I hope this can feel like a special day even though it is going to be like every other day. You are an amazing mother and wife and friend. We Love You!

Tom, Hayden, Danica, and Alyssa

I just heard that we won a comprehensive sanitary sewer master plan for the City of Ashland. This is a about a $280,000 effort with some sub-consultants that will take large chunks of that fee. This project is a very large win for the company as a whole as we have beat out one of the "big boy" firms. I also know it is big when I received a handful of phone calls from colleagues in Boise all within a few minutes after we found out. The one thing the department head said was that we have been blessed and need to work hard to merit these and more blessings to come. Anyways, thought I would share the excitement.

I guess it is about time I got on a updated you all about the birth of Camie. I have been a little busy :)

Friday, April 16th was my scheduled induction and my doctor told me at my last appointment that he would not be there and that another doctor from the practice would be delivering Camie. Anyways, no big deal since I was at the point of "I don't care who takes this baby out of me, I just want her out". I was told to be at the hospital at 5:30 or 6am which of course I told Peter that it was 5:30am. So the morning of, Peter is rushing out the door to get there at 5:30 and as we are pulling out of the driveway, I tell him that they said 5:30 OR 6 and needless to say, he was not too jazzed that I had kept that from him.

Anyways, we ended up arriving at the hospital around 5:45 or 6 due to the stops we made to get Peter a Monster energy drink. They started me on Pitocin around 7 and then the waiting began. The doctor (who looks like Tobias from Arrested Development) came in around 8:30 to break my water. He did so and we continued the wait. Lots of waiting and 7 hours later, Kim and Treven stopped by to say hi. The nurse thought Camie might have been in a weird position and so she was moving me side to side trying to get her to move. I was dialated to a 6 or 7 for an hour or two. Within 5 minutes of Kim and Treven leaving, I started to feel alot of pain and was checked and I had gone from a 6 or 7 to a 10 in just that 1/2 hour. We called Mom and told her to get to the hospital immediately. It was a good thing they live so close to the hospital because she walked in when Camie was crowning. Camie was born at 4:33pm and was 7 lbs 4 oz and 19 inches long.

Camie is an angel and very quiet. Most times I have to wake her up to eat. She didn't even cry during the first bath at the hospital. Heavenly Father definitely knew what type of baby I needed at the time of busy-ness going on in our lives. We love her and the boys are loving having a baby sister. We feel so blessed to be able to have her as an addition to our family.

This was the first 5K at this WSU campus. Was a great time; about 150 runners/walkers. I ran/walked post-flu, Mom and Peter ran. Not sure of the results yet. It was a very hilly run on mud, grass, bark, dirt, wooden planks over a wetland, stairs, and on and on. At the 2 mile point was the worst uphill part. We'll most likely do it next year, too. Peter won a WSU sweatshirt and wore his DUCKS hat up to the front to get it. The Cougar mascot pulled the hat off but later gave it back. Was a funny incident. I won a small tee shirt that will go to Treven so he can trade it in for the correct size. This is his campus. Then, on to do some more yard work and go to Cirque de Solei at 4 pm with Barb...Kooza. After that, dinner with whoever can show to celebrate David's birthday, which was yesterday. Happy Birthday, Dave. See ya tonight. Dad

How we keep ourselves entertained...

Brooke via iPhone

How about a quick update while I'm resting my feet? Good? Ok.

This last week was quite an out of the routine combination of random, rare but fun occurrences.  It started off with an exam where I had to handwrite a 6-page essay in an hour - my hand was killing me! I realized that I never write that much anymore. Then I headed up to LA to go on a quick mid-week trip to San Francisco with my friend Matthew. We drove up Wednesday morning, went into the city for the afternoon and then headed to Oakland to see the Muse concert - the reason we went up in the first place. The trip was really fun and the drive didn't even seem too long. We were lucky to get amazing weather in the city so that made for a beautiful and relaxing day. And the concert was amazing. We were on the floor and were about the equivalent of the 4th row back from the stage for the majority of the concert. Pretty different from the one I went to in Stockholm in October - much more geared toward their American fans - played more of their "rock" songs. And I found out today that they are coming back to the States in the fall for another tour! So I'll be going to the San Diego and LA concerts and possibly the Anaheim one too. You are all welcome to come with! :)

Thursday we were set to drive back to LA and I was going to take Matthew to LAX to meet up with Michelle and Joel where they were to fly out to London for an 18-day trip to Europe. Well, we woke up on Thursday to calls and texts that a volcano had erupted in Iceland (title of this post is the name of the volcano) and had grounded all air traffic to and from Western and Northern Europe - I'm sure you all heard about it in the news. So their flight was cancelled and we had to spend about four hours on the phone trying to reschedule flights, hotels and trains in order to get as much money back as they could and move their flight to Saturday. I drove back the rest of the way and was home Thursday night to some sad friends who were not in a plane on their way to an awesome vacation.

