a jackson hole thanksgiving

We celebrated Thanksgiving in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.  We had so much fun!

We'd been planning this trip for a long time so everyone in my family was able to be there. . . everyone except Wayne.  Due to a flaky co-worker, some mis-communication and the full Thanksgiving holiday flights, he wasn't able to make it.  We missed him a LOT. . . BUT we still had a blast with the family.  Mom, Dad, all my siblings and all their kids were there . . . AND, to add extra frosting to this already delicious cake, my mom's brother, Uncle Chris and his family was also there. . . it was awesome.  

Jackson Hole has been a special place for my family for a long time.  When I was younger we would go visit my Grampa's condo there.  When I was a little older my Grampa built a house there for the whole family to use - it has been such a blessing.  My uncles, aunts and cousins enjoy the house for holidays, honeymoons (that's where we went for ours!), family vacations, ski trips, friends retreats and everything else you could think of.  It's a gorgeous house in a gorgeous location and has been a wonderful tool to bring our extended family together for many years.  I love it.

This year we stayed for a week.  We celebrated Tali's, Aunt Judy's and Uncle Chris's birthday's while we were there.  We played a lot of SkipBo, Yatzee and Phase 10 along with Dance Central and Football on the XBOX.  We sledded and played in the snow a lot.  And the other thing I did a lot of? EATING! That's right - I ate like, all day, every day.  Great for enjoying Thanksgiving, not so great for my diet.  Oh well.  Here's to a healthier week this week.

Here's the pics. . .

The kids went out and played in the snow every day we were there.  They LOVED it.  I'm grateful for good snowsuits.

This was Malia and Kina's first real time sledding - they were fearless!  The driveway leading up to the house is a steep hill and with all the snow it made a perfect sledding track.  There was a bunch of adults at the top to send the kids off and another bunch at the bottom to receive them.  The kids just went up and down the whole morning.  It was a blast.

The best thing about kids playing in the snow is the long, deep naps they take afterward. Yahoo!

Counting everyone, there were 16 kids there last week. Malia, Kina and Tali LOVED having little people to play with all day, every day.  They love their cousins!

On Thanksgiving morning, we participated in the Jackson Hole 5k Turkey Trot.  Many of the daddy's (and a few mommy's) were very generous and offered to stay home with the kids so we could go.  Even though it was sooo cold and I though my nose and fingers were going to freeze off - it was so much fun and I'm so glad we did it. 

My goal for this 5k was to jog the whole time.  I did it!  My ending time was 36.5 minutes.  Still pretty slow, but a definite improvement from my last 5k I ran in 48 minutes.  I'll take it!

For Thanksgiving dinner, Uncle Chris cooked pulled pork in his smoker (which he brought along from home).  It cooked for about 14 hours before we ate it and by the time we got to it, it was juicy, tender and so delicious.  From someone who totally loves the traditional Thanksgiving meal, I gotta say - I didn't miss the turkey one bit.  It was YUMMO!

To add to the fun, my brother Joseph made a little ramp in the backyard for the kids to sled on.  As you can see by Kina and Maddox's faces - they loved it!

. . . Tali not so much. . . ha ha

We had such a wonderful time.  The highlight of the trip for me was spending so much quality time with my family.  I LOVE MY FAMILY!  The food (which I ate waay to much of), the sledding, the games, the people - it all made for a great Thanksgiving.  I'm so grateful to my family for making this trip possible - especially my grampa and my mom and dad - and for everyone else for making the time to go.  It was awesome.

Happy Thanksgiving!

** Though I'm grateful for so many things in my life right now, I just want to mention one on this post. I'm so grateful for my parents, especially my dad.  As we were pulling out of the Jackson Hole house for the airport, my dad was following the car down the driveway to say goodbye.  While he was walking, he slipped on the ice and was knocked unconscious. I was the first person at his side and just kept calling his name over and over again waiting, hoping, PRAYing that he would respond.  He was out for about two minutes, but finally came to and opened his eyes.  I remember sobbing with relief.  Once he was conscious, he kept looking at me with surprise and asking where he was and what had happened.  The ambulance took him to the ER to make sure there was no internal bleeding.  There wasn't - they said he just suffered a concussion.  Not to sound too dramatic, but this experience was extremely traumatic for me.  While he was laying on the ground my dad looked so old to me . . . I really thought he might be dying.  After we left, I kept playing the worse case scenarios in my head and would just cry thinking about it.  But he is okay.  So this Thanksgiving, I feel very grateful.  I'm so sooo grateful my dad is alive and healthy. I'm so grateful he is in my life and is able to be a papa to my kids.  I love him so much. I feel so grateful.

kina and konner's wedding day

 Kina and Konner are married! The day was jam-packed - first the sealing in the morning, then pictures, then a luncheon at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, then a reception at the Provo Library in the evening - and everything was beautiful.

