The Baby

Here he is our sweet baby boy. Here are some of the pictures we have taken of him during this first week of his life. We hope they put a smile on your face as they have ours.

He already makes the cutest and funniest faces. We have been lucky to catch some of our favorite expressions on camera.

No we did not feed him a lemon to get him to make this face.

The face of judgement.

The smirk.

The feed me fists.

The "few, that was a close one".

"This bores me."

The smile

During our baby's first check up we were told that his billieruben levels are too high so they sent us home with a lamp for him to sleep on. My husband calls it the light saber lamp, I think the reason is pretty obvious.

Luxury Weekend Escape

The weekend before our new addition came to our family my husband and I won a weekend stay at the luxury hotel Lester. We thought we would show some pictures of our exotic weekend away.

Ok, so it wasn't a luxury weekend get away so much as Typhoon Muifa. When ever there is a typhoon here, all of the women who are 37 weeks pregnant or more have to stay at the hospital in case they go into labor. It would seem that typhoons tend to send women into labor. I was there with my husband along with 35 other women, some with their spouses some on their own. Out of the 35 we know that at least 9 went into labor over the weekend. We thought we were only going to have to be there one night, one night turned into 2 nights and 3 days.

This is our luxury sweet and sleeping accommodations. Each person either got a cot or an air mattress, these are our cots and the room that we slept in. There were two rooms like this which we all slept in. My husband and I really only went here to sleep as it felt a little confining.

This is the glorious bathroom we had the privilege of using. You may think that is sarcasm, but it is genuine gratitude. There was only one shower for 35 women to use, and every one of us were so thankful for it's clean warm water.

This is the glorious shower that offered a small bit of sanity for a large group of couped up women all about ready to pop.

This is the galley, or what we like to think of as the 5 star restaurant where we dined. It may not seem like much to others, but for me it was a unique and humbling experience. For three days I didn't have to cook dinner or do dishes, instead I had the opportunity of having dinner made by Navy Corpsmen who not only did their own assigned jobs but cooked and served meals, did the dishes, and what ever else was needed including constant round the clock cleaning and repair of what looked less like a flooding building and more like a sinking ship. Not only that but each one of these corpsmen always had a smile on their face. I don't know if it was because they feared for their safety being locked in a hospital with 35 very moody pregnant women, or if they just generally had a good attitude, what ever the reason I was impressed. If I could write a letter to each of their mothers to tell them how proud they should be I would.

We spent the majority of our time walking around the hospital hoping I would go into labor. We saw this stairwell a lot.

We spent one evening in the pharmacy waiting room listening to the rain, watching Master Chef and working on the blog.

This hallway leading to the room we slept in gave my husband the brilliant idea to spend our time here making a zombie film. We never got around to it, but it sounded like a great idea. Can't you just see it now, pregnant zombie moms in Japan, during a typhoon in an old leaky hospital.

Mean while, during our romantic weekend get away, our children were having a wonderful time waiting out the storm with our very kind neighbors. Our daughter wasn't home for 24 hours when she asked when she good do it all again. Truthfully it was very difficult to be away from my children, however, it has been so rare that I get very much time with my husband, that I consider in a great privilege to have had this rare bit of time to spend with him.

Oh Happy Day!

On Sunday August 14th at 8:08 am our new arrival came into our lives weighing in at 8lbs 4oz and 21 inches long. We will post pictures of the cute little guy very soon. Just thought you all would like to know. Anyone that does not know the name and wishes too, please feel free to

e-mail me and we will happily tell you.

Australia

Crossing the equator for the first time.

Amazing sunsets in Darwin.

In the Officers' mess there was a painting of the Japanese attack on Darwin. More bombs were dropped on Darwin in this attack than in the one on Pearl Harbor.

Huge termite mound, this was the inspiration for the aliens on Attack of the Clones that gave the plans for the Death Star to Dooku.

They call them magnetic termites because their mounds are on magnetic headings, but really it is because of direction to maximize heating from the sun. In the southern hemisphere you have to face north to get the most sun.

We saw an emu on the side of the road and pulled over to take its picture.

Yeah, I'm not swimming here. Note the different graphics for the fresh and saltwater crocodiles.

Wangi falls is a beautiful swimming hole at Litchfield national park in the Northern Territory of Australia, the same territory where Ayer's rock is, but you can't swim in it when its closed for crocodiles... I thought about going to Ayer's rock, but it was 1300 miles away and I didn't have that much time off. While this one was closed, there were two upstream that were open, and I did go swimming in Australia. Something I never though I would do. Some of the guys that were with us had water proof cameras and I will try and get some of their pics and post them. It was really fun, and the water was clear, spring fed and fresh with a slight emerald color to it. It was great fun and the best part was the park was free.

Odds are high there are crocodiles in there.

No joke, almost every day we were there the front page headline was something about crocodiles.

If you think this is impressive, watch the video.

At the Humpty-Doo pub we had lunch. I got mini burgers of (from left to right) crocodile, water buffalo, and baramuni (a fish).

We went to see an Aussie Rules Football game. We paid for the cheaper tickets and got to sit on this hill across from the bleachers, but the view was incredible.

It took a while to have the rules explained to us. If I were explaining it to someone else I would say that it is rugby mixed with ultimate frisbee.

On Thursdays there is a big open air market at Mindle beach where you can get food from all over the world, didgeridoos, boomerangs and then watch the sunset.

We got to refuel Navy F-18s off the boat pre and post fight.

The Adelaide, the same river from the jumping croc tour from the air.

The billeting they put us in looked kind of like Darmaville from Lost.

Aerial view of the harbor.

Fruit bats all over the place in Litchfield national park.

They call these guys "freshies" instead of "salties" since they are freshwater crocs, as seen in their narrow snouts. They are supposedly scared of people, but I don't want to go swimming with them.

Moving purses.

This is half the reason you have to be careful in the water in this part of the world, the other half is huge sharks!

So which draws your focus more the chops or the chompers?

I got to hold a baby crocodile, and it was heavier than I expected.

Not the best looking sea turtle habitat, but they seemed pretty happy.

Kangaroos are active at dusk and dawn, the rest of the day they just lay around.

How about that water print left on the cement? The female is in the top left with her mouth open. These are the breeders that have gotten large enough to just eat and breed. Much better than the ones that become purses, wallets, and hamburgers.

Aussie money.

Nightcliff beach.

Everyone gathering on Mindle beach to watch the sunset.

Sunset over Darwin Harbor

The beautiful sunrise on the morning I left, knowing that I would in fact make it home before our second son arrived. It was a good feeling.