Tahitian Getaway

So my in-laws live right on a black-sand beach in Tahiti.  That, among other things, makes going home to visit them rather inviting.  This October we spent 2-weeks enjoying every moment with our family and the beautiful islands of Tahiti and Moorea.

For a quick taste of Tahiti, hold on to your pareaus and take a deep breath as you continue...

We were greeted at the airport by most of Ram’s 11.5 siblings and their families with leis galore late Saturday night 9/29/12, got went straight to Ram’s native home to see my FIL doing very well following a triple-heart valve surgery which the doctors gave him a 30% chance of surviving, chased baby sharks around the shallows in the bay, Ram and I both learned how to stand-up-paddle (SUP is still a relatively new sport) in the smooth pre-dawn ocean right in the front yard, paddled out to where the whales were playing in the ocean and got to admire them up close, was pictured on the front page of the newspaper watching the whales, went to Moorea and explored their amazing lagoons, drove to the belvadaire at the top of Moorea, snorkeled with Zana at the Moorea Sofitel bungalow hotel & fell in love with amazingly colorful clams & schools of Tahitian fish, visited botanical gardens, rode a ferry boat between the islands of Tahiti & Moorea, shorted out the parent’s electricity at home just before FHE by plugging in an American hair clipper appliance w/o a power adapter and had FHE by candlelight as my BIL Rudy fixed the circuitry, shopped a little, bought a Tahitian ukulele & some pearls, ate a boatload of French breads, crepes, pickled mango, steak & fries, became frequent diners at my SIL Marau’s lunch truck, heard Zeth say “I’m hungry” about every 20 minutes throughout the day – even with food sitting in front of him, hiked & ran the steep road up the belvadaire in Pirae, watched Tahiti triumph at 2 of 3 beach soccer scrimmages between the Tahitian national team (led by team captain Ram’s cousin Naea Bennett) and the reigning world champ Swiss teams, visited the government offices in Papeete where my SIL, Helo, works for the President of Tahiti, nearly tried the new Lamb Burger at McD’s but then snapped out of my delirium, learned how to weave baskets from coconut leaves used for underground oven baking, swam in a cold fresh water source, fed cows in a mountain pasture, had dinner parties with siblings & friends almost nightly, the kids got to know all their cousins (24 & counting) all over again and play countless hours of iPad & Wii games, bouncing on trampolines and jumping in the surf with them, learned some new French vocab, oh and my sister got to come down and enjoy a full week of it with us.  (Was that the longest sentence I’ve ever written?  Possibly)

 

We were so grateful that Ram's dad was able to travel home from his heart valve surgery in New Zealand and was doing very well proving the doctor's wrong about his 30% chance of surviving the surgery.  He has lost a lot of weight and is moving a bit slower so it was good for us all to have this opportunity to see him again...just in case there aren't many more opportunities like this with his whole family intact.  My MIL is busy at the Family History Center every day thoroughly engrossed in doing her own research and helping others who are stuck or are just getting started.  She came home one day totally bummed that she only found 2 names all day.  I'd call that a successful day, she's a pro.

This week and next are filled with Halloween fun.  This year for Halloween our family will be comprised of Thor, a skull pirate, an ultra-marathon runner, and a tourist/Bishop.

Here are the kids and their friend, Sky, before trunk-or-treat ready to go pound down some booty.






My office was all decked out this year with the following cast of characters: Static Cling, Flower, Ultra Runner, Tongan Fob-io, Tina Turner (or Beyonce depending on your generation), Nerdy Soccer Coach, and Capt Jack Sparrow (all cleaned up).

This Saturday will be the kids last soccer games of this AYSO season.  They’ll miss the last 2 games because next week, we’re off for another fabulous trip to California to visit my side of the family for 12 days. More to come on that...

Fall 2011 Update

It's been a couple months since my last post. So much going on, no time to write.