So then Friday I had another adventure - going to Anaheim Comic-Con for my internship. One of our clients is a pop-culture/comic t-shirt retailer that shows all the different comic conventions around the country and this was the first closest one we could go to. So we showed up and were supposed to work with the celebrities that were gonna be at the convention, giving them t-shirts and getting pictures with them and interviewing them and stuff. This would have been totally awesome except the convention was not organized very well, or at least the part that we were involved in. And these "celebrities" - try people like Frau Farbissina from Austin Powers, The Soup Nazi from Seinfeld, Kevin Sorbo aka Hercules, and other various has-beens or random side characters. It was fun but a long day of trying to remember who people were and my phone was dying the whole time so I couldn't even be playing on it! Well, I'm hoping to get hooked up with the San Diego Comicon with that client so we'll see what happens there.

So back to the volcano-affected Europe trip - on Saturday, I was supposed to take the weary travelers to the airport to finally make it on their trip. I dragged myself out of bed at 6am and wandered into Michelle's room only to hear her on the phone finding out that the flight was cancelled again because the ash was still a danger. The trip has ended up being completely re-scheduled and now I have friends who will be here for the next two weeks when I was planning on them being gone. Fun but also a little stressful...

...and this is because - school is winding down for the semester. I have four big projects due in the next two weeks and final exams in a month. In addition to that, I am working 3 days a week at Sport Chalet now and still have my internship which is about 10 hrs/week. So I've become really busy pretty quick. I'm adjusting pretty well and it is nice to be busy as long as I can get everything done.

After this semester is over I get a week break, including the LOST series finale!, and then I start up my last semester the Thursday before Memorial Day. I have my one last class until August 20th and then I'm done. I have already set up a countdown on my computer. I can't wait to be done with school!!

So since I start up with summer school on Memorial Day weekend and I'll have to work at Sport Chalet, I won't be able to go to Gualala but I am planning on coming up for the lake week at the end of June so I am excited to see you all there!

Well, that's all for now!

Well, girls camp is over and the house is a mess and there is a ton to do but I sprained a joint in my foot during the half marathon and only made it worse during girls camp so I am trying to take it easy today and will sit and blog instead of cleaning. So here is what we've been up to:

The biggest event in our lives the past month was the fact that we had visitors!!!! Kenn and Barb came to visit and we had such a fantastic time with them! They flew in late on Saturday March 27th and stayed for a week. For days leading up to Saturday Danica would wake up and start asking if it was Saturday yet! I wish we had taken more pictures of everything we did but we just get so busy with things that we forget!!! They survived their flight and were able to attend church with us on Sunday morning. After church we rested for a while and then went to a nearby shrine and explored a sacred cave. Then we drove out to a lighthouse on the coast and tried to ignore the raging wind while we enjoyed the view of the vast ocean that surrounds us.

Monday we packed up and drove to Okuma, the Air Force beach resort about 2 hours north near the tip of the island. On our way there we stopped first at a Japanese McDonald’s and then at Mt. Nago, a mountain in the large city of Nago. There are two main cities on the island, Naha, where the airport is, and Nago up north. We enjoyed a great hike up Mt. Nago, although it was a bit steeper than we’d hoped with tons of stairs! We didn’t make it quite to the top but the view was nice and the greenery was beautiful!

Then we played at a really fun playground for a while before finishing our drive. We checked in at Okuma and unpacked in our beach suite rooms. The kids were dying to go for a bike ride so we rented some 4 person bikes and rode around the resort. It wasn’t quite warm enough for beach activity but we still had fun and BBQ’d dinner and played some games before going to bed.
Tuesday we relaxed, got up and played some miniature golf, and then went out on a glass bottom boat. It was awesome, we were able to look down at the floor and see all the fish swimming below us. We even saw 4 sea snakes and 2 jellyfish. Very cool. Then we ate lunch and Kenn and Barb stayed with the girls while they napped. In the meantime, Hayden, Tom and I went and hiked up to Hiji Falls. It was a beautiful hike and pretty falls. The whole time Tom kept saying “I can’t imagine being the guys who had to haul the wood up here to build these steps and bridges!” After our hike we all walked over to the beach and rented a wave runner. It was a bit chilly so we were the only people out there and enjoyed racing that thing all over the ocean. Then we hiked around the coast enjoying the views before going to the restaurant for dinner.

