Summer Bliss: Tonga

What kind of mother would I be if I didn't let my son touch the Pacific Ocean?!

I knew I wanted to blog about Tonga but I knew there were so many things I could write about that this blog post was going to be unusually lengthy and no one would really be that THAT interested to read EVERYTHING that we did. So, this is my attempt to be brief.

Here are some fun facts about Tonga.

+They have one of the highest literacy rates in the world.
+They are at the same latitude as Rio de Janeiro
+They are besties with China (China seems to give them LOTS of money. LOTS.)
+They are a christian nation

You can't talk about Tonga history without talking about Queen Salote. It's suprising how often this comes up in conversation.

So.... in 1952 at the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II it was raining. All the dignitaries and politically important people world wide were there to witness the event. In short, as someone rushed to give Queen Salote an umbrella or something or other to cover her head from the rain she refused it in order to show respect to the Queen of England by not having her head covered.

I'm not kidding you that people in Tonga are still talking about this more than 60 years later.

Anyways here are some photos to maybe explain our travels a little more.

The whole reason my mom even went to Tonga was to attend her High school reunion, which is cool. Here's another fun fact, they have one EVERY YEAR. My mom's been going to Tonga for the past 3 years as soon as she knew they were doing this. This is her and her friend Tai from high school. It says "50th Anniversary of '62." .....

Yeah those are totally from last year.

Anyways to kick off the "reunion" they have this huge parade where we march in the streets waving flags and waving at people. It's kind of a big deal.

There were, I think, only 6 of them representing the class of '62

I feel like the whole island came to our little parade, seriously, the WHOLE ISLAND.

Most people were just holding banners and waving. My mom thought she'd go the next step and bring a horn. Just so that people would notice the Class of 1962. Baby C and I just smiled and waved. 

Where all the kings are buried. I couldn't get closer to take a better photo.

My sister complained last year that there is no McDonald's or fast food chains in Tonga. But.... I found a Mr. Chicken!

Our "cruise liner". Yup... riding in style. Baby C's first cruise ship. ;)

Let me explain why I included these next set of photos. (My mom took these.) When you enter Highschool you get put into a "house", just like at Hogwarts. I dont even know what the houses are called here but when you enter high school they just throw you in one of these, randomly selected, and when you play sports and do other stuff you play for your house. Each house has their own color. In this school the colors that I saw were red, yellow, blue, and green. My mom belonged to the red house. 

ANYWAYS.... they were having some type of celebration too and these were their floats. Yup... made from the back of a truck. I thought how economical and practical that would be! Can you imagine the Macy Day Parade with trucks?? People would save SO MUCH MONEY!!

Well at this reunion they have a ball where everyone dresses up really fancy. I think this is my Mom's favorite part. She made sure I brought a dress too but I was so tired I decided not to go but as soon as I saw my mom's dress I threw mine on just to take a picture.

This year this ball happened to be a masquerade and everyone needed to bring their own mask. My Mom bought a black one before she came but while in Tonga she found a blue mask that, no joke, went perfectly with her dress.

  

Notice the conservative colors of the dresses of her friends. ;)

To wrap things up...

1. There was a HUGE FEAST where the families of the current students at Tonga prepared food for the visitors for the last day. It was the BIGGEST Feast I have ever been to. I have never seen so much food.

2. The bread in Tonga is the best. So soft and tasty.

3. Everyone in Tonga speaks English pretty good, although they all speak Tongan to each other.

4. Calvin is a ladies man.

 

I dont know any of these people. They aren't related to me and maybe my mom knew who they were. I took more but I am having a hard time loading them. Calvin loved strangers. Women would flock to him and pick him up and Calvin would smile and be cute and I thought I'd take a picture for the future. If he's having self-esteem issues in the future I'll just throw these out.

I'm sure my son could move in with strangers and he wouldn't even care. All he would want is to be fed. 

Summer Bliss: Zion with Aline

I dont think I'd mind the winter cold very much if the days were just as long as they are in the summer. I feel like that the sun is meant to go down no sooner than 8pm. The thing I hate the most about the winter is that it's dark at 6. (At least in Utah.)

Anyways, with all the extra time for sunlight.... we must live it up. Viva Summer!!

In case you don't know we go down to Zion National Park, in Southern Utah, quite a bit. When Aline came back from Boston we decided to go camping down there with her. We've gone camping with Calvin already a few times but now that he was almost 11 months (at the time) this was a much different experience.When we took him when he was 3 months he was kind of just like a vegetable okay with whatever was happening and .... well .... "obedient".

Calvin was like a puppy in the tent. The first night we immediately set up the tent so we could put him in there while we unloaded the car. Calvin crawled around the tent and as we threw in sleeping bags and pillows it seemed to increase his excitement. He would burry his face in the soft pillows and sleeping bag. He would scream and shout as if Disneyland was contained in the middle of our 4 person tent. I thought he would calm down so we could all go to sleep in peace but I couldn't be farther from the truth. Once we were all in the tent that seemed to have created an adrenalin rush for this little man and he wanted to crawl all over all of us, sitting on top of us, burring his face in our pillows, pulling our hair (ouch!). He wouldn't stop. Eventually we all forgot about it and Calvin just found a place to sleep.

The next night Matt slept in an hammock and Aline and I slept in the tent. Calvin was SO HYPER. Eventually I was so exhuasted I just closed my eyes and went to sleep. Aline did too. A few hours I woke up looking for Calvin and I couldn't find him any where. This is how it went:

Rhiannon: ALINE! WHERE IS CALVIN?!
Aline: *sleepy voice* He is sleeping right by you.
Rhiannon: No he's not!
Aline: uh....