The kids took swim lessons this summer (Zeth just started another session last week). So fun to see them getting better at the sport nearest to my heart. I am in training for another marathon in Dec and have been running a ton. Zeth and I celebrated birthdays in Sept. I was in charge of the Primary Sacrament Meeting program at church on 9/25 which was a lot of work to write parts for and coordinate all 127 kids in our Primary. Right after the program, I got home from church and my body unraveled immediately into a cold. Ended up with bronchitis and am just now kicking the final remnants of the cough that started a month ago. Being sick made our family vacation trip a little less pleasant for me but it's hard not to have fun on a cruise! We went on the NCL Pride of America cruise around the Hawaiian Islands 10/1-8 with another family and everyone had a blast.

Tonight I'm pulling everything together for the Ward Trunk or Treat at the chapel tomorrow so I'll just sign off and leave you with a couple slide shows from:

Zeth's 4th Birthday

and from our fabulous

Hawaiian Islands Cruise

Climate Change

Just got back from a family vacation/work conference trip to UT & TX yesterday. Had an absolute blast. Everything went very smoothly and I think we did just about everything we wanted to fit in. It was Ram & the kids first time in the snow and Utah didn't disappoint. We got to see three of my four siblings and introduce our kids to some of my side of the family finally.

During our trip, HI dodged a tsunami scare triggered by an 8.8 earthquake in South America on 2/27/10. We got all the alerts and updates and waited to see if we'd have a home to return to or not. We had to mentally prepare for the worst and somehow came to peace with the idea of having to start over if it came to that. We were just glad to be together as a family and were blessed with a meager 3-foot non-threatening wave in the end.

After a week of play time together, Ram and the kids returned to HI and I went on to my conference in San Antonio. I wasn't expecting to enjoy the city nearly as much as I did. After seeing Houston several years ago I admit I had lower than average expectations but the San Antonio Riverwalk which loops around much of the city is absolutely gorgeous and I loved every minute of my three short & busy days there. The PeopleSoft users conference I attended was really useful. I learned some helpful things, met cool people, compared situations with other users and shared ideas. It was a great experience. Conveniently, there were no direct flights back to HI in the evening following the last session of the conference so I had to either pay for another night at the hotel in TX or have a layover overnight back in SLC. I opted for the latter and got a bonus night with my sister.

It is always wonderful to get out and taste the flavor of a different climate, and oh boy did I taste a lot of culture in the past 2 weeks. Time to repent from some serious gluttony. Some people apologized for the cold when they learned of my home port, but I loved every moment of the freezing chilly weather. It's such a novelty to me. It really helped that my sibs were able to keep me warm and comfortable. It wouldn't be quite the same if I didn't have all their creature comforts at my disposal.

I want to thank J for her amazing hospitality, B for making the time and $ sacrifice to come up for the weekend, D-bro for all his cool gear & R for giving us a car for the week. It was wonderful to see our dear friends Darcy, Bunk, the Riskys, my co-horts at BYU, Ram's mission president and others. Thank you Jared for being our airport shuttle & Amber for taking care of our doggies. You're all awesome!

Great Run - Take Luck and Care!

Yesterday was my (yes, MY) annual 8.15mi fun run in Honolulu. Last year I believe there were about 17,000 runners which was just about right. Yesterday, there were appx. 24,700 of us all fighting to get parking, potties and clear running lanes and it was just too crowded. But the spirit of Aloha is what the run is all about so it was still worth doing. I carpooled with 4 of my girlfriends which made it way more fun all around. With all the additional runners, it took about half an hour longer to get into a parking space than it normally does and we almost missed the last bus to the starting line.

Thankfully I learned my lesson last year (the hard way) and remembered to bring toilet paper for me & my friends because the porta potties were completely out (Ewww GROSS!). With that all out of the way, we missed all the pre-race fun (anthems, patriotic birds, water cannons and of course the military all running with flags in formation singing inspiring cadences) our group got separated from eachother and we were trapped in the dreaded 'back of the pack' with all the strollers. Kathy and I found eachother in the staging area and started pressing forward but didn't cross the starting line until 27 minutes after the race started. I usually get across the start in about 5 minutes. It was that packed.

