Hmm... anything else?

I'm trying to come up with some things to bring me up to date with the blog.



We went to Hawaii again (seems to be a yearly event). And look!



My mom came with us! It was her first time in Hawaii in like 30 years. It was fun to share our "life" in Hawaii with her.



Sabrina & Nana:



The reason for our trip, Richard's cousin (Don) graduated from high school!



This is the tradition in Hawaii. Everyone piles leis on the graduate. It was kind of fun to watch. Someone holds a sign up with the graduate's picture/name so everyone can see where they are.

We didn't plan it this way, but our nephew (Alexander Pono, AJ for short... Alex Jr.) was born 2 weeks before we got there. We all had colds, so we had to wait a week before we could go see him. Isn't he cute? He's already crawling! I can't wait to see him this summer (if/when we go).





It's not a trip to Maui without doing some touristy things.



Like the Atlantis submarine (first time for this!). Sabrina was just barely tall enough.

My mom's gotta work on her shaka:



Uncle Alex took us to the high school's field to play with his dog (Kala).



And of course we spent time at the beach.



Shave ice at our new fave stand Ululani's



If you're ever on Maui, this is the shave ice to get! They make most of their own syrups (their webpage says it's now 100%) and they use Roselani's ice cream. Yum! Plus, they started in Portland (who knew, right?) We found out because I was wearing my Blazer shirt one day when we got shave ice and had a good conversation with the owner.

I take so many pictures, it's hard to choose which ones I like the best. Our first morning there, we took my mom up to Haleakala since it's like one of the #1 THINGS TO DO.



I really need to clean my camera (I'm a little scared and apparently camera shops won't do it). This is my fave, some people don't get it:



I guess that's all for now, I didn't realize how long this would get when I started!

The best Halloween ever!

Elias Alanui Yago
10/31/2011, 7:09am
6lbs 9oz, 19" long

Let's see how short I can make this labor story. I don't know who will even see this, so I'll go shorter than on ravelry, but longer than Facebook.

I was working on Sabrina's Rapunzel costume until 12am. I didn't have any notable contractions, I'd been having small ones off and on for a week or so. Mostly just Braxton Hicks. Anyways, at midnight I decided I was done enough with the dress for her to wear it trick or treating and we could finish up some last minute things in the morning. I had purposefully taken Halloween off so we could have a fun day, making caramel apples and doing crafts. My last thought as I was drifting off to sleep was "I guess I won't be having a Halloween baby after all." (since my labor with Sabrina was over 25 hrs).

I woke up 2 hours later in active labor. Richard was sleeping downstairs, but I waited an hour before I went down there. I thought it was going to be a false alarm. I called my mom at 3 something because she lives 45 minutes away and she was going to come and stay with Bina. I called the advice nurse, who told me to drink 4 glasses of water and take a warm bath "to see if it stops" (I told her I was having very painful contractions, but she didn't believe me because I was talking to her through them). My mom got there after 5, she told me I could ignore the advice nurse, but to sip water and take a shower. I knew something was wrong as soon as I got it the shower. If I moved, I would have another contraction. So I got out, slowly.

I laid on the couch for awhile, my mom trying to tell me to get up and walk through them. (oh boy, this is getting long, sorry!) I told her I couldn't. Richard and her were talking and I yelled at them to stop talking. Then I said, we need to go, this isn't right. My mom gave in. She thought I was being a wuss, but I told her that the worse thing that would happen would be that they'd send me home if I wasn't ready.

I knew this labor was different than my first. I have a very high pain tolerance, but I was crying through contractions. Part way down the road I realized we forgot the camera... I said "screw the camera."

The walk down the hall to labor and delivery is a long one. I had multiple contractions, having to lean against the wall. The receptionist called down the hall "do you want a wheelchair" "No, I'm fine." Once we got there, she did a quick and dirty check-in, cuz she realized I was on the verge of having the baby. I kind of felt like I was going to have him right there. They got me into triage, sent me to the bathroom to empty my bladder and get the gown on. I thought I was having the baby on the toilet, so I called Richard in to help me. We had to get the triage nurse to help me into the gown. As soon as I was down on the bed, I wanted them to check me. But first, they had to take my vitals. grr, I felt like I needed to push already.

In walks my midwife (thank goodness she was there already!) and says "Let's check you" I was at an 8. The triage nurse was talking to me about pain meds, but my midwife cut her off and told me that she had to be honest with me, there was no time for meds .They didn't let me get off the triage bed, they wheeled it down to the delivery room. She checked again (since I sounded pushy) and I was at a 10 and free to push. It's funny how you can go from an 8 to a 10 in the few minutes it took to get to the delivery room.

They put my iv in between pushes. He was out within 5, 30 minutes after I arrived at the hospital. I tore, rather badly. I was glad they put the iv in, so they gave me something for the pain while they sewed me back up (that took a long time).

(oh boy, I think this is longer than my story on Ravelry. Maybe I should have just cut and pasted it)

That's my 5 hour labor story. Lesson learned? Don't listen to the advice nurse.

My mom didn't believe Richard when he called her at 7:30 to announce Elias' arrival. Richard promptly send pictures to facebook and no body could believe he was here already, especially since they all read my post the night before about finishing the dress.

Sabrina got to come and see her brother immediately and she also got to go trick or treating with her cousins.

I feel so lucky to have a Halloween baby. I made jokes the whole pregnancy about how cool it would be (my due date was 11/12).

Camping: Take 3

Our 3rd camping trip this year was our annual family campout at Cape Lookout State Park over Labor Day weekend.. I love that place! I think we started going when I was in middle school or early high school. We always have so much fun. I took Sabrina when she was 5 months old (that’s actually been the easiest camping trip I’ve had with her, go fig.). Last year was fun because she was walking and showing some independence.

