Heeeee's Baaaaack.

The full family!

Josh on his way home.

Nathan: "So this is the kid that's gonna take all my attention huh?"



The family is officially complete. (Well, for now at least) Beth and I had been missing Nathan, though enjoying the quiet of just Josh. We had almost 24 hours at home with just Josh. But today around lunchtime, our oldest little boy made his way back home from his Nana & Papa's. However, he's not himself right now. He's still being really quiet, his ear seems to hurt a lot, and he doesn't eat or drink much. So after a call do the doctor, we're heading back again this afternoon... RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE COUGAR GAME!!! I must really love this kid. And thank goodness we resolved the space issue on the DVR so I can watch the game when I get home.

In the meantime, Josh is pretty much a sleeper. He certainly doesn't like to be awake. We're guessing it's because Beth is on Percaset (however you spell it) for her incision and he's probably getting a little of that when he eats. And I'd think a pain killer like that would definitely make him a 4-day-old a little extra sleepy.

But it is definitely nice to have everyone together. What that will bring in the next few days is still to be determined. But for now, it's pretty cool to have a 4-person family.

the Calm before the Storm

the Calm: Joshua
the Storm: Nathan

a post by beth

i apologize for the lack of photos this morning. . . i'm just commenting on my state of mind. as you know, nathan has been a) staying with nana and papa the last several days and b) feeling not quite himself. he returns to us today. i'm thrilled to have my family under one roof and to get this process of the boys knowing each other going, but i'd be lying if i said i wasn't a bit sad to lose this quiet time with baby josh. i've spent the last few days simply cucooning with this sweet, hungry, sleepy little thing- i'm not sure if i'm ready for the energy and playfulness of my spunky toddler! i'm positive that i will report later that having nathan home is a blessing, but for the next hour or so, i think i'll just snuggle with the calm.

Heading Home...

H-O-M-E. That's where we're heading today. They're kicking us back out into the real world. Josh doesn't have a clue what's coming. We've been here now for 3 days and I think we're both ready to get out of here too though. Something about the comfort of home. Although it's been nice being taken care of by the nurses.

Beth finally made if off of the 'Comfort Menu' for her food this morning. That's the menu with nothing that's offensive to your stomach at all. So for her first meal this morning back on the regular menu, they come in with these nasty looking breakfast sandwiches and hashbrowns. Ummm. OK. I love junk like that and even I didn't think it looked or tasted very good. So welcome back to normal food, Beth. After it showed up she said, "Can I go back to my Comfort Menu?"

Ah, the real world.

We almost had a catastophe last night actually. We were in our room visiting with Grandma Nancy, Cousin Emilie, and Uncle Keith, and I realized that our DVR at home was recording a lot of shows last night and it was going to exceed our available space. Uh oh! Once it does that it starts deleting the oldest shows that we haven't watched yet. Needless to say, I rushed home to eliminate the problem. Don't you worry, we got it all taken care of. And it's a good thing too because someone was going to have to feed the rabbit, which we didn't arrange for before we left. Catastrophe avoided. Phew!

Nathan will be coming home on Thursday from his Nana & Papa's house. So we'll have almost a full day of just Josh at home while we get adjusted to home. We are excited to have Nathan back as we've been missing him while we're in the hospital. So we're looking forward to being a whole family again. However, we're also quite thankful he's coming back Thursday rather than right when we get home.

We have very much enjoyed our visitors and thank you all for coming to see us and meet our little boy. But just because we're about out of the hospital doesn't mean we don't want you to be able to come over and see little Josh. So if you want to come over, just let us know. We'd love to introduce him to you!

Another Day In Paradise...

Nathan 'getting acquainted' with his little brother.

Nathan holding Baby Josh.

Well, we're staying another night. They realized what we had realized from the beginning, and that's that by sending Beth home on Tuesday would be too soon after a C-section. So here we are. But its not nearly the eventful day that yesterday was. It's been pretty quiet around here.

Nathan felt quite a bit better today and had his own doctor appointment today to figure out what his deal has been. But he was much more himself today and was able to hang out with us for a while. It was very fun to have Nathan want to interact with 'Baby Josh'. He asked to touch him and hold him. 'Hold it' he said while pointing to Josh. So we he got to sit in the chair and hold his little brother, which he loved. And we, of course, loved watching the two of them.

