A Life of Streiff

Dec 18th 2009
What a fun day for us, Dave and Ede arrived. They took a rather round about way to get here but they arrived safe and sound. We went to one of our favorite restaurants, Coco Bananas for dinner and half way through dinner we noticed that their eyes were slowly closing, so we took pity on them and took them home to bed.
The end of December turns out to be a convenient time to host visitors because most, if not all, of the people we work with have left the islands for the Holiday’s and there isn’t much we can do this week. The service center seems a bit abandoned so we do most of our work from our computers at home.
The next morning we took Dave and Ede to see The Robert Lewis Stevenson home and burial place. The grounds are so beautiful up there and it’s such a peaceful setting. We didn’t do the hike up to the grave this time because one experience of climbing that hill in this heat is enough for me.
Dave hasn't lost his ablility to pick the girls at the beach. But his eye sight must be failing.
We had a great spiritual family home evening on Sunday night with all the senior couples and it finally felt like Christmas. We sang lots Christmas songs with a few short spiritual thoughts spaced between. They really made me think about the birth of Christ and what a special event it was.
One of the thoughts was that Christ had come to earth three times once for his birth, second to visit Joseph Smith, and third to visit the Nephite’s in the New World. But the next time Christ comes, it will be the final time and he won’t ever leave us again. I loved it and hadn’t really thought of it like that before. It was a wonderful spiritual night.

Brandon and Shayla arrived on Wednesday morning a bit tired but there is never any rest on vacations. So we made breakfast and then changed into our suits to go to Sliding Rock.

Shayla and Pat just enjoying the moment together.

There are three water falls you can slide down. The first one is a bit scary but everyone says it’s the easiest in regards to not getting hurt. I guess it’s because you kind of free fall the last half of the slide.
It was fun to see Dave and Brandon enjoying the slides. Shayla and Brandon did a tandem attempt at the second slide but that was enough for Shayla.

It was a little overcast that day so she got a little cold. This is river water and although it not really cold, it’s not as warm as the ocean.
I decided to try the slides today because when Jodi, Tricia and Lee were here it was almost dark and I don’t like to get cold. It was a lot warmer this day so I went down the second and third one.

Everyone seemed to get a little banged up on them. Paul hit his elbow and had a good goose egg on it. Dave and Brandon hit their tail bones but I just hit my hand and broke a nail on the last slide. The climb back up to the top is a bit scary. I was a little worried about trying to climb out but I guess I’m better than I thought and was able to get out without any trouble. We spent a couple of hours there and while we were playing, Ede was painting and taking pictures. She is a fabulous artist and can see such beauty in things.
Paul Brandon and Dave went golfing with one of our friends, Felix Wendt and Ede, Shayla, Sister Bell and Sister Squire and I went to high Tea at the plantation house. It is such a fun thing to do and we really enjoyed the food and the ambiance of the fale (house).
We shopped for a while and then went back home. The boys had finished golf by the time we arrive home and had taken off to go snorkeling at Palolo Deep.
Ede and I went to the temple because it would be the only chance that we could go because the temple would be closed the rest of the week. I was really surprised that we stayed awake because we had been up since 4:30 AM. I did have a bit of a struggle with my earphones. The left one broke off and dangling off my ear. I never realized how hard it is to use earphones and get dressed without getting things all tangled up.
Christmas morning we had fun opening presents and just enjoyed being with family.

We could never really figure out why Paul was on Sants's lap.
We were able to talk to our family who were all together at Tricia’s home. I could tell it was a difficult day because any time Nat or Tricia would talk they would say “Some one is going to have a nap today” It sounded like the usual chaos when you have a combination of cousins being together, no sleep, too much sugar and the general Christmas pandemonium. But it was so much fun to see them open their T-shirts we had sent them.
I made crepes for breakfast and Paul made coco Samoa. It was such a photo moment when Shayla took a drink of it. She made so many different faces that it cracked us all up. I only wished we would have had in on video, it was the best!!!!
This is our beautiful shell Christmas tree.
We took breakfast out to our guard and when we said Manuia le Kerisimasi he started to cry, then he kissed and hugged us.
Our Christmas dinner was Hawaiian haystacks. We tried to find a turkey but the only one we found was close to $80 US so we passed on it. We couldn’t find a ham or anything else that looked good so I used some chicken tenders that we got from American Samoa. Our meal had a real Samoa flair to it with pineapple, coconut, rice and peppers.
On Saturday we took the ferry to Savaii and started off at the famous Blow holes. We had fun watching coconuts go flying a hundred feet or more in the air after dropping them in the blow holes. The boys were thinking how fun it might be to drop other stuff in there like footballs, basket balls, grand kids, all sorts of fun things.
We made our next stop at the beautiful Afu Aau waterfall. This is located up a small canyon on the river. It started to rain and was getting a little cool but Brandon and Paul jumped off the cliffs and swam in the pool anyway. It is one of the most beautiful places we have found.
We found a new favorite thing to do on Savaii was to go to the Turtle ponds and play with the turtles. There is a place just off the ocean where they have lots of turtles in an enclosure and you can jump right in and swim with them if you want to. Paul and Brandon had a ball swimming and playing with them. We had fun just watching them.
Shayla got some chips and started to feed them. After awhile we decided to feed them more healthy things like bread and carrots. It was amazing to see them take the bread and when they closed their mouths, water would shoot out the two holes in their nose. We stayed there for an hour or more just watching, feeding and swimming with the turtles. Of course Brandon and Paul had to grab on for short rides through the water. I guess turtles are very slippery and difficult to hold on to. We would never do that in the ocean but the village said it was ok for here.
We finished the day with a little snorkeling time in a bay near our hotel. It was overcast and raining a little so it wasn’t really the best.

We stayed in the Tanu Beach Fale’s again (little open huts with palm leaf roofs) and the dinner was about as good as it was the last time so we all headed to the van and made some peanut butter sandwiches to fill us up.

It then started to pour down rain so we just sat under the big main fale and talked. When it rains here it is still warm and beautiful. None of our fale’s leaked so we didn’t get wet. We were all pretty tired and went to bed around 9:30. We were just about asleep when some of the locals decided to serenaded us with singing and playing the ukulele. It is so typical of Samoa to have groups of people gather together and sing. I thought it was a nice touch of how Samoan’s end their day but it did make it hard to sleep.
We got up early and had a good breakfast and then back on the ferry to Upolu. We were going to go around the other side of the island on our way home but our group was too tired of being in the van and driving so we went straight home.


Just a great picture we took on our way to a waterfall

Everyone took a long nap and it was a relaxing Sunday. We had fun talking to Shayla’s family in Hawaii. We just love them. (Brandon and Shayla were napping while we were talking.) Her dad laughed when we told him we took Shayla camping. It probably wasn’t one of her most memorable experiences but she never complained once. What a trooper

Monday was our last shopping day and a wonderful lunch at the Bistro. We went to all the shops and did the final packing. Paul had a whole suitcase of stuff, mostly shells, that he sent home with Brandon and Dave has his walking stick and Samoan war club.

I hope we find places to put all of our treasures when we get home.
It was such a fun time and we loved having family with us for Christmas.