I'm Back

HEY EVERYONE!!! I'm finally back in Puerto Rico and finally able to do some blogging! Sorry to all my fans for making you wait so long. LOL. I was quite busy back in California doing school, work...and most importantly, having fun with the fam. But it feels so good to be back. I have truly grown to love this place. It does have it's disadvantages but the experiences I've had here are worth my troubles. I can't believe this is the last time I'll be here. Matthew graduates in June and we'll be all done.

So I have like a million pictures to post from my trip back home, I'm gonna just give you a brief run down of what we did and who we saw while in California. Just so you know we were there for six months for Matthew's externship. We were lucky enough to get to go to California and then spend the entire externship there. Matthew was able to conveniently drive to and from the site in Santa Ana almost everyday, Some days he stayed with his grandparents when he went to a site in Huntington Park. He gained an ample amount of experience there and improved his skills and techniques 100%. He is such a great optometrist, I love seeing him perform and treat his patients. The doctors he worked with were Dr. Thomas Ledesma and Dr. Todd Mishima. Matthew was able to get to know both pretty well and become good friends with them. Dr. Ledesma actually asked Matthew to call him when he was done with school, so we're all crossing our fingers that he gets a job right out of school.

Alright I know I posted Halloween pictures and then fell off the face of the earth so let me start with Thanksgiving. Our Thanksgiving was fun and delicious, this was actually the first time I got to spend Thanksgiving with Matthew's family and participate in all of their traditions.I made some pies and did what I love most...cooked and decorated all day. We did a lot of prep work the day before so the cooking was actually pretty smooth. I made my first turkey and a few side dishes.


This is our grand Thanksgiving table and other decorations


This is Matthew after dinner

...and Matthew's family

Two days later we had another Thanksgiving dinner and celebrated my sister's birthday at my parents house. My brother brought his guitar hero. Here's Matthew rockin' out on the mic and my brother-in-law Dave on the drums. It's actually pretty fun and addicting to play.

My sister Melina was able to come down from Idaho and spend Thanksgiving with us, so here's my family spending our last day with her and her husband. They were married back in May of 2008 and moved to Idaho for school. I still can't believe she's married. From left to right: my mom, sister Iliana, my dad, sister Alma, sister-in-law April, brother Elias, brother-in-law Dave, sister Melina, brother-in-law Alejandro, Matthew, Me, and niece Victoria in the pink and my precious baby niece Rebekah.


Right before Christmas we went to Utah for a wedding. My brother-in-law's brother got married. It was a true Tongan wedding. It was quite different from what I"m used to but very beautiful. This is a ceremony they had the day before the wedding. The bride and groom's family exchanged gifts. A tradition is to give blankets and grass mats as a way to welcome the bride and groom into their new home.
Here's the groom, Pita. It was like 20 degrees outside and he was barefoot...I know crazy. I had to go inside during the ceremony, my toes were frozen.

...and the bride, Galavina

The groom's family gave this as a gift to the bride's family. I know it's a little gory but I took this picture to purposely put it in my blog. The pig is stuffed with burning wood, I think it's like a pre cooking step, I'm not sure.

At the reception they had beautiful polynesian dancing. Here's one of my favorites. Sorry I tried rotating this video, but for some reason it wouldn't load when I saved it after rotating it. Just tilt your head a little to the side and you'll be fine. LOL


The day after the wedding we visited the Salt Lake Temple with its beutiful christmas lights. We were also able to see the Joseph Smith movie...such a great movie.




Also before Christmas we were able to see a christmas play at a Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove.

It was phenomenal, the costumes were amazing and they had live animals (Camels, horses, sheep). Best Christmas play ever. They actually had angels strapped up to cords to make them look like they were actually flying.

We were able to take pictures with the three kings at the end of the play. The costumes were amazing, In the play these "three kings" rode on real camels to "the city of Bethlehem"




By the end of our trip, I was able to go in and have Matthew give me an eye exam at his externship site and meet all his co-workers and Dr. Ledesma. Seeing his improvements was so exciting. The things I used to see him struggle with he now does so well and so much quicker. I'm so grateful that he was able to spend all of that time here. I used to tell him that one day it would all come so easy to him, that he just needed practice, well he can finally see that now and is loving his career choice.



One day as Matthew was driving home from work, it started snowing in Southern California. This is the third time it's happend. The climate is changing drastically, I don't know why but it's so rare to see snow in our area. It's funny though to see people pile snow in their trucks and drive it home, cause by the time they home it's all gone, melted off their trucks. These are the little mountains our valley is surrounded with. They looked so beautiful, for a minute it felt like I was in Utah.



Our ward Christmas party was so much fun. It was different than any other ward party I've gone to. We had it in the morning so breakfast was served and everyone was to come in their pajamas. It felt so nice to just get up and not have to change to go to church, I loved it. They had a little talent show and of course Santa came to visit the children. This is us in our pajamas ready to head out the door.

Our ward activities coordinator dressed up like an elf to announce that Santa was there.

Me, niece Naomi, and Matthew

little Naomi



For Christmas at my in-laws we made tamales. They came out really good, I ate so many, now I'm working on loosing all that weight. I don't know why I do that to myself...Oh yeah, because I love food!


Christmas at my parent's place was so much fun too, my sister Alma put on a full on program, we had a spiritual message, sang songs, played games, and ate all kinds of good food. My family celebrates Christmas on Christmas Eve and open presents at 12 midnight, so it works out perfectly with Matthew's family and mine.
My siblings and their spouces, the only one missing was Melina :(


My sister Alma and I

My sister Iliana and I

My beautiful niece, Victoria, Matthew and I gave her this for her birthday on the 29th of Dec.


...and little Rebekah, she is so adorable. She was born the day before we arrived to California (July 23rd) and look how big she is now. It was hard to get a good picture of her, she is so squirmy.



That was my vacation in a nutshell. I hope you all enjoyed your holidays. Happy New Year