Beth is doing great. She's out walking around without any problems. The doctors say she's doing great. And she's pretty much just enjoying the 'freedom'.

As for baby Josh, he had quite an eventful day. He started the day with an a little 'surgery' and is recovering from that well. I even heard him say his first words. Between gulps during his feeding, he pulled his mouth away from the 'food source' and said, "Thursday. 4:30". Which can only mean that he's as excited about the Coug game on Thursday afternoon as the rest of us are.

We're still doing well and still at the hospital if you want to come by! We'd love to see you!

One Day Down

Little Josh (We didn't even put anything product in his hair. He's naturally stylish)

Nathan got his own new 'baby' too.

Keaten and Reid come to visit their future classmate



I'd tell you it was an eventful day around here, but it was pretty much just a whole bunch of sitting around the hospital room. Now the fun part, however, is that we had our family and friends come through to see Josh and they even talked to us while they were here.

Josh had a great day. He slept. He ate. He slept some more. He ate. I hear that he pooped. But mostly, he just slept. But once again, he's quite healthy and when he decides to open up his eyes, he's pretty alert.

Big Brother Nathan even brought his sick self over to see the new baby. Granted, he didn't get much of a choice. He didn't seem all too interested in the new little addition. But we have to take into account that he's been really sick and not himself. So, needless to say, he didn't stay long. We don't need mom, dad, or Josh getting what he's got this week.

Beth is doing great. All the tubes that were in her are out. That's a big step. She's up and about on her own power and giving me lists of things to get done. I made a trip home this evening to get the house ready since it sounds as if the hospital is kicking us out tomorrow (Tuesday).

But I wanted to give you all the day's update before I hit the sack in this really, really comfortable cot that they have provided me. Yes, that was just 'a hint' of sarcasm. But hey, when you're this low on sleep, anything's good.

Hope you enjoy the day's updated pictures. We'll keep you posted on anything exciting. Or anything not exciting at all.

Ummm... Surprise

On Easter Sunday Jesus came out of the tomb and Joshua (Josh) David Soderlund came out of the womb... Earlier than expected. We had the whole thing planned for Beth to have a C-Section on Friday 3/28, but nope. Today around 3:30pm he decided that he was ready to join the Cougars for their Sweet 16 appearance. I mean, join his family.

We weren't quite sure if Beth was feeling real labor pains or false labor pains. But her doctor told her to go to the hospital and get it checked out just in case. And sure enough, just like last time, we stayed the night. Only this time we didn't have to wait the whole night. We got to the hospital around 8pm and were in the surgery room by 11pm and had a new little boy by 11:35.

His official name is Joshua David Soderlund. We'll probably just call him Josh. He was born on 3/23/08, weighed 7lbs 8oz, and was 20" long (probably still is, actually).

Beth and Josh are both doing very well and will be spending a few days at Overlake Hospital.

Nathan's not even going to know what hit him. Poor kid. He went to bed an only child and is going to wake up with his world rocked. We were both kind of mourning the loss of him as our only child, but as a friend of ours said, "We just created his new best friend."

In the meantime, we have this little squeaky cry in our room, nurses moving in and out, and us still awake at 3am. Hopefully we can get some sleep tonight too. But honestly... who cares? Who needs sleep when you've got a new baby?

Happy Easter everyone!!!

Weebles wobble, but they don't fall down

a blog by Beth

I don't really have much to say, except here we are with 1 week left before I literally pop. I can't tell you how ready I am personally; the other members of my household, I'm not so sure about! The house is ready, the rooms are ready, the stuff is ready. I'm getting much more uncomfortable and this particular baby is trying to find all kinds of creative ways to escape the belly confinement. We're pretty sure he'll be just as wiggly as his brother.
In other news, Nathan has been spilling the beans about his brother's name. We wanted Nathan to be at least a little prepared, so we've been calling baby by name and referring to his stuff and his room by name. Nathan is very sweet and gives the baby kisses and loves to play with baby's toys. In the meantime, we've said that we won't tell the name, but if you hear it from Nathan, then you enter the inner circle! Besides, it's just cute for him to announce. Lately, he's been much freer and trust me, it's very clear. So, if you catch him in the next week, you just may hear some interesting Soderlund news!
Above are some photos of us in the past few weeks!

T minus Two Weeks...

T minus two weeks and counting... Uh, Houston... We have a problem. We're not cleared for takeoff. The nursery's not finished yet! It's currently a virtually empty room and we're running into the last two weeks before we don't get a choice any more.

