...Snow in the yard

The previous Snow on the mountains... post (link) was all about a highly anticipated day of skiing and snowboarding at Mount Hood Meadows in March.


But what happens when the Portland metro area gets hit with a tiny bit of UNPLANNED snow and ice on the valley floor? Well, that depends on whom you ask...

NW Oregonians/ SW Washingtonians:   "Cancel everything. Avoid the roads at all costs. If you must brave the roads, drive as painfully slow or as recklessly fast as possible (whichever is most dangerous and inappropriate for the conditions). And for Pete's sake, don't miss a second of that around-the-clock local TV news coverage of the previous evening's snowflake sightings."

The rest of the country: "Go with it. It's only weather. Have some fun."



Breaking from Pacific Northwest tradition, The Hamilton 4 tend to side with the rest of the country during snow days. We enthusiastically agree that snow is beautiful and fun. And yes, we capitalize the 'T' in our "The."

It wasn't an option to mope around about the unfortunate cancellation of Warner Pacific College's Homecoming weekend events and about the 4 1/2 hour icy commute from PDX airport.  Beaverton rarely gets sticking snow, so we relished those snowflakes like a beach bum soaks up sunshine.

Sledding in the yard

Walking the desolate backroads of Beaverton

Slipping and sliding around with neighborhood friends and family

Walking errands with Todd, Lena, Kathy, Levi, and Shannon

The end is near:  Lena and Grandma Mimi use our last remaining snow to build a snowman.

As Lena and Lora's snowman can attest, the snow and ice quickly melted.  In fact, the local freeze barely lasted through the weekend.  The freeway photo that I live tweeted and later blogged in the "Snow on the mountain..." post of my record long 4 1/2 hour commute home from PDX airport became a melt-y memory.  And now, months later, the Portland metro area is experiencing a record heatwave while I am visiting friends here in Amsterdam!

By the time I returned to work the next week, the ice that had blanketed the streets had mostly turned to slush.  The warm-up was very noticeable on the Delta ramp.

We deiced every one of our Delta airplanes prior to departure, even though the PDX air had warmed up enough that it wasn't really necessary.


Earlier that morning, Kathy had ignored my pleas to stay in bed as I left for the airport...

...selflessly getting up instead at 3:50 a.m. to help me chip off ice off from the Jeep windows.  Do I mention often enough that I have the greatest wife in the world?



By national standards, this year's Portland metro snow event may not have been all that eventful.  But we managed to make an event out of it.

Snow happens.

Coming up on Garth's Blog...

More friend visits in the Netherlands,

Tony drops by from Afghanistan,

Running the Flying Pig Marathon in Cincinnati,

... and more recent overseas adventures with the Hamiltons!

The birth of Levi, Pt. 3: Lena meets Levi!! (with video)

Posted from Belfast, Northern Ireland this morning:

Part 3 of this story actually happened on January 16 in Beaverton, Oregon.

Loading our newborn son Levi into the car at Providence St. Vincent hospital

The time had finally come. After three days in the hospital, our two day old Levi was finally ready to come home with Daddy and Mommy.

As mentioned previously in The birth of Levi, Pt. 2: Levi's first two days (link), the moment when our nearly 2 1/2 year old Lena would meet her newborn brother Levi was one of the most anticipated moments of my entire life. I wanted everything to be perfect. As I drove Kathy and Levi home from the hospital, I asked Kathy to phone her parents at our house to make sure Lena would be ready.

My heart lept into my throat as we pulled into our driveway. I gently set down Levi's car seat on the ground, and Kathy approached the door.

Anticipation...

Tom and Lora opened our storm door so little Lena could step down into the sidewalk. I fired up my Galaxy Note's video camera and held my breath.


My lack of technical expertise is preventing me from successfully uploading the clip here to Garth's Blog.  But the photos that follow are still shots from that priceless video:

Lena gets a first glimpse at her baby brother, Levi.  After months of buildup, is this what she was expecting?

Lena goes in for the first kiss.  It's an air ball.

Inside the house:  Lena's arms involuntarily pop up at the sight of Levi, in anticipation of holding her new baby brother.