Didn't do as well as I had planned on but the way my life has been so crazy at work for the past 4 months and not doing nearly as much training and physical preparation as I'd hoped and having to run an extra mile laterally it seems dodging strollers and walkers, I'm satisfied. With a time of 1:23:25 (I was shooting for 1:21), I did still beat my previous personal best by about 1.5 minutes, finished in the top 4,000 runners and was the 5th overall from my hometown. Ram even conceeded that makes me somehow 'elite'. He supported me by staying home with the kids and letting me have my fun.

I am a little tender all over this morning but the most unexpected pain I'm feeling is in my right wrist. After reflecting all morning, I figured out it must be due to me taking out one of our fine military brothers at the finish line yesertdy. I normally finish about the last 50 yards of my runs with an all out sprint to the finish line (some would say this is a bad idea but it just feels so good to let the horses loose at the end).

So there I was heading through the tunnel onto the Aloha Stadium astroturf towards the finish line in full stride at top speed when suddenly out of nowhere a big black brother in military fatigues holding hands with his girlfriend makes a 90-degree turn into my path (he must have just spotted the military exit area to the left of the Finish line) and they completely blocked my path. I was about 2 strides from him, in the second that it took for my eyes to pop out of my face and for him to glance over to see that he was about to be assaulted I reached out my arm to defend myself and plowed it into his chest at the same moment that the most unexpected sound escaped my lips.

It sounded something like "JEWW!!" which I can only guess was a combination of something like Gees! and Shoot! I was going so fast that after my palm made impact with his chest, I glanced off him he staggered back a step and I continued hurling to the finish line then looked back but they were out of view. I'm still laughing to myself wondering if he thought it was odd being called a 'Jew' by the crazy white lady who just left a dent in his torso. My wrist is sore today from the impact. Thankfully he was a big man or it could have been worse for him but I still hope he's OK.

This Friday I'm taking Ram and the kids to UT for a week with me on my way to a conference for work the following week in TX. The forecast in UT is predicting snow this Sat so I'm excited. Ram and the kids have never been in real snow before so it'll be a cool first experience for them. Can't wait to see family and friends there and visit places we haven't seen in over a decade. I'm just still stoked that we got all three of their round trip tickets for under $5 total by using my frequent flier miles and we have free lodging and a car from friends. This will be a really awesome low budget vacation.

Kona No Ka Oi

Our weekend in Kona was splendid. On Friday June 5th, we caught a very early flight and after landing drove straight to the Kona LDS Temple where Zeth was sealed to our family for time & all eternity. Our dear LDSFS adoption specialist, Sally Lee, flew over just to share part in our special day with us. Our dear friends the Andersons had planned to be there too but a flight delay caused them to miss the sealing. They arrived in time to celebrate with us at lunch and then go swim at our hotel afterwards. Oh well. It was a simple & beautiful ceremony and we’re all so relieved to finally be able to call Zeth our own eternally. This little guy just fits in our family so well. Another match made in heaven. Of course I naturally have my heart overloaded with gratitude for our amazing birth mothers once again and wish for their continued happiness & success.

I made a huge oversight on our hotel reservations and didn’t realize it until we arrived. After doing all sorts of internet fare searching, calling direct and breaking down our reservation package to get the best rates, I thought I had booked us at the Hilton Waikoloa Village. It didn’t occur to me that there may be more than one resort in Waikoloa and only discovered this upon driving up in front of the Marriott Waikoloa Resort and finally looking at our printed itinerary and realized that we were not in Kansas, Toto. Travelocity wouldn’t do anything to help fix my error. I was devastated. I had in my mind this oversized ostentatious water park property where we planned to see dolphins, ride boats & trains to get around and get lost in the maze of towers and pools. Instead it was a very simple, elegant, practical property that was completely different than the anticipated scene. The receptionist checking me in was very understanding and accommodating. She upgraded our room to a 5th floor full ocean view, waived the $20 resort fee, threw in free drinks at the pool bar, gave us early check in and a hospitality suite to use after checking out. The view from our balcony was stunning.
As a lifelong swimmer, pools are very important to me and after the initial shock; I have to say I was pleasantly surprised how much better the Marriott pools were especially for our young kids in terms of size, depth, temperature and accessibility. We had a blast in the sandy pool where Zeth was quite comfortable and could practically swim by himself with his buoyant Hercules body suit on. Zana cruised around happily with her water wings on and had a blast on the waterslide. She reassured me several times during our stay that we could see dolphins some other time. Ram had yucky stomach flu most of the weekend so he kept it real low-key and close to the facilities. I took the kids out kayaking in beautiful Anaeho’omalu Bay and got that out of our systems for a while. We spent pretty much the entire weekend at our hotel and never did venture up to see the dolphins or Hawaiian petroglyphs or any of the other places we had planned to go. It was just divinely relaxing family time at the resort. We were all very happy with one of my best mistakes ever. We’ll be booking the Waikoloa Marriott intentionally next time.

