Back Home 2012 !

Some of you might not know but our oldest son went back to Samoa to live with his Aunty Va the 1st quarter of his sophmore year in high school.  Well on May 26, 2012 he graduated from Marist High School and so we all went to his graduation.  Lulu (my baby) & I left May 17th so we could attend his bacalaureate that was on May 20th and Big Williard, Sisilia, Salele & Fotu flew in to surprise him on May 24th. 

It was so good to be home !  This was my first time back since my father's one year since his death in 2008.  The kids (Sisilia,Fotu, Salele & Lulu) had not been back there since we left in American Samoa in 2006.  Because my sister Lulu & bro Jun flew home earlier in May to take their two youngest (who I take care while everyone is at work & school) Leone & Loi down, we had planned to spend the Summer in Samoa and not come back till August 9th.

I can't explain just how happy I felt to be back home ..... to see my parents again, to see the house I grew up in, the village I lived in my entire life, the chapel I went to church in every sunday, seeing Laufou (where South Pacific Traders used to be) & remembering my parents working there for many,many, many years.  It was so nice to talk to my kids and being able to show them places that I had so many memories at, taking them swimming in the village, they absolutely LOVED being able to ride on the back of their Aunty Va's truck and loved spending time in faleniu with their Grandma Matuu, Aunty Tumua and the rest of the family . 

We ended up having to come back to Washington sooner than planned but are still grateful that we were able to spend the time we did with Aunty Va, Uncle Meki & Jerry and be there as long as we were.

Here are some pictures from our summer ......

Happy Birthday Noa

Today she would of been 34.  It gets dark early here in Washington this time of the year.  So right after the kids got out of school we took all of them up to see their Aunty.  We got her a bouquet and they sang Happy Birthday to her.   We miss you !!!

New Year, New Goal !

One of the things I want to absolutely stay on top of this year is logging in daily and blog something, anything, even if it's only two sentences long. The year 2012 went by way too fast and so much happened ...  I'm just going to put some pictures in with some lables and hopefully that will help with remembering things.

January is always kick off for Kent Parks basketball ( Lulu only ) ....

April I forced myself on the Suamataia family & we went to the Bay Area for Easter - we were also able to surprise Sis Solomona & treat them to dinner.

 

We got back from Cali took the kids bowling ....

 

 

I am going to end here for now and start a new post highlighting other things that happened in 2012 !