It takes us HOW long to get to Tonga?

Spencer and I left our apartment Tuesday, September 3rd at 4:30 p.m to make our very long journey to Tonga. We landed in Tonga on Thursday, September 5th around 3:55 p.m. in Tonga. (Tonga is 19 hours ahead of us.) Which made this entire experience 28.5 hours long... not including the driving around we did for dinner after we landed. PHEW.

Since I knew it was going to be a long flight and I'm trying to limit my dairy intake, I packed a LOT of snacks. Some of them aren't even pictured here and I brought quadruples of snacks for our trip back.

Filled to the brim!

My purse couldn't even fit them all in, and Spencer's backpack had to hold some of them.

Spencer all cute and happy on our way during our first leg of the flight. Salt Lake City to Los Angeles!

We got to LAX and it was a whirlwind trying to figure out how to get to our new terminal. I thought it was the coolest thing when we had to slowly walk two by two past a police dog sniffing for drugs. Although, I was slightly nervous that he was going to smell my snacks and I'd get slammed to the ground when he alerted his handler...

We finally got to our gate and were very happy that we could relax for a little while before our 11 hour flight to Fiji. 

Our flight was supposed to take off at 11 p.m., but was delayed until 12:45 a.m.! We got word from the pilot that many travelers checked overweight and over sized cargo. This caused imbalance on the plane and the cargo handlers had to rearrange all of the luggage and cargo to stabilize the plane. A good amount of the passengers laughed since they knew they were part of the reason why the plane was delayed. 

Chicken with rice and peas, crackers with cheese, and a Twix.

We got chicken with rice for our 'dinner' which felt like it was at 3 a.m. My nose knew it was chicken and rice and I told Spencer that as the people ahead of us got their food. I became very grateful for my snacks, as I didn't care for the seasoning or spiciness of the chicken. Plus, the amount of dairy that was in the meal wasn't ideal. Spencer ended up eating most of my food. It's my fault that I didn't notify Fiji Airways about my dietary restriction, but I know to notify them next time! 

Spencer slept quite a bit on the flight there, I was quite jealous. I watched Toy Story instead. I realized that there are a LOT more jokes in Toy Story that I didn't understand as a child. I was somewhat shocked at some of them. This is a kid's movie?!

I struggled to find a comfy position to sleep, which resulted in me sleeping for about 90 minutes total on our flight. Darn those hip and back aches while being pregnant! I couldn't wait to get off this plane!

A couple of the funny happenings while I was awake:

• A man went into one of the bathrooms and was fighting to get the door open. He quickly left and sat back down in his seat. Ten minutes later, a man walked out of the same bathroom. I guess he didn't remember to lock the door and got barged in on! I felt bad for quietly laughing to myself.
• While looking for one of my shoes on the floor to walk the aisles, I accidentally grabbed the mans foot behind me. I retreated quickly and pretended it never happened. I learned later on that 'he' was a 'she', since I saw her fancy-schmancy purse. Whoops, sorry lady!

We had breakfast, and it was about as good as 'dinner'.  I smelled blueberry muffins and my sniffer was right once again!

Wet scrambled eggs, mushy hash browns, pitiful fruit, blueberry muffin, and orange juice. I wish that red thing was ketchup. 

Once the flight was over, I was SO excited to be done sitting on a plane!

This couldn't be more accurate.

Going through customs in Fiji was such a long process, but we had a 7ish hour layover and wanted to say we had a little mini adventure there!

We got a taxi ride to the wharf to have breakfast at the port. 

I took a lot of pictures while we were speeding along on the left side of the road on our way there. That took me some getting used to!

Can you spot the gravestones?!?!

We went to Lulu's and I got French toast with bacon (and Spencer asked them to put my bacon on the grill longer since apparently the South Pacific doesn't like crispy bacon). He got an omelet with toast.

It was a pretty cool place.

After breakfast we walked around and I loved seeing the ocean and the palm trees. I got some earrings as a souvenir to say we went to Fiji.

Then we got picked us up and our taxi driver drove us back to the airport.

I'm uneducated and didn't know Fiji had mountains.

We got back to the airport and was very early for our flight. 

I thought it was cool the airport had a prayer room.

The older plane we got on to fly to Tonga was so much more comfortable than the last Fiji Airways plane. Spencer and I did not understand this. I didn't fall asleep, but I was a lot more relaxed.

The flight to Tonga was pretty uneventful (thankfully). But we learned when we got to Tonga that Spencer had to report to customs that he brought his pocket knife to Tonga. We weren't sure if they were going to confiscate it or not, as the two workers looked at each other and then back at the knife. But our knife was spared and became an important item of our trip.