Wednesday we packed up and drove up to the point of the island. After enjoying the view we drove to the Ocean Expo Park, a HUGE aquarium. We had a great day marveling at the fish, eating japanese ice cream while watching the whale sharks and dancing to the annoying music during the dolphin show. The kids drank so much Fanta grape soda during the trip I thought they might turn purple. We got home from our trip late in the afternoon. We settled on Pizza Hut for dinner and Kenn and Barb graciously offered to watch the kids so I could go to the youth activity that night where Tom had been asked to be a judge for the “Standard Works Idol” activity. We had a good time and enjoyed being out.

Thursday, Hayden went to school and we went to Ryuku Mura, an attraction to celebrate Okinawa heritage. They took traditional homes from villages around the island and brought them to this one location. They also did a parade that incorporated elements from many different festivals. We got to see a traditional sugar cane press that uses a water buffalo. We enjoyed Japanese treats and I even got to try a real coconut. She used her machete to open it up and just put in a straw for me, it was awesome! In the afternoon we went to the beach and did some snorkeling! It was a bit cold but we managed and Tom actually encountered a dangerous lion fish while swimming through a cave. Yikes! That night we BBQ’d in the backyard.




Friday we finally had a moment to relax! Tom went to work, Hayden to school, Barb went running and we just hung out. That afternoon we did some shopping at the souvenir mall and then hit the 100 yen store (dollar store) before going to the barrel restaurant for dinner. I’m sad we didn’t take any pictures of our dinner. The restaurant looks like a huge barrel. We had fried octupus as our appetizers and then just a nice assortment of japanese foods for dinner. The kids all ate soba (noodles) and enjoyed the atmosphere.
Saturday we started off with some long runs, Tom and I had to run 12 and Barb had to run for her training as well. Then we all went to watch Hayden’s soccer game. He did great and Papa took us all out to Burger King for lunch afterward! The kids were thrilled! We did some errands that afternoon, dyed Easter eggs and then had a babysitter come over so we could go out to dinner. We met up with a dentist here that Kenn used to work with in the Navy and enjoyed a fantastic sushi place.
Sadly on Sunday they had to leave and flew up to mainland Japan to stay with Kenn’s roommate from BYU. They had a “real” Japanese experience with him. We loved our visit and the fun times we got to have with them. THANK YOU KENN AND BARB!!!!! The kids can’t wait until we come to your house in the summertime!
The Sunday they left was Easter and we got together with our Okinawa family and had a nice Easter dinner and egg hunt.
Other than our big race it seems like church is just keeping us soooo busy! Yesterday we got a new branch president and Tom was called to serve as his first counselor (he was first counselor before so it's not a change) I was just released as primary chorister and asked to serve as 2nd counselor in the Relief Society presidency. I’m excited for the change but have been so busy with girls camp I didn’t really have time to think about it! When I agreed to be in charge of girls camp I knew it would be busy but I had no idea just how busy!! They do it over spring break because it’s too hot to camp in the summer and so many people move and travel in the summer. Most of the things we planned worked out great and the girls really enjoyed them. The second day we woke up to tons of rain, the buckets of water coming down kind of rain and that sort of threw a damper on the days activities. We told all the girls to just get the flip flops they had brought for beach day and we just trudged through the inches of water that covered the ground! It was crazy. Luckily everyone survived the wet and cold, they survived the strange blisters from some sort of tropical bug bite, and managed to have a great time. I’ve never worked so hard for so many days in a row but managed to survive. I was gone from Tuesday to Saturday and my amazing friends all stepped up to take the kids while Tom was at work and even overnight while he fulfilled the priesthood responsibility one night. I was so consumed with keeping camp running and all the work there that I didn’t even have time to think about the kids. There was no cell phone coverage so I was truly just out of touch and had to just rely on my friends doing it all. And of course they did, they even took all three of my kids along with them as they went to the zoo one day and a hotel water park one day. My kids had a great time. I feel so lucky that I have friends I could rely on who were so willing to help.
I’m grateful to be done and home and clean....although I’ve washed my hair three times and it still smells like smoke. The kids were happy to see me and I couldn’t get enough hugs. Danica has accidentally called me a dad a few times, it’s pretty funny. I am so lucky that Tom is the type of dad that I can leave with the kids for 5 days and it’s okay. I’m very glad to be back home with him. Very glad.
So what’s next.... we decided we are going to start speed training to try to win some up coming 5K races. They have them once a month and they aren’t really competive but they have good prizes and it’s feasible that we could win. I am hoping that now that I am home and off my foot the sprain will heal up quickly. I am going in to see a podiatrist on Wednesday. Life is now full of all the normal things like soccer and gymnastics, RS activity Wednesday night, a branch campout Friday night, the single marines over for dinner on Sunday, etc. Right now, I am going to put the girls down for a nap and try to get things ready for Hayden to come home to do homework! Two last pictures.... the girls enjoying the swings and Alyssa eating a piece of broccoli left on her plate after dinner instead of the ice cream cone in front of her....if only they were always so health conscience!