8th Anniversary

YAY! I finally finished this post. hahahah I started on it and then got into my feels and went on a trip down memory lane so yeahh...it's a lot longer than I originally planned for. So it goes... 


On Sunday, June 11, 2017,
Aljay and I celebrated our 8 year wedding anniversary.
8 years seems short because we've been together since 2005.
Feels like forever.

But boy do I love this guy and journey we've been on so far.
Here's some of my favorite highlights from our journey.
2005
We started dating in January. 
This pic below was our first ball as an official couple. 
Crazy butterflies and nervous excitement that whoooole night. 

2009
Pre-marriage. 
Aljay decided to teach the Samoan club for Culture Night. 
It was one of the funnest and more fulfilling experiences in my college life. This was post-mission, post BYUHSA, and at the final stretch of my senior year of college. 


 2010
We had our first child and became parents.
Lots of growing up and learning as we went through our first year of parenting.




2011
Aljay graduated, moved into our first (off campus) apartment, and welcomed baby #2. 
I remember feeling excited and scared at the same time while we were looking at apartments. 
We were so blessed to find a nice place that we could welcome our baby to.



2012
A huge year of growth for us. 
Business ventures and fails. 
Aljay had spent a lot of money on a shirt printer, but didn't have the time or space to make profit out of it. He was also experimenting with the idea of free lancing (graphic design) and still did tattoos on the side. He was also working security and PPF which made his sleep schedule a nightmare. 
 I was working for King Intermediate at the time. I was experiencing post partem depression which was new for both of us. We made good money but we weren't consistent with our tithing and were leaning on our own understanding. 
 Between busy church callings, work, and family,
we found ourselves having to make some tough decisions. 
By the end of 2012 we decided that we needed to move to Utah.
We took it to the Lord and decided that we would leave in June 2013.


2013
We Are Samoa, moving to Utah, & becoming home owners.
Our last hurrah before leaving Hawaii was to take King Int & Castle HS to We Are Samoa. This was one of the busiest times for us. We had two little kids, callings in the Youth program, work,  piled on top of making preparations to move to Utah. It was after the end of the school year that I was able to look back and truly believe in the phrase I CAN DO HARD THINGS.
I made that my mantra when we moved to Utah. It was a hard transition for me but Aljay was our rock. He worked so hard to provide for us and to keep me focused on the bigger picture. By the end of 2013 we had become homeowners. He really is some kind of amazing.
]



2014
We welcomed our 3rd child. 
The wild child.

2015
Rooci was born and so was our 4th child. 
It was a huge risk for Aljay to quit his job and pursue his dream, especially when we decided just before Saleima's arrival. We started the business with $60 and a dream.
 As scary as it was, it always felt right.



2016
I started working at UVU. Rooci is still in the developmental phase but steadily growing. Leila and Sefa have now started their second year of schooling. 





2017
We are selling our house, and building another one.
 ROOCI is jumping into some huge opportunities. 
Aww! Our first owned home!
Yay!!! Our dirt lol
Future house coming soon!


Here's how we celebrated our 8 year journey as a married couple

Our anniversary landed on a Sunday this year, which meant we were going to [keyword "were"] plan activities on Saturday.

So I planned for us to go Top Golf but Aljay had an appointment with someone that hadn't confirmed their start time. It wasn't until the day before that Aljay finally told me that he had scheduled the appointment for 12pm, but on the day of it was moved to 3pm...and then he wasn't finished until 9pm.  And we couldn't go in the morning because Aljay had a Rooci meeting in the morning and then had to prep a few things for the afternoon appointment. I didn't mind though. We had a bit of cleaning to do anyways.

When Aljay got home we drove up to West Valley to pick up Leila who had been sleeping over at Rosa and Julius' place for a couple days because Fipe's birthday was that week. One our way home we stopped at Walmart and ended up buying some summer clothes for the kids.

On Sunday, we went to church (duh), but on the way home Aljay told the kids that they needed to change into normal clothes right when we get home. Come to find out that during 3rd hour of church he was texting Liz to see if they could watch the kids.

After dropping off the kids, we went and watched Wonder Woman and then had sushi afterwards. Not the most righteous thing to do on a Sunday but I can't lie....it was soooooo nice to be on a date with my Husband.

 p.s. the theaters are EMPTY on Sundays. Not that it's going to become a habit or anything. We hardly ever watch movies at the theater anyways.

We ate at Happy Sumo (sushi restaurant) and left feeling like Happy Sumos. We then headed over to Liz and Toli's house and hung out with them for a bit before going home (and taking their two oldest kids along to sleep over at our house lol).

Super proud of ourselves for remembering our anniversary! Only took us 8 years.







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