Happy Birthday Nicholas!

Today Nicholas Voa Aiono turned 3! This is Kuso's older brother Levi's son. Hard to believe he is only 3 because he is about the size of a 5 year old! His birthday party was at a park near his mom's house. BBQ and a Thomas the Train cake with actual moving train on top! We were so excited to go spend time with Nicholas. We don't get to see him often enough. He is a wild boy, but is SO funny to watch.

We bought him this truck you see in the pictures, some clothes, and some shoes. He opened the truck first and was SUPER excited and started yelling "TRUCK! TRUCK!" Then he opened the shoes which happened to be "Thomas the Train." He saw the box and got SUPER excited again. But when he couldn't get the box open, gave up and went back to the truck. Mom ended up opening the clothes because Nicholas just wanted to play with the truck and was not interested in opening any more presents. He played with it NON-STOP for an hour and a half. Then we left the park. Who knows how much longer he played with it when he got home!

Uncle Kuso showing Nicholas how the buttons work.

One moves it forward. One moves it back.

One honks the horn. One sets the alarm.

One plays "Cotton-Eyed Joe" and the truck "dances" by moving back and forth.

Nicholas got the hang of it quickly.

Not enough that he knew which buttons he was pushing, but as soon as he heard the back-up beepers, he knew he needed to turn it around to let it go the way he wanted it to go.

He didn't like it when the truck went farther than he wanted it to go, so he would run in front of it, or stand behind it and yell at it to STOP! It was hilarious!!!

Whatever just happened, he thought it was AMAZING.

Hence the "Oh" on his face. He is so dang cute!

After playing with it for a while, he decided it was cool to push the button, then lay on the ground and watch it go. After it would stop, he would run to the truck, push the button, then run back to his original spot on the ground to watch it again. Who would have thought that one truck would entertain a 3 year old for SO LONG!!!

We were all pretty entertained watching him be entertained.

By the end of the party, he would push the music button.

When the song played, he would get up and dance.

Happy Birthday Nicholas!!!

WE LOVE YOU!!!

Where My Girls At?

Melanie, Kelly, Katie, Kapeka, Me, Colleen

(Don't sweat the red-eye effect...actually, I decided to take the picture out.

Let's just say it wasn't too flattering for me!)

On Monday night, some of my girlfriends and I were able to get together for dinner. Katie came in from Washington State. That is what it took to get the rest of us all together who live here in SLC. We all went to Southern Utah University together and spent PLENTY of hours together back then. We were only able to spend a couple hours this week because half of us have children to get home to and the other half of us have to get up for work in the morning. It was a good time though. Makes us all remember the good times and ridiculous late hours we spent together during college! I miss those carefree days sometimes...

I know most of the girls who were at the dinner will be checking this blog...

CALL ME! Let's get together again!

Cousin Gus' Wedding

This past weekend we went over to California to Aukuso's cousin Gus' wedding. He married a great girl named Rachel. We got into town on Thursday night. We went straight to the chapel to help with the food for the dinner on Friday night. We spent the day Friday hanging out with Kuso's cousins getting ready for the wedding. Friday night was the dinner. Kuso ran in to more friends and relatives there.

Saturday was the wedding. The line looked gorgeous! They got married in a chapel on the grounds of the Oakland Temple. After pictures on the Temple grounds, everyone headed over to the reception at a fancy Country Club! It was SO nice. The food was good, the entertainment was hilarious, and the dancing was fun. Everyone enjoyed themselves!

One of my favorite parts of the weekend was hanging out in the hotel lobby every night with Kuso's family just talking and telling stories until 3am or later!

At any given time during the weekend, there were at least 3 Aukuso's within sight. There was the groom, our Kuso, two other cousins in the line, and Uncle Aukuso that they were all named after! It was kind of cool.

The Line

The Boys

Me, Rachel, Gus, and Gus

Joe, Filoi, Ie, Gus, Sememe
The Oakland, CA Temple

Looking away from the Temple

On the West side of the Temple, there is an overlook of the Bay. In the background on the right side you can see the Golden Gate Bridge.

The picture on the top of the page was my first attempt at taking a "landscape" shot!