I looked around frantically, making sure the zipper was closed. Earlier in the day he had figured out how to open the zipper and get out. So I imagined my son lying on the ground surrounded by ants right outside the tent. Luckily, Calvin was curled up in a ball on the other side of a sleeping bag in the corner of the tent. (The tent is not that big, but a mother worries when her baby is lost for a second.) *phew*

We did a lot of hikking with Calvin. We brought a spray bottle along. It was 107F (41C) outside. (The nights were so hot!) There was water to wade in, in a few spots, and Calvin loved to splash. Personally, this trip was more fun because of Calvin. :)

 Here are some brief views of what we saw.

The beginning of the Narrows

He loved the water!

I love that we do all the work and he can nap where ever he wants.

     

 

Boston Strong

So we went to see Aline graduate and in the mean time decided to visit the city. Matt & I visited Aline 2 years ago. This time we got tour the city with my parents and my cousins, Kesa, Asinate, and her husband Mike.

Asinate & Mike

Kesa, getting friendly with the statues

My mom 

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Love Mike's pastry shop! :)

Last time we came I was pregnant and I could not partake of the delicious and unpasteurized soft cheeses. This time I indulged. 

Why yes, my mom is wearing a shower cap. Why do you ask? It was raining and she didn't want to mess up her hair. Uh...??? We told her there was a hole in it so she would finally take it off.

Here she is sporting the shower curtain. :)

@ 11 months

In Tonga where we touched the Pacific Ocean

At 11 months...

~This kid is super social. Nothing makes him happier than getting smiles from a stranger.
~He shouts loudly when he gets excited.
~Loves solid food and will eat anything. I'm not sure what he doesn't like.
~Is very unsteady on two feet
~Loves to climb on stairs, on to the couch, and on children shorter or at the same height as he is
~Has NO teeth and I'm not sure if I feel any coming in. Does anyone want to take bets on if he'll get them before 1year?
~Loves chasing anyone around the house and loves it when you play peek or boo behind the couch
~Loves babies and kids

Below is a classic example of Calvin's love for babies. The baby in this photo is 3 months. Every time this baby got close to Calvin or Calvin managed to get close to him he'd try to grab his hair or suck on this kid's foot. My son would also try to suck (kiss?) on this poor baby's face too. He was way too excited. We had to hold his hand down so he wouldn't grab this poor kid's head during the photo.

I think Calvin thought that he'd still try to get him with his mouth even though his hands couldn't get close to him.
Is this a kiss? Or just a friendly suck? (Is my child a vampire?!)

10 Months

At 10 months…

He can crawl faster than anything

He frequently pulls himself up to our coffee table and just slaps it with his hand

He prefers to climb on top of things and to be taller than his surroundings

He has lots of hair and may need a hair cut

Once we open the fridge door to get something out he drops whatever he has and tries to use the fridge drawers to climb up to the top.  He seems really fascinated with the fridge and the garage. Similar to seeing the fridge door open as soon as we open the garage door he drops whatever he is doing and crawls as fast as he can to the garage door.

He has now been to 4 states in his short little life.

Can walk but needs the assistance of a taller person and does much better when both hands are being held instead of just one.

He loves to climb stairs! This is the most terrifying of all his tricks. 

He stills has NO TEETH apparently the longer it takes for the teeth to come in the better quality the teeth are. They could have just told me that to make me feel better.

  

Aline Graduates!!

*This most may or may not contains LOADS of photos*

Headed up to Boston to see my sister Aline graduate. It was a proud moment for all of us. This girl now has her Masters in Theological Studies. Go Aline! Wahooo!!
 

My mom made Baby C this little graduation gown. The ribbon says: "My Auntie is 

smart."

 

 I'll be honest this graduation was a little unusual than most I have been to. Maybe because it's the Divinity school, but all of these guys came in singing "This Little Light of Mine" gospel style. It was entertaining and set a good mood for the event. They had a "pre-graduation" the day before as well  where they had different beliefes stand up and discuss their versions of "good bye" or "good luck". People read prayers from other faiths, psalms from other faiths, songs, poems, etc. Aline read Docterine and Convenants secions: 88: 118-124

 118 And as all have not ^afaith, seek ye diligently and ^bteach one another words of ^cwisdom; yea, seek ye out of the best ^dbooks words of wisdom; seek learning, even by study and also by faith.

 119 ^aOrganize yourselves; prepare every needful thing; and establish a ^bhouse, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God;

 120 That your ^aincomings may be in the name of the Lord; that your outgoings may be in the name of the Lord; that all your salutations may be in the name of the Lord, with ^buplifted hands unto the Most High.

 121 Therefore, ^acease from all your light speeches, from all ^blaughter, from all your ^clustful desires, from all your ^dpride and light-mindedness, and from all your wicked doings.

 122 Appoint among yourselves a teacher, and let ^anot all be spokesmen at once; but let one speak at a time and let all listen unto his sayings, that when all have spoken that all may be ^bedified of all, and that every man may have an equal privilege.

 123 See that ye ^alove one another; cease to be ^bcovetous; learn to impart one to another as the gospel requires.

 124 Cease to be ^aidle; cease to be ^bunclean; cease to ^cfind fault one with another; cease to ^dsleep longer than is needful; retire to thy bed early, that ye may not be weary; arise early, that your bodies and your minds may be ^einvigorated.

 So proud of my little sister!

Oprah was a key note speaker too at a different ceremony. What she said was: "Congratulations! Now that you've done this... go contribute to your community!" Inspirational. :)

Wahoo!!