Nah, we're OK. Nathan is moved into the new room. He loves it! I'll put a picture of it on here soon. Boy #2 will have a place to sleep soon enough. Of course, Beth would like it done by Sunday so the people coming over this weekend can see the finished product. How am I supposed to watch the Pac-10 basketball tournament from the nursery? Hmmm. Again... Houston, we have another problem.

Beth's feeling bigger than ever and ready to have this kid out. But she's doing phenominal otherwise.

We're very excited for this little boy to show up. Nathan walks around the house finding all of the baby's stuff and saying his name. So it'll be fun to see him as he realizes this baby is actually coming OUT of mommy's tummy.

I'm working like mad to get as much done as I can with work so I can enjoy being home for a little bit after he arrives to help Beth and just enjoy our new child. Unfortunately, my job doesn't give me paternity leave or anything.

Anyway, two weeks from tomorrow. Friday March 28th @ 9am. Overlake Hospital. 15 days. 365 hours.

Houston... we have another problem. We're gonna have two kids!

Type A in training?

a post by Beth

So, Nathan and I are having a couple boring days at home. Nathan has played with every toy- trains, puzzles, books, legos, playdoh, while I've cleaned the kitchen (and subsequently recleaned the kitchen because I had some "help"), done loads of laundry, completed yet another nursery project, and created new playlists for itunes.
While I was accomplishing the last mentioned, Nathan was uncharacteristically quiet. I discovered he'd been organizing. Aah, I'm so proud; my boy is becoming like me already.

Guys' Weekend

Ladies... Listen Up. It is important for guys to have guy time. I have a beautiful, loving, wife that understands my need for occassional 'guy time'. Thank you, Beth. If you want to impress your husband/fiance/boyfriend, next time you see him, ask and make sure he's getting enough time with guys. He will be impressed and a happier man for it.

I'm currently aboard the W/F Puyallup ferry on my way home from 31 hours of time with the guys at our friend's cabin. I can't say we did a whole lot, other than eat and play games. But it was great. Crappy food, the Puget Sound, tugboats, an abundance of games, de-caf coffee and tools. Do you need much more than that?

It was a fun weekend. I'm energized, rejuvenated and ready to get home and spend time with my Beth and Nathan. And I'm ready to take Nathan away from Beth for a while and find a way to get her a girls' night before this second boy arrives soon.

See ladies... it pays off in the end.

Oh Weight...

Yes this past Sunday, 11 people at our house gained a total of 63.6 lbs. And that's just 11 of the nearly 30 people that were in our downstairs watching the Super Bowl together on what was 137 inches of HD Television (see picture above - keep in mind those are 10' ceilings in the picture)

It was the 5th Annual Weigh-In, Weigh-Out Super Bowl Party. It's the Super Bowl as never been played anywhere else. Only at the Soderlund house are encouraged, and for that matter, awarded a trophy for gaining lots of weight between kickoff and the end of the Super Bowl.

This year's winner is Peder Brakke who gained 9.0 lbs in the matter of 4 hours and a little bit of football thrown in there too. But most importantly, he joins the illustrious likes of the former champions before him and takes home the trophy and honor or being the 2008 Weight Gain champion.

If you know Peder, you may want to congratulate him the next time you see him.

Honorable mention goes to 2nd Place, me, gaining 8.6 lbs and first-time participant Brandon Bleek, who gained 8.4 lbs. For that matter, all participants deserve a pat on the back, or the belly, as this is NOT and easy competition.

Oh Wait (or weight)... Wasn't that a great game?! What an exciting ending!

Been a While...

Sorry that it's been almost a month since updating this. But I've just been so busy with all of my new toys that I haven't found time to write. You know, with all of these trucks and blocks and trains and... wait. That's Nathan, not me. Nope, I don't have any good excuse. But I'll try to get back to normal on here and keep you posted.

Christmas was a blast with Nathan running around and being able to enjoy the presents - which all seemed to be trucks. Maybe he really did ask Santa for something when he saw him this year. I just thought he was screaming. But apparently somewhere in the middle of all the cries was something like, "Gee, Santa. I'd sure like trucks of all sizes." And apparently what Nathan wants, Nathan gets. As you can see from the pictures above.