The sealing was at the Salt Lake City Temple.  Their sealer was President Pe'a - a Samoan man who served as the president of the Samoan Temple while Konner served his mission there.  He was awesome. He told me later that we were related.  After the sealing, I got to help Kina get dressed in the bride room - it was such an honor for me.  She looked GORGEOUS - seriously one of the most beautiful brides I've ever seen.  We enjoyed the morning immensely, mostly because Kika, Tali and my mom stayed with the girls to get them ready and send them up for pictures after the sealing.  Thank you guys sooo much!

All the weather reports had said there would be a huge snow storm.  It was cold and there was a little snow, but it was really a beautiful day.  I loved being at the temple.  By the way, doesn't Aunty Hina look AH-mazing? Love her.

Group pic

Latu sisters and Konner

Kina with all the little girls.  I love this pic.

The couple with the Latu men.  Yay! Wayne has another brother! :)

The reception that evening was GORGEOUS.  The decorations were done by Aunty Isa, so of course it looked amazing.  Wayne's mom, Vai, made all the food so of course, it was delicious.  And the family did the whole program, so of course, it was very entertaining.  The HIGHLIGHT of the night for me (besides the awesome Samoan siva that all the sisters and I did for the couple) was definitely Malia and Kina's tahitian number (pictured above). The smile on Malia's face was SO big the whole time - they were SO excited to be dancing.

Our Samoan number

Kina's tauolunga - she did so good!

Favorite moment of the night - Wayne crying while he danced with his little sister

I always feel so humbled after polynesian weddings.  It's really amazing and beautiful to see so many people come together to create a beautiful experience for a couple.  For this wedding, so many family members and friends sacrificed and gave so willingly of their time, talents and resources to make this day special for Kina and Konner.  It all payed off.  It was a very special and memorable day.

CONGRATULATIONS KINA AND KONNER. 

WE LOVE YOU GUYS!

kina and konner's wedding dance

 We've been looking forward to Kina's wedding weekend for a long time!  We were so excited.  We'd been meeting as a family for several weeks to plan, plan and plan some more and to be honest I was a little anxious/nervous just to see how everything would play out.  I don't know - I get like that with anything that requires lots of people, time, effort, traveling etc.  Happily, everything went sooo well.  Seriously, it was such a fun and beautiful weekend full of happiness and excitement for Kina and Konner.

I was in charge of the decorations for the dance Friday night.  We went small kine, but it turned out really beautiful, I think.  When Nia, Melba and I showed up to start decorating with about 300 balloons to blow up by ourselves, we were a little worried.  But when the sisters and Konner's family showed up to help the work went by quickly and happily - it was actually lot's of fun.  This is Konner's dad sharing his knot tying skills.

Some of the decorations - their colors were peach and baby blue.  Tali made the sign (the bomb, of course) and Nia was in charge of putting the balloon clusters up.  Seriously, if you're ever on a tight budget for decorations in a large area - think balloons!  They are inexpensive, take up a lot of space and add can a lot of color. 

Kina and Konner and their siblings a.k.a the DECORATING CREW!

This is the thing I was most excited about - the PHOTO BOOTH!  I borrowed this cute fabric from my photographer neighbor and spent the week gathering fun props for the guests to take pictures with.  I tried to do a Kina and Konner theme - a stethoscope, rugby ball, bridal veil, samoan flag - all things that represented them.  I also got a small chalkboard for guests to write messages to the bride and groom and some empty frames from D.I. to hold in the pictures.  It was a HIT! The guests had so much fun posing for different photos and I think the couple will love looking at these pictures for years to come.

Another picture I love from the photo booth:)

The beautiful couple in their Tongan attire.  They looked wonderful.  The decorations looked wonderful.  The music was wonderful.  The FOOD was wonderful.  Seriously, it was soo much fun.  

Best. dance. ever!

sili's pics

Sili had an assignment on lighting to do for school and asked if she could take a few pics of the girls playing around in the toy room.  I love having good photos of the girls and Sili's skills are the bomb.  I'm like, Sili, we can help out with your assignments aaanytime! haha  These are my favorites. . . 

happy birthday wayne!

Yesterday, Wayne turned 28! (He honestly forgets how old he is all the time and still tells people he's 24.)  Wayne had the day off so we celebrated the day as a family (the highlights were Kalo taking us to lunch at Tucanos, taking loooong afternoon naps, watching the twins dance in a Living Legends performance and having our families over for cake and ice cream at night).  I'm excited for all this new year will bring!  I'm hoping it will be a big one for Wayne and our family. 