The first sister-brother kiss!!

And finally, here is the first ever photo of our whole family together:

Introducing the newly expanded Hamilton clan!  Lena is happier than she looks.

So let's end on an even happier note.  My video upload above may have failed, but anyone who missed the Vine that I tweeted on January 16 is in for a treat.  Here's a 7 second video clip of Lena trying to say baby Levi's name, while holding him in her lap:

 Click in the upper right corner of this Vine video for audio of Lena trying to say, "Levi"!


This was, without exaggeration, one of the greatest days of my life.  Our family is complete.  Lena and Levi are perfect together!

The birth of Levi James Hamilton, Pt. 1: A timeline

Levi James Hamilton, 36 minutes old!

From Saturday, February 15:

Our baby boy Levi turns one month old today!  Four weeks ago from last Wednesday, our family received the greatest blessing since the birth of our 2 year old daughter Lena (link).

As shown below, both the timing and method of Levi's birth were quite unexpected. Here is a stripped down timeline of the events leading up to that glorious moment:

Friday, January 10: Our yet-to-be named baby's due date

Not a peep from that womb. Kathy stayed home that evening and I volunteered, as planned, with Compassion International at the Roadshow tour. I jumped every time my phone vibrated.

I warned my fellow Compassion volunteers (with Third Day front man Mac Powell within earshot) that if I got The Call, I would disappear in a flash.

Monday, January 13: "Hold tight until Friday."

4:30 P.M. The post-due date followup at the doctor's office ended with us scheduling a C-section delivery for Friday morning. "Don't worry," our OBGYN assured us after Kathy's examination. "It's very unlikely that this baby's going anywhere anytime soon."

Vine video: Our baby boy's heartbeat!  Click the "mute" button in the upper left corner to toggle the sound on/off.

Then, the very next morning...

Tuesday, January 14: And so it begins.

Times are approximate. 

6:00 am- Kathy's water breaks at our house in Beaverton.  So much for the baby not "going anywhere anytime soon."  Was a C-section immanent? Or, after our scary complications with Lena's birth, would this be our chance to finally have a natural delivery?

Over the phone, the on-call doctor advises Kathy to begin preparations for leaving for the hospital.  Contractions hadn't started yet, so there was no hurry.

6:20 am- At PDX airport, I'm outside working my second flight of the morning when my cell phone begins to vibrate in my pocket.  I had no idea that it was The Call.

6:25 am- Kathy calls her parents Tom and Lora in Salem so they would begin making their way to our house to watch 2 year old Lena.  Due to the flu outbreak, heightened visiting restrictions would prevent Lena being at the hospital with us.

6:40 am- As I frantically search for a ride out to my Jeep parked in the airport employee parking lot, Kathy hops in the shower at home.  Who knows when her next chance would be?

7:30 am- After weaving through rush hour traffic, I pull into our driveway. The scramble is now on to throw together some clothes, toiletries, and snacks.  Kathy's scheduled C-section was slated for Friday, four days later, so neither of us had finished packing.

8:00 am- Kathy's parents arrive at the house, we call off our emergency backup babysitters (Steve and Brenda from church), and then I whisk Kathy away to the hospital!


8:50 am- We arrive at the hospital.

Not quite in labor yet, we check in Kathy at Providence St. Vincent Hospital

There was no room at the inn, so they set us up in a triage room for a few hours.

1:00 pm- We finally get moved from the triage area into a full-sized birthing room.

1:30 pm- Contractions begin, but they are irregular.

.

3:00 pm- Kathy has only dilated to 1 cm.


Contractions slowly pick up throughout the afternoon and begin to intensify into the early evening.

5:30 pm- My dad stops by the hospital to offer encouragement, support, and grub.

Sorry, Bo. No grandson yet.

7:45 pm- Only dilated to 2 cm.

8:00 pm- Kathy requests an epidural when the pain becomes unbearable.  

9:00 pm- No more pain from the contractions.  When no further dilation occurs within the hour, the nurse leaves us alone in the room to sleep for the night.  We would try again in the morning.


Kathy drifts off to sleep. I do some reading, and then get ready for bed.



