The days, weeks, months, and years seem to go by faster as I get older. I still feel like a young 23 or 24, but tack on a few more years of life experiences and I guess I am exactly where I’m supposed to be… still young, but wondering what “old” will feel like one day. I’m so grateful for my health, and the health of all my family and friends. It’s a cheesy sentiment too but I hope we can all find happiness and peace as we take life day by day.

I am 29 years old now. Just a few hundred days to go until my third decade, wowwie.

My birthday this year was full of love and special moments, which I mostly didn’t photograph, but I did get snippets of it on my iPhone. These pics are just a few from my SLR camera though…

My actual birthday was a Thursday, and I was working from home, but my co-workers thoughtfully gifted me with gift cards to a local eatery and spa treatment. And my best friend Gabby surprised me with a picnic on the balcony for my lunch break. My husband also gifted me with my very first army knife with “Relli” engraved on the wood. Later in the evening, my husband treated me and my parents out to dinner at Maliu Mai, where we ate by the beach, laughed, and toasted our drinks and pancit ‘to long life’. Then we came home and played a few rounds of bananagrams with friends to end the night.

Friday was a busy and exciting day. I had a lot of work to close off, but got a chance to connect with all our pacific team, which was really nice. I did a super fast kine pack for our weekend camping trip, but luckily Ian came home and was able to finish up our packing, because I had to head out to Samoana… I was invited to the Finafinau Sustainability Summit to give a presentation on sustainability strategies for greener living — and I think the students vibed with my presentation! When I got home, Ian and Ano loaded our truck up with our camping gear and food for the weekend. We got to Maloata, met up with Traci, Gabby, and Tulaga, and then we set up our tents and spent the evening hanging out. It rained all night, and our tent got some puddles in it, but luckily I was conked and only woke up once barely bothered.

Saturday morning, everyone looked a little worn for wear after the night of heavy rain. We took it slow, and looked longingly at the choppy waves in the bay, wishing it was calm so we could get in for a swim. Traci wanted to set eel traps in the stream so a few of us followed along and not too far up the stream, Ian saw a huge eel and he speared it! It was the biggest freshwater eel I’d seen, so I was both excited and terrified. The victory smiles didn’t last too long though because the eel got away after some very frantic attempts at trying to put it down. We played games, thanks to Aina who planned a few fun yard games, and all helped to prep a delicious shared dinner spread. After dinner, we hung out and started a bonfire on the beach, then called it a night around midnight. Thankfully, it didn’t rain too much.

Sunday was our last day of camping. Traci caught an eel in a trap that was set the day before, and the boys filleted it and prepped it for our last lunch. We packed our stuff, and when we got home, I was so exhausted after unpacking and putting our stuff away, and melted into my comfy bed for the rest of the afternoon. I am definitely so thankful for the fun weekend hanging out with everybody camping, and for another year added to my life!

That is all for now xx