What a Weekend Party!!!

We had a great weekend and I am going to do my best to keep this brief!

It started out on Friday when Hema's youngest brother Sione graduated from Kearns High School. Here he is with Hema's parents. He could barley stand with all those leis! (These pictures are kind of blurry because they were taken on our camcorder.) There were so many people there to cheer him on. Here he is with Veni and Valu.

Here is None with some of the boys. I don't know why they can't ever smile in a picture, it must be a guy thing. And here he is with some of the girls, who are all smiling of course! This is how our kids felt by the time we were done! What a great day! We are proud of you Sione and are excited to see the great things you will accomplish now!

On Saturday, we had a ward party that Hema was in charge of. It was the free fishing day so he organized a fishing trip. I got up and helped him make 3 breakfast casseroles at 5:00 and then stayed home and let the kids sleep in. They were so tired from the day before that they slept until nearly 9:00 - that is unheard of around here!
Then we headed up to Maria Tiatia's place for Shahara's graduation party. Shahara graduated from Cypress and she has a 4 year scholarship to the U of U. It was fun to see her and catch up with old friends that I really don't get to see often enough. Somehow I got there with my camcorder being totally dead and both digital cameras at home, just the cases in the diaper bag! Aughhh! I never leave home without a camera. I did take a couple of pictures with Vao, Maria and Shahara. Hopefully Maria will email them over to me. Oh well! Congrats to you Shahara!!

We left that party and headed over to the park for Sione's graduation party. (I stopped and picked up a disposable camera on the way, but haven't gotten the pictures back yet.) It was so much fun to get together with all of the Katoa family. We had a great time. The food was amazing and I am always amazed at how many people come out to support each other in the Tongan culture. It is a blessing to be part of!!

On Sunday after church we headed down to my parents farm and had a fun Hawkins get together. My cousin Nick Rozier came up to go to the MTC. He is going to Argentina. It was fun to see his family and lots of other aunts and uncles, my grandfather, many cousins and their children. (Nick is in the white shirt towards the back of this picture.)

We all visited and ate.

Suzanne read us a letter that my grandmother had written in 1964. It was fun to hear what she had said about each of her children at the time.

The kids always have such a great time running around the farm. It was really fun.

Family is truly our greatest blessing and this weekend we were reminded that we have 2 incredible families that we love and are so supportive of us!!

And now for the sad news, today my sister Marilee and her family moved to Arizona. It will be a great move for them, but I miss her so much already. I cried off and on all day long.We will definitely be taking a trip there soon! We love you guys and hope you get all settled in soon!