Wednesday, April 13, 2005

Tina, Lessa, Lamana, Anna, Jazz, Amato

The folks listed above will come to Sandpoint today, some for their first time ever. Amato, in fact, is the only one of our Samoan visitors to have been here before, and he will be stoked. When we saw Amato (he was the triplets' nanny in Samoa), he repeated several times "back in Idaho, back in Idaho." He loves it here and would do anything to come back to stay.

Lamana has come all the way from Auckland, New Zealand, where she has lived for several years. During that time, she's taken on a Kiwi accent, which, of course, I love to listen to. She's one of Sefo's (my niece's husband) sisters, as are Tina and Anna. Anna is married to Amato.

Lessa, in the meantime, flew down from Anchorage with her baby Jazz. Lessa's husband is Sefo's cousin. Jazz is adorable and about a year old. She's a little girl, by the way.

Laura, Sefo, and the triplets, Jacob, Justine, and Grace will round out the visitors. I'm driving to Plummer soon to provide another car for their transportation. We're hoping everyone fits. Then, we'll drive to Sandpoint, do downtown, including Coldwater Creek, and the beach for lunch.

After lunch, we'll drive out to Mother's at Colburn and then visit Harold's (Grandpa's) grave at Pack River Cemetery. He would have been 89 yesterday, so Mother took some new flowers when she went to visit yesterday.

We'll probably move on to Hope and see the deer. Then, back to Sandpoint where they'll go to the Thompson cabin to rest while I get some dinner ready here at the house. After dinner, back to Plummer.

It's gonna be a long day but fun. In fact, Boots Reynolds told me I needed to take the Samoans to Sam Owen Campground. I think I'll do that, along with a River Journal. Then, I'll take a photo of Samoans reading the paper at Sam Owen.

Toodloo!