Hopoate Happenings: Oodles of fun in October

Hopoate hair train

We got to take Nani to General conference in October... their are a few perks to being the bishop. :)

She was so excited to go inside and see the prophet. Strangely, he wasn't there. He showed up in the middle of general conference... and we later heard that he wasn't feeling well. It was a very good feeling to see him come in.

This was a very exciting conference to be a part of because they announced the Tabernacle in Provo that burned being rededicated as a temple! There was a literal gasp in the audience. It was very neat to witness the announcement in real life. The Provo Tabernacle Temple is actually in our Stake!

All 3 of the girls attended Siona's dance group, Tusitala Polynesian dance. She is such a great instructor, and taught them Tahitian and Hula. Stamis and Eta's daughters also were in the group, so the girls had fun cousin time.

Carrie and her family came up for General Conference and we decided to go see Becky Brown who Carrie played volleyball with at BYUH. It is so fun to see all our little island mix kids play together. Becky has become a good friend to me as well while living here in Utah.

Cute and Crazy kids.

Kaela and Nani... can you believe that these two cuties are only 2 weeks apart?!

A family outing on a GREAT family hike. Short, sweet, and beautiful.

I believe this is called the Grotto... in Payson Canyon? It is a sweet hike with cool rock formations and a bit of water at the end. Cute Nani happy to be with cousins.

Nani, Kea, and Samara all participated in Spring Creek Elementary's Mile fun run. We we were proud of them because they earned their participation money, and even trained for the event. Our neighbors, Nicky and Elian also participated.

The girls all numbered and ready to run. Nobody quit... even when they got REAL tired.

Is she cute or what?! One of the saddest things I have ever seen was when the race began and everybody took off. Poor Samara was trying so hard to keep up with her big sisters, who were unaware of her struggle. I saw this look of panic on her face and her running as fast as her legs could take her. Lucky, Daddy saw it too and ran to her and kept her company throughout the mile run. :)

A tradition every fall is to find great deals on apples and get together with Sherelda and her children and make applesauce and apple pie filling. It is hard work, but so much fun. This year we were so blessed to receive ALL our apples for free as the Uath Food bank was given an abundance of apples and kept putting them out for people to take. We had BOXES of apples and made over 150 jars of applesauce. Lucky we had a lot of willing helpers.

The 4 year olds were are most dedicated workers... and pretty good at it too!

The happy helpers... This shows the process real well too. Sherelda is loading the boiled apples, Ryan is pressing them down the funnel, Nani turns the crank which pushes the apples through a press. From the side comes the warm sweet applesauce, and the end drops out the unusable peel, seeds, stem, etc.

Samara and Benji, the Crippen's new little Doggy

Nerd Day at school.

We had our Fall Fest in the ward and the girls were so excited to wear their costumes that Carrie sent up. We told Kea she could be a 'cute witch'... and she definitely listened.

Nani and Samara participating in the cake walk. Samara is suppossed to be tinkerbell... the yellow hair spray looked a bit more green on her hair. :)

Tino started his EMT class this October and needed to get over a hundred vital signs recorded for class. His idea? Go to the ward party as a doctor and grab some while he was there. It worked!