Apia - Le Manumea

So I think I've mentioned our awesome friends the Monsons, who've helped us out so many times.  This time, they gave us a real gift:  they watched our three oldest kids so we could go to Apia for three days.  While they had their adventures, we had ours.

We spent our fair share of time in the airport.  Linus enjoyed pushing the carts around.

We stayed at Le Manumea Hotel in Vailima.  It was dreamy!

 The porch

 My favorite part:  open-sky shower.  You can shower in the rain!

 This pictures a little confusing, but you can see we're in the bathroom looking toward the bedroom. When you walk through the bathroom door, you're kind of walking outside.

 We don't have a lot of food options on Tutuila, we were so excited to eat out in Apia.  We had dinner at The Curry House.  YUM YUM YUM!

 Next morning we had a lovely breakfast at the hotel.  Linus explored the grounds.

 While Ephraim went to the Temple, Linus and I went to the pool.  I love these pictures. Cute view.

 He's still learning to walk, so he crawls everywhere.

 Back to the room for a shower...

 ...And a nap.

 (with his eyes open)

 Relax, relax, relax.

 Loved this ceiling fan.

 Ceiling of the fale at the hotel.

 We went into town looking for food and shopping. Got some ice cream: orange chocolate chip and passion fruit.

Some more random photos.

Samoa's celebrating 50 years of independence this year.  Go Samoa!  Malo lava!

We also went to the Robert Louis Stevenson Museum which I'll write about in another post.  We really enjoyed our little getaway to our neighbor island.  We really need to do that more often!

Isaac's Birthday- 6 Yrs Old

Isaac's birthday was last week.  We made cupcakes which he took to summer school, we had a cake and opened presents.  One of the presents from my mom was a package of Light-Up Balloons! Have you ever heard of such a thing?!  They're balloons with little LED lights in them, so they glow.  They were awesome.

 At night we turned off all the lights and had a dance party!

My mom also sent Glow in the Dark SAND!  It's the coolest stuff.  Made a huge mess, but so cool.  The kids got it all over the bathroom until the whole room was glowing.  The walls, the floor, their clothes and arms. (Sorry I couldn't get a picture.) What a great idea for trick-or-treating--coat your kid in glow in the dark sand.  They won't get lost at night.

Anyway, we had a fun time for Isaac's birthday.  He's such a great kid.

Isaac's Drawings

Isaac drew Wall-E with the drawing tools in Pages last week. 

 This week he got fancier and drew Eve.

 Watch out world!

Lions Park

We've been getting out more lately.  We hadn't been to Lion's park in forever, so we went there twice in the past two weeks.  The kids were so excited to swing on swings, climb around, and even go on the ghetto see-saw.

A different day.

 Owen's saying "Mamaaa, dont take a picture of me!!"

I this comparison is funny.  Here's our park.  Basically the only one on the island.

Last July we were visiting my parents in Utah.  Here's a park there.  This is just some random park in a random neighborhood.

C'mon, can't we get something like that here?  Please?

Oh well, I guess the pleasure of a park is genuine, no matter how scruffy the park looks.

La Bella Ella

Ella planned a Mommy-Daughter date for an achievement program the children do at church called "Faith in God".  She was was so excited.  She wrote me an invitation, picked out my clothes, and picked a restaurant. On Friday evening, we went o.u.t!

Carl's Jr. was never more fun!  We talked and laughed together. We made lists of our heros, our fears, and our favorite stories (she's got lots of favorite stories). And we took some self-portraits.  It was a wonderful evening.  I really love Ella.  She's much smarter than I was at her age.  She reads constantly, anything she can get her hands on.  She loves Roald Dahl, C.S. Lewis, and has read nearly every Magic Tree House book.  She's helpful, sensitive, and caring.  Ella's by far my favorite daughter!