Tahitian Wedding Trip

Last week I was in Tahiti again. This was Tahiti trip #7 for me, #4 for Zana and #2 for Zeth. It was amazing as usual and we had a truly rockin' time. Here's how it all began... We arrived around 10p on Saturday 3/21. Bro-In-Law, Teamo and Vearea treated everyone to steak-frites for a midnight snack at home in Arue. Nothing like eating 2 pounds of steak and french fries smothered in garlic butter and Tahitian BBQ sauce before going to bed. Church started at 8a on Sunday and we were all there on time amazingly. I peeked in on Zana in the Primary room and saw her tired and confused face trying to stay awake and understand everything. Nothing like diving into the French language to make your head swim a bit. After church, the whole family went to B-I-L Alban & Heiva's house in Mahina for lunch. I went fishing in their aquarium full of fish & black pearls but didn't catch any. Pearls, that is. Spoiled fish. Monday we swam at the beach in the backyard and just enjoyed being with everyone in Arue. Of course we had a great big Family Home Evening that night.

My F-I-L Iosua, S-I-L Helo, nephew Hono, Ram, our kids & I took the 6a ferry over to Moorea on Tuesday 3/24 just for the day. We visited family, made sure everyone was invited to the wedding on Friday, raided the trees for food and picniked at cousin Nicole's gorgeous beach and were back in time for a charming 5-course dinner at S-I-L Marau & Marc's house that evening. My makeup and jewelry purse was left behind on the boat and not returned. I thought my wedding ring was in the bag and I was pretty devastated about losing it. But then while doing laundry the next day, I discovered I had dropped it into my pocket at the beach rather than putting in my bag like I normally do. Such a great relief. The makeup and other jewelry are replacable but I'm quite attached to my wedding ring and count it as a miracle and blessing that I didn't lose it.

Wed morning 3/25 it rained so we just relaxed at home then went out for sandwiches at the Roulotte in Pirae. So yum. Marau taught the moms a dance for the reception then since the sun was out, we hit the beach again. Wed night we were invited across the road to celebrate Reo Bennett's birthday with their family. All were there except Vaite who is living in the Tuamotus currently and arrived later that week. Fun family fact: cousins Reo & Marau were born just hours apart and both turned 24 that day. It was great to see Noelani & Hiro, Erroline, Jill, Naea and all the rest and catch up with them again.

On Thursday we decorated the Faaa Stake Center for the reception pretty much all day then met up with friends at the Temple for a session and dinner at the Vaiete roulotte after where we ran into even more BYUH alum friends. My first college roommate, Isabelle, works at the church office in Faaa and organized the whole gathering. That night we ate with and ran into Isabelle & Theirry and their 5 boys; Antonio & Lotis and thier 4-boys; Antonio's sister Rava & her family; Vaitea and Maureen Ah Sha & Michel Pedron. It was a busy night on the waterfront and so good to see all of them again.

The main reason for this vacation was for my bro-in-law's wedding. I know parents aren't supposed to pick favorites but siblings are allowed and Ronald is definately my favorite B-I-L. He's so like my Ram in many ways and it's been so fun to watch him grow up and now to become a husband. his wife is super sweet and they are a darling couple. It was a great wedding.

