Last Friday at about 10:00 a.m., Seuao calls me from work:
"Rach, how do you feel about going to Vegas..... today?"
We had talked about going down after Christmas to meet up with his Auntie Tolofulu who was visiting from Samoa. She wasn't feeling well, so her departure for home got bumped up, and this was going to be the last chance we would get to see her. This is Seuao's REAL Auntie (in the Samoan culture, titles like Auntie, Uncle and Cousin really don't mean a whole lot - it's a generational-respect kind of thing). She is his mom's closest sister, and lives about 50 yards away from his mom on the island. Seuao is very close with her kids, who mostly now live in Vegas, so it was a good chance to get to see everyone all at once. His cousin from Barstow was coming up as well.
Seuao with his cousin Manu and Eti, Manu's wife
So, we hustled to pack everything up and get out of town before the big storm came through. We had awesome weather driving, and the kids actually did really good. That Tessa can sleep! The minute the car starts moving, that girl is OUT! It's WONDERFUL! Lily did all right, but I'll admit, I wished a couple of times we had earplugs!
Once we got there, it actually was a fairly relaxing weekend. I didn't stress about all of the Christmas stuff I WASN'T getting done until the ride home! (Taking away one of the THREE Christmas shopping/wrapping/baking/errand-running weekends is a HUGE sacrifice!)
Lily had so much fun hanging out with all of her cousins. She didn't take long to warm up to them, and quickly discovered her rank among all of these bigger people! (She's pretty used to being the boss amongst her cousins on my side!)
Tessa was a little doll. All of her aunties, uncles and cousins couldn't get over her!
The weekend was full of Samoan drama, including the re-emergence of an AWOL baby-daddy, a midnight excursion to hunt down a priest and some holy water, and mommy taking away the computer key-board... oh wait.... that last one was just Lily, but the drama factor was definitely par.
We had a big feast for Auntie before we left on Sunday. I'm not a Samoan food fan, so I stuck with the rice. Seuao and Lily were loving it though!
The thing that trips me up the most whenever we get together is all the names... let's see, we have Mikaele (mih-kai-aa-lee) and Naivi, Lasa, Paki and Lena, their kids. Manu and Eti and their kids: Manu, Lani and Kyra. Andy (yay another white person!) and Ula with their kids Fulu and Mark (yeah - I didn't mess up Mark's name too often). Eve (ev-ay) and Solo with their daughter Dora. Lasa has a baby also named Naivi. Trust me - all these names were a little much sometimes... Lasa! No, Lena! No, Lani! No, Lily!!!!!!!! It hurts my brain sometimes!
Auntie Tolofulu saying good-bye to the girls
All in all, it was a good trip - looking back, I can see how although I didn't think I was prepared for it, things really lined up to make it possible for us to take off on such short notice. I know Auntie Tolofulu appreciated it, and I'm glad I could support my husband and his family. Heaven knows he deals with a LOT of mine!
This is what you get after 6 hours in a car with an over-tired Lily and only a bag of M&Ms to entertain her....
