Last to Say Goodbye to 2008

The longer I post about my parent's visit, the longer I can relive it, so he's another one.

One day while they were here we went to Sliding Rock which has a pool for swimming, big rocks for exploring, and a great blowhole for getting drenched with seawater. Our private mini natural water park. It was my parents' favorite place, but unfortunately I didn't take my camera. Rats!

On New Years Eve we loaded up the van again for a beach day. This time we went to Amanave on the west end of the island. More photos of this beach here.


The lone palagi on Palagi Beach.

Ephraim, Ella and Grandpa walked on to explore the little rock islands and found this blowhole.




As we hiked back to the car we heard the village Sa bells ring, so we spent a few minutes waiting for Sa to end and enjoying the view.

Since American Samoa is in the last time zone in the world, and we were in the most western portion of the island, we witnessed the final moments of 2008 in that sunset. We were happy to spend it together.

7 Years of Good Luck

Who are those crazy kids? On December 28 we celebrated our seven year anniversary. (Another reason why Ephraim shaved the beard.) We thought about how young we felt when we first got married, and how life had changed. We've learned so much since then. That first year was wonderful but emotional--trying to learn about each other and ourselves, softening the rough edges, dealing with changes, and overcoming selfishness and pride. Of course all that is an ongoing process.

It's been seven years of good luck. Here's to many more.

More Fun with Fillmores

My parents packed in all the playing, teaching, and helping they could in one week with us. Ella had been scared to ride her bike since she had fallen off a few months ago. Grandpa was patient and helped her regain her confidence. This man raised 9 girls and one boy--he has infinite patience.



On Sunday both my dad and Ephraim wore an 'ie faitoga, or lavalava. They looked great! Someone commented that he was sure my dad was familiar with Samoa because he looked comfortable in his 'ie.

This is what my mom wrote to my sister Rachel about church:

We've been having such fun in American Samoa. We went to church today
and it was pretty typical, except for the fact that only one deacon was
wearing pants! The rest had on lava lavas, as did the Priests who blessed
the sacrament, the entire bishopric, Dad, Ephraim, and most of the other men
in the ward. Yesterday we attended an 8-year old baptism, and the little
kid had on a white baptismal lava lava, as did his dad. It was totally
cool! Pants are over-rated anyway!

After church we walked around campus to look at the flowers, the buildings, and the fales. You may notice a lack of pictures of my mom. As my family knows, over many years Mom has perfected her ability to dodge a camera. So my dad had to humor me many times and pose (nice posture).

Here Grandpa was teaching Isaac to play Memory. Isaac was pretending to fall asleep.

Facial Hair Documented

Ephraim grew out his beard for the play in December. He was hesitant to shave because it had been so long since he had a beard, and it was finally past the itchy stage! But the time came that he wanted his lips back (okay, I wanted his lips back), so he shaved it off bit by bit--maybe so as not to shock us with a drastic change. Instead he shocked us three times!

The Science Professor 12/25/08

The Duke of Hazzard 12/26/08

Wolverine 12/27/08

Our Babyfaced Ephraim once again 12/28/08

Cuckoo for Coconuts

My dad was enthralled with coconuts here. He was constantly finding them, husking them, and sharing them.
By the time he left, he and Isaac had collect at pile of a dozen coconuts in our yard. He wanted to take some home, but we figured he wouldn't get past agriculture inspection with them.


P.S. Dad, those coconuts are gone now. I think someone swiped them for Sunday's umu. I'm sure they're appreciated.

Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa Fillmore

It's a Fillmore tradition to reenact the Nativity Story on Christmas Eve. This year Ella and Isaac were Mary and Joseph, Ephraim and I were wise men, and my mom and dad were shepherds.


We set up stockings, put kids to bed, hauled out the gifts, and hit the sack.

Our two elves woke up early and ran next door to get grandma and grandpa. (Our next door neighbor was out of town and kindly lent us her house, it was extremely convenient.)

After breakfast we opened presents and spent the remainder of the day doing puzzles, playing Candyland, phoning and skyping with family, and relaxing. Oh, and we ate ham with mom's potato salad--which turned out perfectly even with mayonnaise instead of Miracle Whip.





Here's the kids singing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas", but they fizzled out at the "Happy New Year" part. Then they sang it in Samoan. You can sing along with them:

Manuia le Kerisimasi.... ma le Tausaga Fou!

It's Always Fun When Grandparents Come!

My parents came to American Samoa for the holidays and we had the best Christmas ever! No snow, lots of beach time, and plenty of fun.

These posts are mostly for the benefit of my sisters to show them that we took good care of Mom and Dad here. And that visiting Samoa is a really good idea.

Because of mechanical problems with their plane, my parents missed their connection on Sunday. They would've had to stay until Thursday, missing Christmas, but HawaiianAir miraculously had a special holiday flight on Tuesday, so they were only stranded two days... I know, two days stranded in Hawaii... big bummer. They went to Dole Plantation, Bishop Museum, and got to go to the Laie temple before it closed for renovation. They also picked up a bunch of stuff for us at real stores--ooh ooh. Here's mom having fun 2,608 miles from us.

I finally picked them up Tuesday night at 10:30. They looked exhausted, and very WHITE!

We let them sleep and then bombarded them with hugs and kisses in the morning.
Mom was excited about her real plumeria and sweet smelling ginger lei.

On our first excursion we drove to the far east side of the island to give them the grand tour. (On a side note, ever since we bought our car, I've been fantasizing about filling all three rows with of my favorite people, so it was a big thrill for me to drive around with my parents. It's kinda silly, but made me feel justified in purchasing such a big vehicle. But anyway...)

We boarded the little boat that goes to Aunu'u, a tiny island off the southeast coast of Tutuila. The ocean is an amazing blue out there, and the boatride itself is a great experience. Well worth the $1 fare.


We walked to the east side of the island to see the quicksand lake and the arch and picnicked under a pandanus tree.

We're just "monkey-ing" around. Har har har.

Aren't they sweet?

Later we walked (what I termed the "Deathmarch" in blazing heat with tired kids and no shade) back to the harbor, and there cooled off snorkeling and swimming until the boat driver was ready to take us back. We finished off the excursion with Samu's ice cream (the best ice cream in the Pacific) sold exclusively at the gas station in Utulei.

A nice way to spend Christmas Eve. More to come...