The new year has brought on the realization that this second little boy is coming really soon! We're moving Nathan across the hall into a new room, but we can't do that until we paint it. But we can't paint it until we get the bedspread from the store that we want so we can match the colors. But we couldn't do that until we had the bed. Which of course we couldn't do until we found the bed at a price we were OK with. And even now that we have the bed, we can't put it in until all the current stuff is moved out of that room, which was the guest room, and combine it with the craft room. But we can't combine it with the craft room until we reorganize and purge all of the unnecessary stuff in there now and find a better way to store what we kept. Phew! See, wouldn't you be overwhelmed too? Especially when you can't work up there while Nathan's taking a nap because he'll wake up. But you can't work there when he's awake because he gets in to everything and that makes a bigger problem. Ahhh, the saga of a second child coming.

All of that aside, we're doing well. Getting ready for this little monster has been fun. But we're excited to get Nathan into his new room.

The good news on the #2 front, is that the Dr says everything with him and his growth is 'fantastic'. So Beth did a great job with eating all of the protein she was supposed to eat and I don't feel like I had any more steak than normal. That part isn't good news. :) But we're in the clear and everything is healthy and happy.

Now it's preparation for the Super Bowl. No I'm not playing in the Super Bowl, but preparing my stomach for the competition of the year in the "Weigh-In, Weigh-Out" party that I'm sure you've heard all about over the years. It's our 5th Annual this year and the competition is getting tougher every year as the weights manage to increase every year. I've got my strategy, but I can't tell you on here because it might leak to other contestants that they could use against me. And I can't have that!

But there will be plenty of updates for you as the Super Bowl training goes along and of course with the results etc. And also, with my birthday coming up on Friday Feb 1 (uh hum), you're bound to hear from me then too.

And a little child will lead them.

Isaiah 11:6 says, "...and a little child will lead them." That is what we celebrate at Christmas. A little child is the whole reason we celebrate Christmas. Though we have all but taken out Jesus from our American Christmas, it was true for me this year.

As every other year, we've had things to do to get ready for all of our Christmas events that we will go to in the next few days. Presents for everybody, videos made, presents wrapped, food prepared, and all the other stuff that goes into getting ready for Christmas. Bottom line, that consumes all of my efforts that I have left after work. I don't imagine that's much different from anyone else.

But this is the first year that Nathan has really been able to enjoy Christmas. Last year, at 8 months, he was crawling, but certainly not really able to take in what's going on around him. This year, however, we went to see the drumline at Bellevue Square. Which he loved! Of course, he pretty much thinks he's a professional drummer already. Then of course, there's the tree lights. But the little nativities around the house are what seems to be capturing him the most this year. We have the new Veggie Tales nativity set (picture above) which we all love. Who doesn't like vegetables dressed up as Jesus, Mary, Joseph, the cow, the palm tree, etc. But we also have the big people's nativity set up, among many others.

He'll push the stool over to our hutch, climb up, and stare into the nativity. He'll call one of us over and point to the baby and say, "Jesus", then he says, "Mommy" as he points to Mary, and "Daddy" as he points to Joseph. It's not the fact that he can point out the characters that struck me. It's the fact that he climbs up to the nativity two or three times a day, every single day. I might glance at the nativity and notice that it's there and that's about the extent of it. But Nathan seems to want to enter into what is going on in this scene. This is the part of Christmas that we often forget until the night Christmas Eve when all of the stress and preparation has died off. But Nathan... he sees it every day. And that is what he taught me this year.

So when seeing this verse in Isaiah 11:6, to me, not only is it referring to Jesus who came to lead us, it's also reminding me that Nathan has led me deeper into Christmas this year by being in awe of what I forget that I should stand in awe of.

Boys Night...

Every Wednesday night, Nathan and I have, what we like to call... "Boys Night!" This is the night each week that Beth goes off to her small group and Nathan and I do what all boys like to do together. Though it differs every week, we do things like watch Cougar basketball, go down the slide, play Texas Hold 'Em, play in the ball pit, enjoy cigars and scotch, watch Elmo or the Wiggles, and work in the garage.

This week however... it was air hockey. I introduced Nathan to the game of air hockey this past week and he loved it! We've had this air hockey table downstairs for a long time, but it usually has it's cover on it and Beth's puzzles on top of that. This time, I thought it necessary to remove the cover and open the door to a whole new world for my aging boy. There's a certain time of life when a father must pass down to his son the rights of passage to becoming a man. And clearly, at the age of 21 (months), it was time to teach him air hockey.

