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| Gathering for a photo...family is too big to all fit in one shot from where I was standing |
Summer time is all about reunions and Lady Hiva’s family
loves to have them. Every other year they alternate where the reunion is held and the
family members from that area “host.” Past reunions were held in Hawaii, Seattle, California, Australia and this year it was Salt Lake City’s turn to
host. Since we are back here in Utah, that meant we were part of the hosting
team.
The different colored shirts represented the Tuifua brothers. The oldest brother was Asipeli so all his descendents wore green shirts. All of Feliha'a's descendents (Lady Hiva's grandpa) wore navy blue shirts, Kefus' wore yellow and Ofa's descendents wore light blue.
Hosting for this event means planning for, cooking for, and
providing a place to stay for the nearly 200 people that arrive from all over
the globe to attend. PHEW! Talk about work. Luckily there are some really
organized women in the family who put the entire program together.
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| Most of Team Asipeli came from Seattle - Seahawks in the house |
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| Can you spot who picked their nose and was deciding whether to eat it or not? |
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| Stop pu'i and turn around already so we can take the photo! |
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| No seriously, turn around! |
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| Finally, she shows her face... |
Of course Lady Hiva and I don’t have any camping gear of our
own—we don’t even have all our stuff from Istanbul yet (we are literally still
living out of suitcases)—so we went to buy a tent and other camping gear for us
to use and an extra for one of the visiting families to use. (Lady Hiva’s
family made fun of me because I wrote our names on everything we took…but hey,
if we spent the money I at least want to get a few years use out of them.
For several weeks leading up to the reunion Lady Hiva
practiced a dance called the ma'ulu'ulu with all of the Salt Lake family to perform on the talent show night. That meant we literally spent every day in Provo and every evening
somewhere in SLC. Poor Mongoose has had more miles put on her in the last three
months than she did the entire other three years she has been part of the
family!
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| Hulihuli Chicken |
The camp was on the Jordanelle in Heber, UT. It was so
beautiful up there. I was almost tempted to tell Lady Hiva maybe we should live
in Heber. It was fun to see all of the family come and the noise level of the
entire campground raised about 10 notches for the next five days.
We gave hundreds of hugs and kisses. We laughed together, we
ate together, cried together, we ate together, we told stories together and ate
and ate together. Did I mention we ate? If not, you should know we ate. But I
can tell you my very FAVORITE night of food was the one they actually had a
fresh green salad! Like real, uncooked leafy vegetables. I was so happy that is
all I ate that night! There was never a lack of three or four kinds of meat and
late night coco and bread.
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| I tried to tell them ducking just made it worse |
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| I guess she was jealous her sister is always taking the spotlight |
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| Two sisters...two VERY different reactions to a photo! |
For two of the days we played out on the Jordanelle—trampolines,
jet skis, paddle boards and kayaks were enjoyed by all. Of course our little
Lucky Dragon loved every minute we spent on the water. If we were not swimming
in it, he wanted to go throw rocks into it. Nothing to pass the time like
throwing an endless supply of rocks into muddy water!
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Mountain wheelchair
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| Daddy...LOOK! |
They also had several nights of talent show where the
different groups of people danced and sang. One night it was Salt Lake City’s
turn—you know that dance they have been practicing for weeks—and it started to
rain. HARD. Which made it all the more fun. They kept dancing and singing
despite not being able to see and having to wipe their faces as they danced
(new dance move), and they kept dancing despite shivering with wet and cold and
wearing white shirts, and they kept dancing when people came to give money and instead
of falling to ground until the end of the performance as normal the soggy money
just stuck to them.
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| Team Asipeli performing on Talent Show night |
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| You can see the pool of water that is beginning to form before they even start dancing. |
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| It was raining so hard Leni couldn't even keep her eyes open! |
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| The kids were given aluminum pans to use as umbrellas |
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The highlight of the experience (sarcasm here) was the
pouring rain and lightning that was so close it felt like it was going to
strike away all our sins at any moment. Lady and I woke up in the middle of the
night to add a layer of tarp on our tent so we could stay dry. Luckily, Lucky
Dragon slept through it all.
There is nothing like having family to come and enjoy. So here
is to another 2 years until we get to reunite in the homeland - Tonga 2017!
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| Name tags were needed because there were too many names to remember |
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| Game Day - How well do you know your family? What's the name of the person standing behind the mat? |
And on the first day of the camp it was Lady Hiva’s siblings
turn to cook for the masses. So we stayed up late the night before preparing
food that would be cooked over a fire. Lady’s sister and her husband even had
twelve pigs running around their yard for a