The reception was fun too. The young girls, including Zana, danced an aparima (slow dance) then the moms, including moi, danced another aparima. I was kinda busy enjoying myself during the reception so I didn't take as many pictures as I wish I had now but it was after the reception during the clean up that turned out to be the funnest part of the day. Once we took down the thousands of balloons we'd adorned the hall with, the kids were quick to turn them into a sea of squeals, pops and giggles as they ran haphazardly in large globs all over the room. It was after midnight and I was suprised any of them were still awake after the long hot day they'd had but the frenzied balloon mele went on for a good 15-minutes before Auntie Marau started removing sections to attach to the cars to be transported home. I giggled nearly constantly the entire 25 minute trip back home each time we passed a coupling of balloons that had blown loose from one of the other cars ahead of us. We littered the streets of Papeete with dozens of balloons that night. It was quite the celebration.

Our kids were perfect little travellers even all the way home on the red-eye flight from 11:45p to 5:25a (Tahiti is in the same time zone as Hawaii) with the 4-of us crammed into 3 seats. I was truly impressed. It was such a fun week and time well spent.

Off the Beaten Path

Went for a run today - in the wind & rain. It felt great to be out in the cool, refreshing gusty air. Decided to take a few new streets I normally don't venture down and do a little exploring in my own neighborhood (well, sort of). I was amazed to see how many beautiful large new homes have replaced old broken down wrecks in the old part of town. At the turning point of my run, I came across probably the friendliest place on earth (well, maybe not). Approaching the long driveway there is a large board propped up against a coconut tree with a fair and seemingly innocuous request painted on it. "Do not pick coconuts" I can understand and respect that. Coconut poaching is a problem here. A few paces more and the full view of the expansive driveway opens up to reveal several additional requests & instructions. Warnings like "Never mind the dog, Beware of the owner", "You're being watched by security cameras", "One way in, no way out", "Stay in car Wild dogs running" "Do not take surfboards. You will be 'Shot' Wounded be 'Shot' again" and the most memorable one said "If you're not blood, you will bleed" I'll just let you enjoy the scene for yourselves.

I'm a sucker for amusing signs and found this scene very amusing. I'm not sure the owners would appreciate me posting pictures of their fiercely private property so I'll just leave the location unnamed. For fear of being shot, wounded and shot again. :)

I met my goal of improving on my previous time in the Great Aloha Run again this year. It was my 8th time participating in the 13K fun run and I've improved every year with last year being the one exception. I slipped backwards by about 24 seconds last year but more than made up for it this year coming in 1:30 faster than my previous best. This, for a self-proclaimed lifelong non-runner (my abhorance of running in my youth was one of the many reasons I took up swimming as a sport), after spending the weekend playing on the Big Island and flying to HNL 11 hours before the race began, discovering my i-pod had no power remaining as I walked up to the starting line and stopping for hugs with my favorite fans mid-race.
Coming in at 1:25:58 this year was a proud and exciting moment for me. Now I've broken the 1:25 barrier I can't wait to see how I do next year. After the run, we went back to our hotel near the airport and cooled off in the pool.
I'm all out of order here so let's hop back to Kona, where our great little Valentines/President's Day weekend trip began. The reason for the excursion was to go to the Temple with our friends Henny & Gen and their kids who were eternally sealed together as a family in a sacred ceremony on 2/14/09. It was beautiful and such a happy occasion. The rest of the weekend was spent mainly in the many waters of the Waikoloa resort with our FHE gang. We attended the Kona Stake Conference Sunday morning and saw some old school friends then took a little drive (1.5 hrs) down to South Point to visit the most southern point in the US. Took a couple pictures of the cliff divers, of the wales breaching and of the awesome waves pounding in the high winds. It was breath-taking. Here's a sample of our weekend in Kona, HI.

Every Valentine's Day at Zana's school they hold a "Sweetheart Lunch" where the parents come and eat with their kids. It's kinda a big deal. This year they had members of the National Guard serving in the kitchen and while waiting for the kids to show up, they were dancing with the teaching staff to the slow jams being blasted by the DJ in the room with his massive sound system. It's always fun to see the kids get all excited when their parents arrive. At the same time, it's a little heartbraking to see the few kids whose parents can't make it. Their little faces can't help but seep their disappointment. I'm so grateful both my husband and I work close to home and can be involved with our kids for special events like this.

