As part of the Tutuila junior swim team, Emma was invited to attend the Samoa Nationals swim competition in (Independent) Samoa. The team of 5 kids (ages 9 - 13) have been practicing several times a week for the past couple months to prepare for the big event. Emma is now a pro at swimming, as this was her second appearance at the Samoa Nationals (t
he last one was held in May of 2007). In Samoan fashion, we wore matching t-shirts and lavalavas on the plane and to the swim meet. Emma even pinned a diaper cover on Ona of the same material and everyone kept referring to Ona as the team mascot.
I have to put on a brave face for Emma, but I honestly hate flying on these little planes, and to make matters worse it seems every time I fly on one, the weather is crappy. As usual, we had to walk on the runway in the pouring rain.
This was Ona's first plane ride and she enjoyed every moment of it. Since Samoa is a different country, she got her first stamps in her passport! The weather cleared by the time we reached Samoa and Ona was fascinated by looking out the window at the island and the coral reefs.
Emma loved sitting with her friend, rather than next to mom.
After arriving in Apia, we headed to the swimming pool so the kids could get some practice. This was especially important for our swimmers as they train in a hotel pool that is only 18 yards long. Samoa's pool facility is Olympic sized - 50 meters long. The kids spent a couple hours swimming in the outdoor warm-up pool and diving off the blocks, another thing we don't have to practice with in American Samoa.
The kids woke up on Saturday morning to a great breakfast. Samoa has much more fresh fruit and veggies than we do in American Samoa. Then, it was off to the big event. The day started with photos and the teams paraded around the pool facility in an opening ceremony.
The Prime Minister of Samoa gave the opening speech, and even stuck around to pass out ribbons to the winners of the first few events. Emma started the races off by swimming in the 50 meter freestyle for the 11&12 year old girls. She came in 2nd place and here is Emma on the medal podium. Where else would we live that she is presented her ribbon from the leader of the country?
Emma's next race was the 100 m freestyle and she also placed 2nd. It was Emma's dream to get 1st place in the breaststroke races, as this is her favorite stroke. Emma's dream came to fruition as she got 1st place in both the 50m and 100m breaststroke races! Emma finished the 100m way ahead of her nearest competitor! I was quite the proud mom, watching from the sidelines. I wish I could have brought the good camera and taken action pictures of the swimming, but with all the baby stuff I had to lug, I opted for the tiny camera.
The only disappointment of the day came when the 200 meter breaststroke race was cancelled. Emma had trained very hard for that race by doing many, many links in our small pool. Emma also swam a 200m Individual Medley, but she had to swim it as an exhibition race with some older kids, as there were no girls her age that would swim the 200m IM. Ona was a wonderful baby, even as it turned into a full day event. This is how she spent a good part of her time at the pool...
All of the kids swam so well. We were worried in the couple weeks leading up to the competition as 3 out of the 5 kids had dengue fever! Thankfully, the kids were (mostly) healthy on the big day and our swim club came home with a total of 17 ribbons. Well done, Tutuila junior swim team! The kids were treated to a yummy dinner at Giordano's that night and they had a great silly time celebrating their success.
Both of the geocaches are located on the far east side of our island. Ona has rarely made it the ten miles to Pago Pago without crying (a 30-50 minute trip depending on the traffic) so we weren't sure how a day driving around the island would turn out. We took our chances and drove to the farthest cache location first. The whole way Emma was holding her GPS and giving Paul directions, as though he had any option other than continuing along our one road.
Ona had to get in on the action and tried to lend a hand with the GPS unit.
A couple hours were spent picnicking and searching, but we came up empty-handed. We may go back and look again as there are lots of good hiding spots along the shore and in the ship. It is also quite possible that the cache is missing. I'm sure if someone found it by chance it would have been stolen. The second cache was located in a spot we often frequent. Unfortunately, it wasn't very hidden and the geocache was completely looted. 
Not a very successful day of geocaching, but we all had a good time. Emma requested that we make our own geocache so we plan to do that soon. We have a few locations in mind that will be off the beaten path so hopefully safe from looting. The other agenda for the day was a family photo. As many wonderful pictures as we have, this is our very first family photo since adding Ona to the Brown clan! 
Although we are all squinty-eyed, I love this picture of me and the girls. Have I mentioned that I am so happy to have two daughters?
On the ride home I got a picture of one of my favorite buses... my precious, my precious. A Lord of the Rings-themed bus is pretty cool, but is not to be outdone by the Finding Nemo bus, the 
And finally, a floppy-haired Paul driving home with Rainmaker Mountain in the background (in the rain, of course).
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