Our Airbnb host, Isi picked us up from the airport and told us that he didn't have any other plans for this evening. He offered to drive us downtown so we could find someplace to eat and show us around. I was in awe just staring at everything and absorbing it all. In the end, we went to a sub place that Spencer remembered eating at when he was a missionary.

Waiting for our subs.

This is translated to "Blessing Store."

I'm obsessed with the skies in Tonga. LOOK AT HOW BEAUTIFUL THEY ARE.

This university makes me smile. Tongans love Jesus!

Then we got to where we were staying and ate our subs. If anyone is planning on going to Tonga, we recommend The Dayspring Lodge. :)

And this was just the beginning  of a whirlwind of adventure....

How I Somewhat Knew We Were Having a Boy

Before we found out we were having a boy, I told Spencer a couple times that God was preparing us to have boys.

The first event that tipped me off was when Spencer and I taught five very energetic boys at church ages 5 to 7. We didn't have any girls on the roll, and we rarely got to teach any visitors that were girls. Since I'm the youngest  that had all sisters, I had no idea how I was supposed to teach and handle these rambunctious boys! Thankfully Spencer was there every step of the way.

Those boys had so much energy...

The second instance that tipped me off was our next church assignment. We were the Wolf Den Leaders for the cub scouts. More boys, but just a little older than our Primary class. We combined with all of the cubs, so I got to experience many ages. Once again, I didn't have much experience with boys that age, but Spencer was there for every activity.

The last occurrence actually happened within two weeks of Spencer and I dating. We were babysitting my niece and nephew. As Spencer was singing a Tongan song to rock Cooper to sleep, something happened. I saw in my mind Spencer rocking and singing in Tongan to our baby boy. I didn't think much of it since I wasn't sure if it was just my imagination. I even thought it could have been our second child instead of the first when I thought about it later. But once we found out it was a boy, that memory came to my mind.

I may not know how to perfectly raise a boy, but I'm glad to know that Spencer will be there with me.

When a pregnant woman wants a slurpee on Sunday...

As Spencer and I were on our way home from my sister's house, we drove by not one, but TWO 7-Elevens.

Pretend this is a slurpee machine. GIMME SLURPEE NOW.

It was torture.

As we went by the first 7-Eleven, I told Spencer, "I wish it wasn't Sunday..." Then he finished my response, "since we'd go to 7-Eleven."

As some of you may recall, slurpees are one of the things I crave most (probably once a week). But I refuse to go there since we have a plethora of otter pops in our fridge. (This has nothing to do with the fact that the 7-Eleven closest to us has less than satisfactory flavors recently.)

No blue raspberry and cherry for me to mix together?! Unacceptable.

By the time we get around to the second 7-Eleven, we're toying around with the idea of taking Gatorade and ice, and putting it in the blender. (Mind you, we've thought about doing this previously.)

BUT... Spencer realized that the ice would water down the Gatorade flavor, so it would be best with Gatorade powder. Which we don't currently have...

But not all hope was lost. We got the idea of making an otter pop slushie in the blender! At first we thought about doing just one flavor (each otter pop is 1 oz, so eight would be an 8 oz slushie). But we mix flavors anyway, so we could just mix a bunch of otter pop flavors together!

Did two blue, orange, red, and pink!

I got me my slurpee on Sunday! It was quite good.

 Look out 7-Eleven, we're comin' for you!

*whistles*

Earlier I was in this mood where I had this song stuck in my head and I was singing and acting like the rooster in this song. 

For those of you unaware on where this song originates, it's from the Disney movie Robin Hood.

I was sauntering up and down our hallway like the rooster, while Spencer was giving me these questioning looks.

I told him it was from Robin Hood and he told me he's never heard of this song, or seen the movie. (I, in fact have shown him this video earlier in our marriage.) I gasped and proclaimed that we needed to watch this movie at once! A classic!

I told Spencer this was my favorite part as a kid.

I quickly pulled up YouTube and triumphantly showed him that the video has a red bar across the bottom of the video before I click on it, meaning we've watched the video before.

I click on the video and I continue merrily with my singing and sauntering.

Then when it got to the real good parts, I began to jump up and down to the beat, flailing my arms when the notes went up and down.

Then after the song was over, we went to bed and I read my new weekly update on Baby Hoffman and how he/she is developing.