Wayne and Tali with the birthday decorations . . . and my messy kitchen

Happy Birthday Wayne!

the autumn leaves

We have several big and beautiful trees around our house.  I LOVE them in the Spring and Summer - they look great, provide tons of shade and keep our house cool.  There's actually only one season of the year that I don't totally adore them. . . and that's Fall.  A lot of trees = a LOT of leaves to rake.  Last year we did like, thirty bags in just one day.  Of course, the season usually lasts a couple months so the yard requires several raking jobs before the snow comes.  It's a lot of work, but I think having trees all year round is worth the effort. It's not too bad - I try to look at it as my workout for the day! haha Plus, the kids really enjoy it!

Malia and Kina jumped in, played in and threw the leaves the whole afternoon.  It didn't really do a lot to keep my nice little piles neat, BUT they took great naps afterward sooo I guess it was a give and take.

Sweet Tali. Trying to help. I know which daughter loves me the most! haha

Happy Autumn!

let the countdown begin

Only TEN more days

till these two lovebirds are married!

We love you Kina and Konner!

We're so excited for you!

and the winner is. . .

(drum roll please)

ME!

Yup, that's right. I am the WINNER of our Biggest Loser Family competition!  We started a couple months ago with about ten people and just ended last week.  If you didn't know there was a competition going on, you're not alone.  I purposefully didn't post anything about it anywhere because I'm small-kine shame.  BUT, since it's over and I still have more to lose, I figure this post will give me some accountability and responsibility to keep going.  My starting weight was 223 and at our final weigh-in I weighed 196 (I lost 27 lbs. - a 12% weight loss.  Second place was about a 6% weight loss).  I'm very happy with the win and the weight lost (and my entrance into ONE-derland. Woohoo!), BUT I still have a lot of work to do to get to my goal weight of 180.  This competition has given me so much - I realized how much I love working out (and how much energy it gives me) and that I can still lose weight eating food I love if it's in moderation. I seriously feel like I have zero to none will-power and I fluctuate daily in motivation levels, BUT I feel like I'm in a good place right now and excited to continue the journey.  I'm half-way to my goal.  Wish me luck!

If you're wondering what I won. . . it was the grand prize of $170!!  Woohoo!  haha  I'm gonna go get a pedicure.

dad was in town

. . . so we had a potluck at my house to celebrate.  

As always, there was a lot of food. And a lot of fun.

Boys and the food

The GIRLS - Baby Tali, Tali, Amalani, Shan, Madison, Kina, me, Malia, Gioey and Reagan

The GUYS - Inoke, Joe, Joseph, David, Maddox, Dad and Michael (missing Wayne)

P.S. I had to add this of my cutie patootie niece.  She makes me smile.

sister's retreat

Last weekend, I went on a sister's retreat to Park City in celebration and preparation of my SIL, Kina's, upcoming wedding.  I feel like a retreat is something that is often talked about, but rarely actually executed - probably because takes a lot of planning (and money) to do everything.  Well, the right person was in charge - Melba MADE it happen. And it was such a success. I had so much fun.  I feel like that's a gross understatement - I usually use those same words to describe a play date to the park or lunch at McDonald's - and it doesn't quite cut it.  How should I put this? I had a BLAST. I enjoyed every single moment IMMENSELY. I came back feeling rejuvenated  refreshed and happy.  It was so fun to be in a beautiful place with beautiful, fun and amazing women. It. was. awesome.

Okay. . . I could go on and on. . . but here's some pics.

We got up to Park City early in the afternoon so we ate and did some shopping. . . and by shopping I mean WINDOW shopping (though I totally think we shoulda sprung the 70 bucks for Melba's hat.  Soo cute).

We stayed in the Waldorf Astoria.  Like, THE Waldorf Astoria.  It was gorgeous.  We had a huge suite with tons of space and amenities.  (Yes, after this picture was taken I DID take a bath in that big jetted tub. . . while I watched "Say Yes to the Dress" on the bathroom flat screen.  It was the bomb.)

Modeling the plush robes and cozy slippers

We had soooo much good food.  It was delicious.

We laughed, talked, ate, played games (Dance Central and cards were the big hits) and then laughed, talked and ate some more.

Ooo! Nia made these deelicious pupkin chocolate chip cookie cupcakes.  The were ONOLICIOS! Seriously, I had like ten.

All the sisters.  Love these beautiful ladies.

Seriously, I have to give BIG props to Melba and everyone who put this fun trip together.  It was SO fun for me to just kick it with GIRLS for a night and not have to worry about kids or husband or whatever.  I will never forget how this special time we all got to spend together before Kina is married.

Thank you Melba!

Congratulations Kina!

Love you my sisters!!