Happy Fall

These pictures were from around Helen's second birthday. Siri turns four today!

Halloween!

Helen loves the fall.

Camping in the Cascades

Last weekend we went camping by Mt. Adams with our friends and fellow ex-expatriates Naomi, Aaron and Amity. It was one heck of a long drive, but well worth it, esp. since Amity was out all the way from the East Coast. We got to meet Aaron's parents and sister plus it was Aaron's birthday. Maybe Aaron will take the occasion to update his blog... http://tikidonkey.blogspot.com/

Photo Credit: Sent to me by Amity, taken by Aaron's dad

Forest Service road 23 in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. Mt. Adams barely visible in background

Still driving...

These next photos are from our previous camping trip in the North Cascades, near the Canada border (Mt. Adams is near Oregon Border)

Siri loves camping

'Ole Betty has made it over at least a dozen mountain passes and put on a couple thousand miles this summer, pretty good after sitting for the last few years. Maintenance required since we got back stateside: 1 Oil Change, 1 Air filter, 1 Ignition Coil, 1 Can of Sea-Foam dumped down the carb 1 battery terminal and 1 tire. She runs pretty good after cleaning things out with the sea-foam.

In other news - we are headed back to the midwest for a couple weeks at the end of August and are very excited to see friends and family.

How is that Jen? (http://domerbaby.blogspot.com/)

Camping with Betty

Lucy and Phil's wedding

Maja

But MoM

Always happy Helen, except when she's not

Minutes from our new home

Warm sun and happy babies make Mom happy

Made it to Washington

Siri kept pointing and saying- "Look dad! Snow on the mountains!" So, we drove up to the snow.

A few more...

LBJ signs are the best!

Going away party - everyone in this pic is leaving April 1

Chicken across hallway from recovery room

Everybody still fits in the Jeep

In the delivery room

Ditto

At a BBQ 24 hrs. old. Emily wants one!

Maja's first couple days

Introducing Maja Vere

Yes, that's right, she is no longer known as "the new baby" but rather Maja Vere. She's a beauty and we'll post more pictures soon. Also, for those those of you who may not have heard, we are moving back to Washington State. Our flight arrives in Spokane on Easter Sunday. We are very excited to go "home."

Baby Girl Number Three Arrives

Our third baby girl joined us on Saturday March 12th at 2:09 p.m. at Lyndon B. Johnson Tropical Medical Center in the Territory of American Samoa. She weighed in at 7 lbs 4ozs and is 50.5 cm long or 19.8 inches. I had another fantastic labor. My girls have been good to me and once again Erick was an amazing labor partner.

I started having light contractions when I went to bed around 10:30 p.m.. I was getting up every hour or so to get water, go to the bathroom, walk a bit then lay back down. I slept for about 3 hours consecutively then got up with the girls and helped get them ready for daycare and let Erick know that it seemed like today might be the day. The contractions hadn't been any more than every 30 min and sometimes an hour would pass without anything so I really wasn't sure if it might just fizzle out.

After bringing the girls to daycare I went for a walk on Coconut Point. It was a hot day but lucky we had a bit of a breeze. I came home, did some cleaning while Erick packed some more boxes to send. I began having some more aggressive contractions but still very irregular. Sometimes I'd have a couple about 20 min. apart, but then 45 min. would pass without another one. We decided to get out of the house to do some errands and pass the time. We stopped by the post-office and dropped off the boxes that Erick had just packed. I could certainly feel that my contractions were getting worse at this point and I was fairly confident that the baby would arrive sometime today. Right now it is about 10:30.

We then went to Erick's work to pick up his camera from a co-worker and our next errand was to stop at Samoa News to post an add to sell our car. When we pulled into the parking lot I told Erick that I really thought we needed to head home so that I could relax in a bath because I could feel that more aggressive contractions were coming soon.

My contractions progressed steadily and they were certainly more intense by the time I was relaxing in the bath. To distract myself during the more intense contractions we watched a movie that I hadn't seen since it first came out (Four Weddings and a Funeral).

The day had turned out to be very warm so I decided to hop back into the cool bath but by the time I walked to the bathroom I could tell that I really needed to get to the hospital. My contractions were certainly taking my breath away but I think I was coping pretty well. We walked to the car and during the car ride I was having very close contractions. I'd have a very tough one followed by a mild one during the whole 15 min. ride to the hospital.

I got out of the car and had a tough one then one tough one after another on the walk down the hall. Finally I turned the corner into the air-conditioned hallway that leads to the labor and delivery area. In my head, I certainly thought I'd have another hour or so before the baby arrived, but then I had a tough contraction in the hallway and had a slight urge to push. Well, that changed my mind a bit and I thought I've really got to get into the labor room because this little one might be coming sooner than I'd thought. We got to the labor area and every bed was full. There was a bed in the hall that the woman directed me to. I looked up and said "I think someone ought to check me out."

They must have seen the state I was in because the midwife Ann asked me if I felt like pushing. When I said yes she immediately directed me right into the labor room, put me on the table and said, "Oh My, there is the baby's head. Well, not actually, but it was the membrane." The other nurse got Ann ready and Ann directed me that on the next contraction she would break my water and I would push and that baby would come out. I was speechless, but she was right. The baby came and screamed and was healthy. I cried and was overjoyed. I was able to breastfeed right away and had about a half-hour with the baby before she needed to be taken to have her vitals checked and I was moved to the non-air conditioned recovery area (look at posts from Helen's birth to understand where I was staying- this time a chicken was wandering the halls of our ward as well).

As Erick recalls, I walked through the hospital door at 1:58 at the baby arrived at 2:09. We are still figuring out what her name is, but as of now we call her the "new-baby." Siriana and Helen are both very interested in her and Siri is constantly telling me how much she loves her. Thanks for everyone's well-wishes.

1,2,3,4,5... still waiting..

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... and a shot of low tide at Tisa's

Kayak Fishing

There was a calm stretch a while back, and I managed to do a little kayak fishing

This is a nice looking hexagon rock cod, but pretty small so I threw him back

I have managed to catch a few fish worthy of keeping, I had Siri hold this one for the photo because fish always look bigger with kids holding them. She was very excited.