Uncle Feleti and his family's house in Orem, where we got our Tongan food! After eating we played games (heads up, dots, etc.) and it was so much fun.

Unfortunately Fehi wasn't home in time to spend thanksgiving with us, but he did get home later that night.  The next day we met up again with our Manu cousins for our little niece Ana's birthday.  They had a birthday party for her at Classic Skating in Orem, and it was super fun.  The kids got to go on the bouncers and also skate, or in Moe's case- ride the scooter.  They even got a few tokens to play games at the end.  It was lots of fun, for both the kids and adults (as we skated as well), but I was excited to have Fehi home and enjoying fun-time with the kids. 

A few days before Mele left back home to Hawaii, she was in for a surprise when it snowed! We let the kids go out and play, and she went out with her slippers and big korean blanket just for quick picture.  We had lots of fun having her visit us, and I know the kids and I were sad to see her go. We can never get enough of our family. :)

October 2013 - Halloween in Hawaii

I thought I'd blog specifically about our Halloween last year because for the first time we were able to spend Halloween at home in Hawaii with my family.  I've always wanted to take my kids home for Halloween because it's so much more different trick-or-treating in Hawaii than it is Utah, weather being the biggest factor.  Before going to Hawaii, we did plan some activities with Fehi, as we knew he wouldn't be able to come with us to Hawaii.  First we had to go shopping for their costumes.  We decided to hit up all the kid-to-kid stores first so we could buy them cheaper costumes.  And I'm so glad we did.  Moe wanted to be a batman, and we found a costume for him there for less than $10 (I don't remember the exact price), all we had to get was his batman mask.  Kesaia, of course, wanted to be a princess, and we found like 3 princess dresses for her, and because they were all so cheap we just got them all.  Bubba's costume, we scored because we got the whole pirate outfit and accessories for less than $10 as well.  We attended a trunk or treat with our in laws one night, and another night we met up with my cousins at Gardner Village (favorite place to go during Halloween) and we saw all the different witches, and watched the witch parade.  The kids loved it, even though it was so cold!!

A few days later my mom came and met us in SLC so she could fly back to Hawaii with Kesaia, which was a first for all of us, because I've never let any of my kids fly without me.  But I was glad to let her go because that was one less child to fly alone with.  Kesaia surprisingly was excited and was ready to go. She said bye to me like it was nothing, and she was definitely spoiled the whole time she was away from us.  We missed her, but also was happy she got to go earlier and spend time with my mom and them.  When it was time for me to fly with the boys, I thought it was going to be a breeze.  Boy was I wrong lol.  I'm pretty sure Bubba knew what he was doing because he would wine and cry when we sat down, cause he knew I'd get up and carry him.  Which is what we did almost all flight.  Thank goodness the flight from Honolulu to Salt Lake City are red eye flights, cause I didn't have the same problem again. :)

While in Hawaii we did the usual- eat, sleep, and play.  It was just nice to be home and having the extra help that I did. The kids got a bunch of candy for Halloween, and they got to go trick-or-treating with their Aunties Ila and Mele, and with cousin Liam and his mommy.  Overall, we had a blast, and I think we'll be doing this more often.

Summer Fun: Days of '47 Parade, Trafalga & American Fork Steel Days Carnival

Days of '47 Parade. Today was an awesome day, and I'm glad we were able to make it to watch the Days of '47 Parade.  My kids enjoyed it, and so did we.  The highlight for us was the Polynesian Cultural Center Promo Team. They had did their "HA, Breath of Life" show at the Utah Cultural Celebration Center last Thursday and Friday, and I was sad we couldn't attend, but when I found out they were going to be in the Parade I made sure that we would be there to see them.  Maybe it's because I haven't been home since January, but whatever the reason I was in need of some familiar faces from good ole' Hawaii-nei!

We made plans with my sister-in-laws and at about 11pm last night we met up at my in-laws house, packed up and drove up to Liberty Park, where all the polys camp out at! We had actually scored a good spot on the corner of 900 south and 500 something east. We kicked it with the family for a couple hours and then we headed home. We didn't want to sleep over, well 1. because we weren't prepared too, and 2. I didn't want to have my baby Hinckley sleeping outside, so it was home for us.  We woke up at around 7:30am this morning and then got ready and headed out to Liberty Park. Let me just say that we will never attempt that again. lol. Traffic getting up there was crazy, and then we had to park at about 400 east and like 850 south, so it wasn't too far from where my in-laws were, but still... finding parking was a pain.

It was HOT as heck (for us people without umbrella's) but I'm grateful that my baby slept through the whole thing.  My brother in law held him while he was seated under the shade so I was able to sit on the road with my other 2 kids and my hubby in the blazing hot sun! lol.  I haven't seen a parade since I was a teen, so I was excited to be able to watch it again.  My kids loved it, and loved seeing all the floats and horses.  Every time a float would come with the princesses, my son would say "Mom that's Saia's princess ok?" lol.  (We call our daughter "Saia"... it came about because Moe couldn't say her whole name "Kesaia" when she was first born, and so it just stuck.) Like I said the highlight of the Parade was when PCC came through, we got excited because one of our good friends saw us and came out and gave us hugs and said Hi, and then as he was leaving someone else ran to me and said Hi and it was one of the girls I grew up with in the same ward, and she was one of my young women when I was serving as a YW Girls Camp Director.  Just seeing all the familiar faces got me so happy and excited, but more-so homesick. lol. But not to worry cause next week Monday me and the kids are headed to Hawaii for a week! So I can't wait for that!

Anyhow, after the Parade we just headed home, and my poor husband had to go to work an hour later.  It was funny because as soon as we got home and parked, it started pouring rain! But the rain definitely help set the mood, cause right after that we all knocked out for like 5 hours.. hahaha, talk about catching up on sleep. Today was a great day for family time, and I'm loving all the things we have been able to do this summer.  Here's some pics:

I also wanted to throw in our activities we did last week... We went to Trafalga last Tuesday, and then to the American Fork Steel Days Carnival last Thursday.

Trafalga. We used the perks of our Pass of all Passes and went to Trafalga in Lehi. Baby Moe loved the go-carts and had a blast going on it with Daddy and he even went on the little "boats" thing he calls it with Daddy as well.  Kesaia probably didn't have as much fun because she couldn't go on the rides Moe went on because she didn't meet the height requirement, but we all still had fun as a family.

American Fork Steel Days Carnival. So Thursday started off with us going around to all the Kid-to-Kid's to look out for a stroller for my Baby Hinckley (I have yet to find one).  We didn't have much luck at the stores in Salt Lake, so we decided to just drive out to the one in American Fork.  On our way there I had seen an instagram post from a friend who had taken her kids to the American Fork Carnival.  I figured since we were going to be in the area, why not check it out.  So I googled it, and found out where it was held at and after going to Kid to Kid we headed over there.  The kids had no idea where we were headed because we kept it between the two of us, but as soon as we drove past it they all got excited and were so ready to get out of the car.  I was glad that we went to this AF carnival because we weren't able to go to the Taylorsville Dayzz Carnival because I had given birth the day it started.  We probably spent a little too much money than we needed too, but money doesn't matter when your kids are having fun and we're able to enjoy some great family time together.