He loved it. The air. The puck. The paddle. The chair he had to stand on to reach the table. And he was fascinated by hitting it back and forth to me. He did however get quite distracted after he realized if the puck goes in the hole it comes out the side. That slowed our game down quite a bit as he scored on himself just to watch it come out the side.

We played deep into the night (7:15pm) and then it was time for boys night to end. But I thought you might enjoy knowing of our favorite night of the week.

Still a boy...

It's confirmed... Doc says it's still a boy. We went in for another ultrasound to check on the placenta and make sure the baby's still growing normally. Yep... looks like it's growing just fine in all the right places. The boy isn't huge by any means, they estimate that he's 1.1 lb, based on the measurements they took, etc.

The boy was VERY awake during the ultrasound and we saw him moving all over the place, flipping, we saw him yawning, and could even see him clapping and pumping his fists to the Cougar Fight Song. He's obviously on the right track.

The quote of the day was when we got back in the car and Beth said to me, "Nobody's ever told me to eat MORE." Yes, the doctor wants her to eat more and in particular, protein and folic acid. I wish that was the kind of homework I used to get. Eat more meat! I could have gotten good grades in that one.

Nathan was at the appointment with us and as soon as the ultrasound screen came on he looked up at it and said, "Baby." It was cute. He then proceeded to say it over and over and over. :) Ah, children. It was actually pretty funny. He manages to charm just about everyone in those doctors offices waving and saying 'hi' and 'bye' to everyone he passes.

We will be going back to the ultrasound doctor on week 28 - 6 weeks from now - to get one more check up on the growth of the little guy. Doc said to bring in a DVD-RW so we could record/burn the ultrasound onto it. Gee, don't you all just want to see that next time you come over? We could watch it right after we watch my knee surgery video that we have. (Which actually is really interesting and not nearly as gross as you'd think. Let me know if you want to someday).

So all in all, both of our little boys are doing great! Beth is holding up well and is still healthy, and me... how could I be anything but good after updates like this. :) I've got a good life.

A Happy Apple-versary!

That's what we called it all day on Saturday. We woke up realizing that we weren't doing anything exciting to celebrate our 6th anniversary. It was a day that was bound to be filled with anticipation and excitement for the 'big game'. Yes we maneuvered televisions, shifted living room furniture, sung the Cougar fight song many times, blew up crimson and grey balloons, and prepared our house for people to come over, not to celebrate our anniversary, but to watch the Cougars take on the UW Huskies in the 100th Apple Cup. And so, we called it our Apple-versary. (Beth is such a good sport)

As expected, it was an evening of doing my best to keep my emotions a little less volatile with our friends over. Though my heart sunk a little more with every Husky first down, I did my best to keep it inside - which I got worse at as the game progressed. Though it also rejoiced jumping off the couch and onto tthe ottoman with every big Cougar play and "...Another... Cougar first down!" My temper built more and more with every time Fox Sports felt it had to mention Jake Locker's name even when he had nothing to do with the play. (I swear they talked about him more than 100 separate times in the first half alone) But in the end, it was the Cougars who stole the show. In the end, it was the Cougar fight song that blared through the living room speakers as we jumped and hugged and celebrated. In the end, it was the Husky fans that quit calling/texting to harrass us Cougars with 31 seconds left in the game. In the end, it was the third Cougar victory in the past four years of this Apple Cup. In the end, we will be celebrating our anniversary on a different night.

Is there a much better way to celebrate your anniversary than with a Cougar win over the Huskies? Well, probably. But this way was pretty fun too!

Happy Apple-versary, Beth! And Go Cougs!

Big Weekend...

In case you didn't realize it, this is a VERY big weekend. It is a weekend full of being thankful, celebration, and either being really happy or really ticked off.

Thursday is Thanksgiving - I'm hoping you've figured that out already. This year we are having two T-Day dinners. One with Beth's family on Wednesday and mine on Thursday.

Friday, well, it's a means to Saturday - but we don't have to work. :) That's always kinda nice.

Now Saturday, this is where the celebration comes in. Saturday is Beth and my 6th Anniversary. Yep, six wonderful years of marriage. After six years, we've never had an argument. Never disagreed on anything. And have never been anything but perfectly happy every day! While that might be a bit of stretch, it's still fairly true. We've had six great years of marriage and we've enjoyed them very much. We have our disagreements, etc, but we love being married to each other. So that is cause for much celebration.

