[Leta Lately]: *Fonua Family Reunion*

Okay so you know how normal families have a reunion every few years? Well not mine... I have about 4-5 reunions A YEAR, but I absolutely love em and I try my hardest to attend all of them. =)

My Fonua side, which is my grandmothers side of family started off the reunions for the year. It was held here in Salt Lake City. Lucky for me my grandmother and her sisters that are still alive all live here in Utah so the reunion must be here for their benefit. As much as I love traveling I can't complain that it's great to stay home and enjoy the reunion here. My grandmother (IKA) comes from a family of 17 including her parents. 6 sisters and 9 brothers. Every year rotates as to who's hosting; Normally 3 siblings (and all their own descendants) will host the reunion that year. It's the greatest idea because you can designate amongst the family. This year my grandmas 3 sisters hosted, Tilini (Finau), Nola (Mapu), and Nita (Maile). The reunion runs 4 days and each sibling takes a day, and Sunday night everyone helps host. This year rocked....

Day 1: Hosted by Grandma Tilini

Our opening night was hosted by Grandma Tilini and her kids. We celebrated grandmas 79th birthday ALOHA style. Every year for family talents we're assigned a theme each sibling (my grandmothers siblings) is given a song, or topic, or genre, or movie, etc... for example 2 years ago each family was assigned a different country. Last year we had a tribute to Michael Jackson so each family was assigned a Michael Jackson song to dance to. It's an awesome idea because it brings immediate families together just to practice before the big reunion.

This year was cool because grandma Tilini wanted to go back....way back... to our tongan roots. Instead of being assigned different countries, genres, or musicals, each family just had to do a Tongan number. And to my surprise it was so much fun and so beautiful to watch. I KNOW for a fact that a lot of the younger generation that didn't know much about tongan or have never danced tongan definitely learned of our beautiful culture. =) The first night turned out so good. It was great seeing everyone, but most importantly grandma Tilini enjoyed herself so much. =)

Posers!

Jeff-Clark-Travie-MeheeuH cheesin it!

Baby Samuel

My Parents and My Pittsburgh parents!!

Cupid Shuffle

Nolas Kids

Ofas Kids

Helloha!

Day 2: Hosted by Grandma Nola Mapu

Everyone that knows grandma Nola knows that she is all about temple work and geneology. For her day she wanted to dedicate it all to finding out family history. Unfortunately I had to work Friday morning during the geneology workshops they held but I heard it was a success. We had a 3 hour break and then met up at Jim Chinese buffet where Grandma Nola paid for the whole Fonua family to eat. Afterwards we all went to the church for a spiritual devotion and to start the nights activities. For this night, each family was assigned to do a skit of their interpretations of the way their grandparents met. It was so much fun to watch each family act out the way their grandparents met. Once again it was perfect because you had no choice but to get with your first cousins and practice. This part of the reunion had to be a one of many favorites... I loved it because we not only found out how our grand aunts and uncles ended up but the most important; our own Grandparents story. =D And maaaaa gooodness was it hilarious. After all the skits we ended the night with a night full of dancing!!

rH!nO--NeeT@h--SwApS--ShAAwTy

GiLeZ (lol)--gRaNdMa TiLiNi--MeLiA MiA

PaRkiN' LoT MoNiToRs ;) lol (haini, eric, lisiate)

LuSi and the outta town Aunties!!

PhOeNiX bLooMFieLdS!!

Day 3: Hosted by Grandma Nitas family.......the MAILES!!

This was the day we were all looking forward to.

Sports day! =) This was the first year that the Mailes hosted. It was held in Orem and turned out to be so much fun. Games for every age, they even dragged out the ping pong table haha.

This year we started our annual Volleyball tournament. It was so much fun. I've never seen so many games played like the reunion games, never heard so much crap talking, it was hilarious, it made everyone laugh til their stomachs hurt.

Food was off the hook.

We sure as heck stayed til the sun went all the way down.

Big Ups to the Mailes for hosting such a fun filled day.

ONE LOVE!

...Misi and Corey takin a break...

HooPiN' iT Up

sLiP 'n' sLiDe

VoLLeYbALL

FoNuA FaM

Day 4: Sunday Fireside hosted by....the everyone!

There is no way to end a reunion better than with a family fireside.

Our grandaunts told stories of their parents and the gospels influence on their family.

Then Uncle Marty (Maile) asked for a representative of each family to come up and say something about who they're representing. It was nice to see what each person got from their grandparent or parent they came from. The musical numbers set the spirit perfectly and the refreshments were muy refreshing!!