Our Park

It's finally here!! Little Hema has been waiting for his "park" all winter. We looked far and wide for the right one and apparently this is it... our kids love it! It was quite the project since it weighs a total of 1200 lbs. Uncle Sione helped us get it here and we took several evenings to put it together. It was worth all the effort to see the smiles on their faces. We are just waiting for our grass to grow where we seeded in the back and then we can get started on the cement around the play area and the bark. Hopefully no one falls off the "park" before the bark is in!

Snowbird

We spent the week before Mother's Day at Snowbird up Little Cottonwood Canyon. Hema was attending a conference and little Hema thought is was really neat that daddy just got to go downstairs for work. We spent lots of time at the pool but little Hema's favorite spot was the "hot one" (hot tub). It was still a little cold for Vela to get in the water but she seemed to enjoy watching dad and brother splashing around. We also spent some time in the game room playing air hockey and video games. Little Hema spent all his tokens, plus most of mom and dad's, on a snowmobile game that shook and rattled like the real thing. There was still plenty of snow on the ground so we didn't get in any hiking or fishing. We still had a lot of fun hanging out as a family!

Vela's awesome weekend!

On April 25, 2008 our day began at the Utah County courthouse where Vela's uncle Jason helped finalize her adoption. This is a picture of our family at the courthouse with the judge.
That evening our little Vela was sealed to our family for time and all eternity in the Mount Timpanogos Temple. It was wonderful to have so many friends and family there to support us. During the ceremony Vela was absolutely perfect and just smiled and stared at Becky the entire time. Our little Hemaloto looked handsome as ever in all-white and little Vela was so beautiful wearing the dress that her Grandma Katoa crocheted for her. The next day we celebrated this wonderful occasion with a "Luau". We had a roasted pig and authentic Tongan food. We want to express our love and gratitude to all of our family members who worked so hard to make the luau a success. We had more than 250 people come to the party. It was awesome to know that so many love and support our little Vela. It was also Vela's great-grandfathers 87th birthday and we are so grateful he was able to join us. Vela is named after his wife who passed away a few years ago. On Sunday we finished the long weekend by blessing Vela. We had so much fun spending so much time with our loved ones. It was especially fun to have Becky's sisters, Jen & Jess, come in from California and Virginia. We love our little Vela so much and are so grateful that she is part of our family. We are grateful to her birth parents and pray that the Lord will bless them for bringing Vela into our lives. Sorry it took so long to get this posted, it took us a while to recover from the weekend and then we went up to Snowbird for a week...but that will be a different post.