Now, the reason I'll either be elated or ticked, is because Saturday also happens to be the 100th Apple Cup - the annual rivalry football game between God's team, Washington State University, and the symbol of all that is bad, the University of Washington. And kids, I'm sorry, but good does not always triumph over evil. In fact, good has lost many more times than it has won. Yet, we try again on Saturday to prove that there is still good in the world. We will have plenty of Crimson in our house on Saturday as we cheer on our Cougars. However, it looks like we'll have some purple in our house as well because we'll have some UW friends over. Remember, Jesus hung out with the sinners too. But with all the pent up frustration through the year of living in Seattle near the UW as a Cougar fan the emotions run high - and a WSU loss it a tough pill to swallow for me.

So, it is a big weekend here at the Soderlund home. It has already started and we're looking forward to the rest of it. Happy Thanksgiving to all of you. Beth, Happy Anniversary. And to everyone else... Go Cougs!

On our way home...

Tonight is the night... the night that we risk our sanity and everyone's around us as we take a 1 1/2 year old on an all night, red-eye flight home. Our plane leaves at 10:30PM (or something like that) and is a straight shot from Kona, HI to Seattle. Nathan will either sleep almost all of the way, or he'll be a wreck because he'll be pulling his first all-nighter. Which of course means that we'll be pulling an all-nighter with him. The last ones of those that I remember were in college the nights before tests where I 'studied' - which consisted of going over everything that I had failed to pay attention to before the test.

In a debrief of Kona, here are a few notes that the average Hawaii traveller might want to know about before coming:

1. The Big Island (where Kona is) is a VOLCANO! The active lava flow is still going, but is a 5 mile hike to where you can see it - the roads are blocked off otherwise.

2. "Kona Coffee" seems to be all it is cracked up to be. The drive through coffee farms are worth the trip, especially if you want good free coffee. They just give you little cups, but a whole bunch of little ones make a big one... or five.

3. Geckos are all over the place. Including in your bedroom on the walls as you're falling asleep threatening to jump on you and bite you as you sleep. (OK the last part isn't true, but they're in the room)

4. There are tiny little ants everywhere and they DO bite. They're crawling on the computer right now as I'm writing.

5. There aren't very many sandy beaches. The ones that are 'sandy' are tiny ground up pieces of lava rock and shells. Not exactly the stuff you like between your toes. Unless you stay at the Marriott Resort north of Kona. They have their own private perfectly sandy beach (that I'm sure was shipped in) for their guests. I know where I'm going next time. Or you can find sand at Huggo's On The Rocks bar where they have a 'barefoot bar' where the floor is all sand - this sand was either shipped in also, or they stole it from the Marriott.

6. The other beaches are all lava rock. While they look cool, they're not very nice to your feet.

7. The food, yeah, that's pretty good.

8. Mai Tais. Mmmmm. But they're not cheap. Unless you go to Sushi En Fuego where they have $2 Mai Tais from 11-5 on weekdays. And yes, I did say Sushi En Fuego. Don't knock the place that has the cheapest mai tais in town. And for the record, they were pretty darn tasty. And stiff too.

9. Houses here have solar-powered hot water tanks that kept on the tops of their houses. Interesting.

10. The "Free" Hawaiian highly acclaimed and advertised show called "Ho'oilina: Beauty, Passion, and Rage" held at the Mauna Lina mall is HIGHLY overrated. If you stumble upon it while you're there, it's worth watching. But don't drive 40 minutes to it and 40 minutes home for the 20 minute show. I promise staying home and letting your child sleep is a much better option. It seems that no matter where you go, "You get what you pay for" applies. Excpet in the Dominican Republic where cigars are really cheap - those are also really good!

The trip has been fantastic and we're on our way home tonight. Nathan's been really good this week and we even finally got him comfortable in the pool. He even finally put his feet in the ocean yesterday without thinking he was going to die. :) We went back to try it again but as soon as we got to the one sandy beach around (not the Marriott - that'll be next time we sneak in there) it started pouring down rain - so we went home.

See you back on the mainland...

Aloha! Or as Nathan has been saying 'Al-low-pa'

On Hawaiian Time

Aloha!

This vacation is 'just a little bit different' than any other vacation we've taken before, especially past trips to Hawaii. Here is a little comparison for you between our last trip and this trip.