Checking In

It would seem as if I had forgotten I have a blog that I actually enjoy updating from time to time. Not the case. I've had so many little moments this past month where I'd think, 'OK, now that's got to go in the blog' but my priorities have been elsewhere lately so they are mostly forgotten now. So sad.

Tonight I'm packing the family up for a 4-day weekend on the Big Island of Hawaii and Honolulu. Our local LDS Temple is closed for the next 18-months for major renovations and our friends are going to go to the temple for the first time and be sealed to their family on Valentine's Day and we're going with them. Only thing is, the closest operating temple just happens to be in Kona, HI so we're hopping on over there for the weekend. Fun! But we have to leave Kona Sunday night because I'm doing my annual Great Aloha Run thing (13k) on Monday morning in Honolulu. So it'll be a fun, busy and amazing weekend I'm sure.

But first, a quick recap of my year so far... My sweet sister and 2 of our friends came for a weekend getaway last month. We had a splendid couple of days together.



The kids are up to their amazing little tricks. I recently discovered Zana can hoola-hoop 3 hoops of varying sizes at the same time and keeps them up longer than I've ever managed to even keep one going. Of all her after-school activities, her hip hop dance group seems to be her favorite. She performed at a basketball game at a local university 2-weeks ago and had a blast.

Zeth is doing sommersaults and frequently can be found in the down-dog yoga pose. He learned to pucker his lips a week ago and is quite the willing little kiss-giver. We have a bunch of barstools in the kitchen which he likes to climb up on to get up on top of the counter now, so we are being careful to lay the barstools down when not in use. It looks totally messy but it's the only way to make sure he's not up on top of the counter. Little dare-devil.

My hubby is serving in the leadership of an all-single-student ward and I thought it would be fun to drop in one Sunday last month with the kids to visit him at church. Singles wards are uniquely different from regular 'family' wards in that you can hear a pin drop during the passing of the sacrament in the absence of the ambient noise children normally provide. I came prepared with a bottle to keep Zeth's mouth occupied during the ultra-quiet moments but it completely backfired when, from our back-row pew, he noticed daddy sitting up front on the rostrum. As soon as he saw him up there, he erupted with a string of 'Da-Da? Daddy? Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!!!...' which invoked chuckles throughout the room. It was a sobering reminder why I attend our family ward with the kids and only bring them to singles-ward activities.

Yesterday I finally committed to a decision I've been flirting with for years. I cancelled our home phone service. We've had our same home number, 293-2720, since we were married in 1993 so it was a little sentimental to say 'cut it' but after reviewing my phone bills and doing some math, I couldn't justify spending over $500/year on a land line which we don't absolutely need. We each have cell phones in addition to 3-different working IP phone lines at home so that 6th line just made no sense anymore. Feels strange but I'm sure I'll get over it. So, effective today, if you call our old number you'll get a recording blaring in your ear that we're no longer in service. Don't worry, it's just me trying to be a little frugal so we can use that money somewhere more useful.

My little souvenir from my innocent featherweight big sis. It was fun running the shore with you - despite our failed NFL maneuver. :)

Olympics Baby!

It only happens for 2 weeks every four years and although I probably won't watch much of it, it's just cool to know that the Olympics started in China today! 08-08-08. What a great date. I just hope none of the athletes who are not used to breathing in 96% polution in the air drop dead from what the Beijing officials are trying to convince the world is simply 'mist'. HA!

I have a bunch of great photos I still want to post from our trip so if you're interested, here are some more of my favorite memories from Tahiti. One tip, if the Slide show ends, click the X at the top right corner of the black screen to start it up again.

Moorea.

We spent 3 days in Moorea where life began for my DH. It was fun for him to reminisse with his brothers and visit family still living there. I find it fascinating that Ram still remembers vividly the first soda he ever drank. We visited the Magasin Lai Assan where he bought his first Fanta Raisin and a sandwich then sat down outside and let the satisfaction of being a real man finally wash over him at the tender age of 5 or 6. Oh to remember something as trivial as that in this day & age. It's amazing. We visited Ram's grandparents graves. We couldn't make it to his grandma's funeral last year so this was a sentimental visit for us.