However, this year she screamed in the middle of the night for no reason every night we were there. I still don’t know what was up. It’s not like it was her first time camping. We did end up having a good time, but it’s hard camping with Sabrina when Richard isn’t there. (he had to work)

The weather was nice, we swam in the ocean, took a small hike, rode bikes around, sat by the fire… just general camping stuff. It’s kind of like our last hurrah for the summer.

And, we took a little class on cooking in dutch ovens. That was pretty cool. The ranger guy that lead it was a sweet boy scout type. In the end we got to sample the food we made: pizza and peach pie. I'll be getting my self a dutch oven before next summer. Of course I took a picture of my piece of pizza:

I really love this picture. That's my Aunt Teri (Aunt T as all the kids call her).

That one looks like a good Christmas card picture? I hope J.P. & Erin use it!

Camping: take 2

For our second camping trip, Sabrina and I went to our church camp-out at Metzler Park. Richard had to work, but my my mom, brother, SIL & the kids came. We pulled in and immedietly saw big signs saying "No fires." Apparently there was fear of wildfires.

We woke up the first morning freezing! (okay, not really freezing, but we were really cold). Then Mom crawled out of the tent to tell us she forgot breakfast. So we piled into the van and got bagels/cream cheese/coffee in Damascus... or was it Estacada? or ?? We were close to home again, but I hate to admit it... I don't really know the area southeast of us.

Then there was Sabrina's sleeping issue. She did.not.want.to.take.a.nap.... or go to bed in general. She was a little stinker about it, but she needed it and eventually fell asleep.

The church group had some potlucks and a softball game. I really enjoyed this campground. It had showers, a nice playground, softball field, basketball court & a swimming hole!

Camping!

This summer was filled with CAMPING! I love camping. We use to go all the time when I was a kid. We would just pick-up and go on the weekends. As an adult, I'm lucky to go once a year. Richard can only get weekends off if he asks for them well in advance. This year was different, I got to go 3 times!

When asked what I wanted to do for my birthday (Aug 2nd), I said camping. Since it was too late to get a spot in a state campground, I polled my facebook friends and came up with Indian Henry's in the Mt. Hood National Forest. No shower, but flushing toilets! And it was right on the Clackamas river... plus, less than an hour away from our house.

The ride in was beautiful:


We had a secluded site:


It wasn't very noisy, even when the campground started filling up on Saturday.

Sabrina had a lot of fun:

Happy 3rd Anniversary!

June, 30th 2007

Richard surprised me with a new ipod! And it's green! He even loaded our "song" on it (and by "song" I mean the one we finally agreed on for our first dance, it took months!) My mom came and babysat so we could do dinner and a movie (California Pizza Kitchen & Toy Story 3). Thanks Mom.

We still haven't scanned in any of the professional pictures, even though we have permission. I just browsed through my flickr set and none of the ones taken with my camera are very good.


My two grandmas



My mom and my dad. In the same picture... pretty weird, but I'm glad it was taken.



My cousin Chuck (a groomsman) and my niece, Alive (flower girl)

I need to have a scanning party or something. I wish the photographer had just given us the digital pictures. I think that's the wave of the future. Oh well. He did a good job.

Cat on the Hat

Halloween is quickly approaching... kinda. Last year we bought Sabrina's costume (a penguin, I actually bought it in the clearance section when I was just 5 months pregnant, because I already knew what she would be for her first Halloween)



Last year my nieces and nephew went as characters from Peter Pan (Wendy, Peter and Princess Tiger Lily). My SIL (Erin) was a little worried about sending her 4 year old out in and old indian costume, but it worked out and nobody thought it was weird.


(I don't have a very good picture of them, but these were all homemade and or reused. This year, a better picture shoot, not as we're heading out the door for trick or treating)

The year before that, Erin and I (with help from her mom and Valeska) made the Alice in Wonderland dress:



This year, the votes have been cast. We thought it would be cute for Sabrina and Buddy to be a Leia and Luke combo. Then we changed it to Leia and Han Solo since Luke is a little wussy. But then Buddy wanted to be a goblin since his sister was going to be a witch. Sabrina's favorite animal sound is "meow" so it's purfect for her to be a black cat*. Now they all kind of match. This theme thing can be a little hard, though. Like, what does a goblin look like? I found a home made Green Goblin costume and sent the link to Erin and she's going to use that as a starting point.

But on to the cat costume! Cats are easy. I originally wanted to sew the costume, kind of a suit like footie pajamas. However, Erin pointed out I could just use black sweats. At Target Monday night I decided to look for toddler sweats (not so much luck), but I did find some black leggings ($4 boot-cut, but they'll work) and a black turtleneck onesie ($3.77**) Sweet! Her costume is already almost done. I'm knitting a cat hat using the Lil' Devil Baby Hat pattern and I'm going to wing it for the ears (found black yarn in the stash). Shouldn't be too hard. I'm to the decreases, so I should probably finish it tonight. Then I just have to figure out the paws. I think I have some black felt. I know I don't have black fabric, so I may need to buy some.

Coming from a procrastinator who usually has to spend Christmas Eve knitting furiously into the night... I think I'm doing good!

I just need to start my Christmas knitting soon (hats and mitts for all the kids, so at least 8 sets!)

*I realize Sabrina shouldn't be trick or treating in all black, but we're planning on using glow sticks and Richard wants to get her one of those flashy lights. And we might go before it gets dark, since Halloween is on a Saturday.

**Both black items were from the same brand and neither one was on sale, but why the $0.23 difference? Weird, yo!