Past Trip: Get up around 7am

This Trip: Get up around 7am and pray that Nathan doesn't wake up for another hour

Past Trip: Take a walk on the beach or something fun like that before breakfast

This Trip: Change a nasty morning diaper, Get Nathan breakfast, changed, and let him run around the house

Past Trip: Get mai tais packed up with towels and snacks, go to the beach, sit quietly in the sun reading and snorkeling

This Trip: Pack up diapers, lots of water, the stroller and drive to a new place and show Nathan things he's never seen before

Past Trip: Lunch - find a restaurant near where we were hanging out

This Trip: Come home, get a nice sandwich and get Nathan ready for nap

Past Trip: Around 1pm - Sit by the pool or by the beach again drinking more mai tais

This Trip: Around 1pm - Put Nathan (& Beth) down for naps. Aaron goes upstairs to watch a movie or sit by the pool at the house

Past Trip: Later afternoon - Enjoy mai tais (yes, that would have been a lot by then) in town walking around

This Trip: Family swim time at the pool at the house. Listen to Nathan scream at the sight of the water, scream louder at the feeling of the water, until finally giving in and realizing he actually likes the water.

Past Trip: Go to a fun dinner wherever and whenever we wanted.

This Trip: Dinner at the house and then out for some kind of evening activity Nathan can enjoy too - like the Dolphin Quest exhibit at the Hilton where he saw dolphins for the first time.

Past Trip: Go to bed around 9pm

This Trip: Put Nathan to bed around 8pm and watch TV or a movie and go to bed around 10pm

It has been a blast so far on our Hawaiian vacation with Nathan and Nana and Papa. It's just a little different pace now that we have a child. Nathan has been fantastic on this trip. He's handled everything so well and loved taking in the new places and the new people. He's smiled more in the past few days than we've ever seen - and if you know how much he smiles normally, that's really saying something. But then again, who isn't happier in Hawaii?

We hope you are all doing well and look forward to seeing you soon back at home. Of course, it would be more fun to see you in Hawaii.

Phew... We Survived

Well, it wasn't how WE had planned it to go, but it went pretty well considering. We got to the airport in plenty of time as we're supposed to be to see almost nobody in line at check out or security. The security was great. They were even overly helpful. Then... the plane ride from Seattle to Maui. The first hour: Great. The second and third: Decent. Hours 3-6 got a little more difficult. We were expecting him to fall asleep at this point. But it seems we forgot that Nathan 'napped' for 20 minutes on the way to the airport in the car. So as far as he was concerned, he'd done his nap. Shoot.

Honestly, if you asked the people in our neighboring seats how Nathan did, they said that he was 'great'. They all said how great he did and how proud we must be. He really didn't cry or yell much. It was more so that Beth and I needed to get over the mental hump that he wasn't going to fall asleep. The cure: More movies. Nathan watched about 3 1/2 hours of movies on our little personal DVD player. We just bought it two weeks ago with this (and future) trips in mind... and it turned out to be what saved the day for rows 32-37. Wiggles and Elmo were the hits. What did parents do before portable DVD players? I'm glad I'm a parent in today's technology.

The only 'bad' part was that with his carseat thingee in the plane seat, his feet perfectly stuck out to the chair back of the seat in front of him. So needless to say, he pushed it with his toes and moved the chair back and forth for a lot of the flight. We apologized to the lady in advance before we left and told her we'd buy her a drink. She took us up on the offer. :) But was very nice about having her chair rattled for 6 hours.

By the time we landed in Maui, he was done. Unfortunately, our trip wasn't. We had an hour layover before a 30 minute flight to Kona. In this hour, we found him wandering off in many areas he shouldn't have been in, like behind the deli counter at the restaurant with all of the workers. (They made a terrible sandwiches, by the way). Then it was off to the plane again, where he reluctantly sat in his seat, and as soon as the plane pushed back - promptly fell asleep. It was 10:30pm by his internal clock on a 20 minute nap for the day. Ugh.

Nana and Papa were at the airport to pick us up and Nathan was thrilled to see them. Beth and I, we were thrilled when we saw the bed we could collapse in.

But, we made it. We're here and enjoying sticky, humid air. Geckos crawling in the room around the bed. And soon... Kona Coffee.

It's always worse for the parents, I'm sure. And it got stressful. But so far so good here. We're enjoying this little part of Paradise.