"Listen up: Tiny bones in your fetus' ears are in place, making it likely that the baby can hear your voice when you're singing in the shower. In fact, studies have found that babies who hear a song while they're in the womb recognize the same tune when it's sung to them after they're born (so choose your lullabies with that in mind.)

I joke to Spencer, "Baby Hoffman can hear me singing this song! I wonder if the baby will want this song as a lullaby!"

He did not find the joke funny.

Instead, Spencer sung us a Tongan lullaby as we fell asleep, which I think is a much better lullaby than The Rooster Song.

"I smell syrup"

Preface: One of my most recent cravings has been pancakes. Now I know this is a craving because I haven't wanted pancakes in a long time and waffles are clearly superior. But, I've been eating so many pancakes recently!

A couple Saturday mornings ago, I got out of bed and saw Spencer on the couch. I walk over and immediately start cuddling with him since I was tired.

Me: "Did you eat pancakes for breakfast?"
Spencer: "No, I didn't have any pancakes."
Me: "I smell syrup on your breath."
Spencer: "I haven't had any syrup today."
Me: -squinty eyes not believing him-
"I could smell syrup as I walked out of the bedroom!"
-silence-
Me: "So how was this morning helping someone move?"
Spencer: "It was all right."
Me: "I want pancakes... No, I want toast... No, I want pancakes... But I don't want to get up."
Spencer: "I brought something home for you."
Me: -eyes widen as I run over to the table-
Me: "A maple donut!!!"
 -is overjoyed with glee-
"No wonder why I was smelling maple syrup!!!"

Spencer is the best, since he used the gift of discernment and tried to feel for what kind of donut I wanted, since there was a variety. He got the EXACT one I wanted!

Looks like my nose is working just like any other pregnant women would! #supersniffer

Pregnancy dreams are weird.

Just the other day I had this SUPER cool dream. It had the adventure, the drama, the mystery! I'm pretty sure during the dream I thought to myself, "This is going to make a GOOD blog post!

But then I woke up and I had literally forgotten everything. I tried all day trying to remember bits and pieces of it and nothing came to memory.

So instead I'm going to tell you the first and a recent pregnancy dream that I do remember.

The First Dream

I was sitting at a table with my three sisters, my Utah aunts, and a few female cousins. This was before we had told anyone but parents. So what did my mind think in my dream?

So I blurt out to them excitingly that I'm pregnant!

...But then I realize I'm only 4-5 weeks pregnant and that it was probably a bit too soon to tell them.

I laugh it off and tell myself it's fine as my sister Heather comes up to me. She pats my stomach firmly and pronounces, "Yeah, I could tell that you were pregnant. You look like it."

Ouch. Did she just say that to me?

I woke up out of embarrassment. 😂

(No, Heather would have never said that in real life!)

Next Dream

I had just gotten back from a Faulk Family Reunion and I was thinking about cub scouts. I was also scrolling through Instagram and saw this specific slide:

All of these things made me have this... interesting dream.

We were still in California at the reunion while I was trying to seclude myself into a bedroom, hoping to take a nap before the next activity started.

But before I managed to get to bed, my niece and nephews barge into the room looking for snacks (smart kids). Then all of our cub scouts herd into the adjacent room! What?

I could hear the scouts on how excited they were and how they were so pumped for the next activity! It sounded like a zoo.

Just as quickly as everyone arrived, we were shuffled to a large river nearby. At the river shore, were all of these floating metal tables lined up in the water.

For some reason, the cubs scouts and I began to fight a mighty battle in showing team spirit by stamping team logos onto the table. I was too preoccupied with dominating the table with my rainbow-y stamp, I don't even know what the scouts stamp looked like!

I didn't like that I was outnumbered, so I jumped on over to another table while Spencer stayed behind with the scouts. I was on a table with Uncle Daniel, Aunt Shauna, my Mom, and I can't remember who else.

The race was about to start down the river on our metal tables.

My team and I sit on the table bench so our legs are in the water, but our torso and up is still dry. (Apparently realistic gravity doesn't exist in this dream.) We all grab our paddles and we wait for the gun to be fired.

We start paddling as fast as we can down the river!!!

But Uncle Daniel was not satisfied with our efforts... He turns to the rest of us and remarks, "It's time for the secret sauce," as he presses a hidden button.

The 'secret sauce' made the table go at not actually lightning speed and made it the same angle as the slide previously mentioned. Practically straight up in the air!  (We did not have seatbelts in this dream, but I think we needed them on this flying table.)

The wind was blowing through our hair as we left all the other teams behind!

Then I woke up... but I assume we won.