On June 20, 2009, Viliami John Tu'atonga Fifita was sealed to Sione and Kimberly for time and all eternity in the Manti Temple in beautiful Manti, Utah. Despite rain, crowds for the Manti Pageant, horrible parking, and a somewhat grumpy baby boy, it was a wonderful day. There are many more pictures that were taken by relatives, but below are the pictures taken with our camera; I'll post the others as I gather them.My mom sewed mine and Sione's beautiful white mu'umu'u and shirt; I ordered Viliami's from Hawaii. In the temple they put Viliami in a little white jumpsuit; I first cringed when I saw it thinking it would look horrible, but he looked so cute in it. In attendance at the sealing were
- Mom and Dad
- Ken and Lisa
- Scott
- Eric and Natalie
- Ioane and Elizabeth
Dad and Eric acted as witnesses; Rachelle couldn't find her recommend so she wasn't able to come--we were really sad about that, but we know she really wanted to be there. Ken and Rachelle's kids watched the little ones during the sealing; Uha and Lisiate--Sione's mom and stepdad--were also there. It was a very special day. Our sealer was really nice; he practiced and practiced Sione's and Viliami's names, and had them both perfect, but then during the sealing he referred to us several times as "Fajita," and butchered Sione's name a bit--but that's okay because Heavenly Father knew who he was talking about. :-) Ami was a little shy and uncooperative, but he ended up doing okay.
June 20 was also Viliami's third birthday, so we had a little celebration. We actually started off the weekend festivities by driving to Nephi Friday afternoon and spending the night at the Safari Motel; it's not the nicest motel, but it's clean and cheap, and they have a nice little pool, which the kids had a BLAST in.
If you can't tell, in this video Ami is shouting "Blast off!"
Following a good afternoon of swimming, we ventured across the street to Mi Rancherito, a little Mexican restaurant. I was so hungry and my fajitas were SO good (the word "fajita" would come back to haunt me a little later on). The salsa was quite spicy, but Ami was downing it. The boy loves his chips and salsa. After eating our fill, we ended up getting back in the pool for an evening swim. The kids are just little fishies!
In the morning, we left Nephi to drive the rest of the way to Moroni (to change into our white), and then from Moroni to Manti. We were able to meet up with Elizabeth and fam at the turn off in Nephi, so it was good to be able to caravan with them the rest of the way.
After the sealing, we met back at Scott and Rachelle's for a BBQ and some swimming. Scott and Sione manned the grill--cooking up yummy hamburgers and hotdogs--while the lady folk bustled around getting all the other food ready; we had hamburgers, hotdogs, chips, potato salad, carrots and dip, pink fluff (courtesy of Rachelle), and lots and lots of soda. It was a pretty good spread.
When the kids were done eating, they went swimming in Rachelle and Scott's above-ground pool. By this time it had warmed up some and there was a little sunshine (thank you, Heavently Father!), but the pool water was FREEZING. After probably 30-45 minutes in the pool, Ami was just shivering like crazy, but he didnt' want to get out! I was worried he was going to get hypothermia, so we thought it'd be a good time to bring out his birthday present:
Please ignore the maniacal laughing and heavy breathing; I don't know what was wrong with the videographer.
After that fun, it was time for Spiderman birthday cake and ice cream! Ami was tired and cold and a bit cranky, but I think he still enjoyed his cake--of course, all he wanted to do was drive his truck! But just after cutting the cake, our moment of nice, warm weather had passed and it started to rain, so we all scurried inside.
All in all, it was an exhausting but wonderful day. The fact that Viliami is now ours forever and ever just makes me incredibly happy. We may have had a rocky start two years ago, but he is now my little boy, and I can't imagine loving anyone or anything more.
Money! Money! Money! (Too bad those are one dollar bills...)
And the thing I may love more than money...candy!
This picture, in case you can't tell, is Candice walking across stage to get her diploma. I can't believe that's the best quality you can get from an iPhone. What is up with phone cameras these days? (That's a joke, by the way. I need a real camera...)
And last, but not least--and actually, I think this was before the graduation--we attended Vaiola's wedding in May. Vaiola is Sione's cousin (?) who had been living with us for a couple months and he was married in the Provo temple in May; he had a lovely reception at the Harmon Bldg on BYU campus. I wasn't going to go because I had this terrible cold that was just knocking me out, but I ended up going last minute because...I really wanted the food. There. I said it. Unfortunately, by the time I got there they had put the food away--what the?!? You couldn't have seen a more disappointed face than mine. I actually pouted for a little while. But it was nice to get some fresh air, and Ami was adorable (as usual) dancing in the front with all the other dancers.
This is our friend's daughter performing a tau'o'lunga; Viliami and Lima thought they'd help out.
Rachelle came up last weekend for a visit; she had to take the Praxis (I believe) in Orem. So we got to spend a little time with the girls. Unfortunately, Sione and Ami were in California so Ami didn't get to play too. This is at a park by my parent's house for Friday night's "Saratoga Splash" activities (and a "splash" it was as it had been thunderstorming all week!).
Here are the girls rolling down a hill...it makes my stomach turn just thinking about it!
Beautiful Hannah playing the piano...Taylor Swift or music from Twilight or something like that...
Adorable Izzy.