Vairea's parents were kind enough to let all 35+ of us stay in their vacation home and thanks to Vairea and Teamo for staying behind to thoroughly clean up after all of us. And merci one more time to Vairea who always seemed to be stuck with the arduous task of dicing onions for the family. We were all so well cared for and fed this trip.

While in Moorea Ram and I passed our 15-year anniversary without much fanfare. In fact, we spent much of that evening at the ER with Zeth getting him treated for a painful ear infection. His teeth are taking their sweet time coming out and it hasn't been easy on this little guy. I'm happy to report he did work his first two teeth through his gums last Friday, 8/1/08 and they are progressing quite nicely now.

What is Tahiti?

Paradise. What exactly makes a place like Tahiti so fantastical in so many people's minds? It may be the product of French culture infused into arguably the oldest original Polynesian motherland. It's sultry black-sand beaches, fragrant vegetation, lush steep mountains and deep valleys for starters. From my perspective, Tahiti is a vibrant, mature-yet-developing, diverse, complex, bewitching place. Like most places, the hustle of the city is manic yet the solitude of the mountains is renewing. Here's a sample of some of the places we went.

Beside the Tahitian population and culture, there is a strong French and Chinese presence there too. In my opinion, that's a great combination when it comes to good food but I wouldn't call either of those 2 cultures very patient or compassionate so you've got to be ready to stand your ground and be equally pushy in certain cases if you want to get anything done. But the indigenous people are quick to smile, share, chat and laugh with you. There is music in the air, traditional culture and language strongly practiced and other-worldly lagoons in abundance to swim in.

This was my 6th trip to Tahiti in the past 15 years and despite my hesitation over yet another expensive Tahiti trip when a family mainland trip to 'my people' has been put off for so many years, this Tahiti trip was once again noticeably better than ever before. For one thing, it was a first-ever full family reunion with around 50 of our immediate family members participating and contributing to the daily activities, outings, parties & events for 2-weeks. Thanks in large part to my SIL Helo, we had very little down-time and just made the most of every minute.

We were greeted at the airport after midnight by the entire family with 52-fresh flower lei. It was quite an ordeal. During our 2-week stay, the same old stories were recounted and drilled into the future generations memories once again. We went to Moorea for 3-days where my DH lived as a child. At one point Zana asked me why we had to keep looking at places where Daddy *used* to live. Not as sentimental for the kids as it was for the adults. But the kids had a blast too.

Language was a trivial issue for Zana thankfully as she picked up new vocab in French and her cousins learned a bit of English too. She made noticible progress with floating & swimming having spent so much time at the beach almost every day. About every other night we had some sort of dance and Zana was always out on the floor busting out her favorite hip-hop moves. If they weren't dancing, they were watching movies with our projector (the one I gave my DH for Christmas last year, which didn't make the trip home with us, but is in good hands now with TrenchTown).

Zeth was adored by all and learned pretty quickly how to defend himself, with a quick head duck and outstretched fist, from the constant bombardment of kisses and cheek-pinches from his enamoured cousins and aunties. In a few years he'll may decide all those kisses from beautiful young women is not such a bad thing afterall.

We stayed at the family home which was bursting at the seams but it was so fun to be there with everyone and to wake up and step outside to the black sand beach with your morning pain-chocolat to watch the sun rise up out of the ocean...it was so worth it. One morning a school of dolphins was swimming by just off shore from where the kids were playing in the sand. So fun.

It's usually mango season this time of year but the mangos are blooming real late this year so we missed out on that. Major bummer for me. During our 2-weeks there, I only found about 3 trees with more than one-singular mango growing on it and they were too green. Shucks. But we had plenty of bread fruit "ulu" which is also a fun experience.

We visited the Tahitian Noni factory where 3 of our siblings work. We had so many parties that towards the end of our stay, Zana started asking me why we were having yet-another big party. As if we hadn't eaten enough already. It was fun to watch and learn how they prepare & cook different foods I wouldn't even know how to begin to use for consumption.

We took over 1000 photos and videos during our trip. I really was trying hard not to miss a thing but naturally forgot to take pictures of a few memories that'll just have to reside in my head until we go again. But that's enough for now. Fin.