9:55 pm- Thinking the coast is clear, I quietly sneak out of the birthing room to brush my teeth before bedtime.  A few minutes later...


10:00 pm-  I return to find the room bustling with excitement.  The nurse and Dr. Hoffman are setting up equipment.  They announce that Kathy has somehow increased from 2 cm to fully dilated in the past two hours!

The doc tells us to get ready to have a baby.

11:00 pm- The pushing begins.  The delivery nurse and I physically assist the doctor in ways that I will not describe in this public blog.*

Wednesday, January 15: Levi's big entrance.

12:26 am- While the nurse and I hold up Kathy's legs, Kathy gives one final push.  Our baby boy enters this world screaming!!

The proud, overjoyed daddy cuts the umbilical cord.

We name him Levi James Hamilton.  The name Levi comes from the father of the ancient Israelite tribe who served God in the Hebrew temple.  James was the name of my great grandfather, James Clive Perry.

"Big entrance" is an understatement.  At 9 lbs 6 oz, Levi was no small baby.

Beating Lena's formidable 8 lbs 15 oz birth weight, Levi weighed in at a whopping 9 lbs 6 oz!!

But Levi's 20 3/4 inch length couldn't quite topple Lena's reign as the longest Hamilton at birth.

Apparently Kathy and I only have big babies.  That's how we roll.

We'll continue this story next week and share new photos.

Part 2 brings our family and friends into the picture at the hospital...

...and Part 3 tells about one of the most anticipated moments of my entire life!

*An informal poll among my friends who have experienced labor and delivery confirmed what I already suspected: my level of physical involvement in this birthing process was highly unusual.  Following each instruction from the doctor, I kept waiting to hear, "Just kidding. That's why we have trained hospital staff."

Surfin', pumpkin patchin', and dairy farmin'

Lena feels right at home on Daddy's surfboard

Note: Baby Levi is now 5 days old!  The three-part entry below was scheduled to auto-post last Monday, the day before a very pregnant Kathy's water broke (!) on Tuesday morning. For some reason, it never posted. And shortly after checking into St. Vincent's maternity ward with Kathy, I stopped blogging and checking Facebook/ emails completely to make time for family and baby bonding. The only cheating during my digital blackout:

1. Giving Kathy permission to hack my Facebook on Wednesday for a few minutes to post a status update (as me) about baby Levi's birth
2. Tweeting
3. Posting a short birth announcement on Garth's Blog for our son Levi James Hamilton (link here)

Now that Kathy, Lena, and I are settling into life at home with our 5 day old newborn, I'll be blogging more about Baby Levi this week!


From last Monday: 
To quote one of my blog posts from September 2011 (link), our baby's due date is... yesterday? Our yet-to-be-named baby boy was actually due three days ago, on Friday. Kathy, Lena, and I can barely contain our excitement as we wait for our baby boy's arrival. We'll let the readers know when the Big Moment gets here.

In the meantime, here's a triple snack pack of bite-sized blog posts (including one written by Kathy!) based on some 2013 Hamilton outings with Lena: Two more surfing trips, a romp in a pumpkin patch, and a hands on tour of Alpenrose Dairy's Storybook Lane. First up...

 Part 1: Surfin'

After years of wasting money on surfboard rentals in Australia, Hawaii, and here in Oregon (link), I won Kathy over with the idea of buying my own board.

A lady near our neighborhood who was going through some heartbreakingly rough times offered me a screamin' deal on her husband's handmade Al Merrick. The board's length was longer than ideal, but for the price I just couldn't walk away.

Picking up my new toy with my other favorite toy, the Jeep Wrangler

Earlier last summer, our previous 2013 surfing trips were capped off with a final blue epoxy/ fiberglass rental at Aussie's Surf Shop in Newport.


Kathy's Facebook friends may recognize 2-3 of the pics below from our Newport surfing trip over the summer:

A quick stop at L.A. Fitness on the way to the Oregon Coast

Lena sharpens her new walking skills at the Yaquina Bay Lighthouse

More surfing at the disappointingly calm Agate Beach

White water rafting, wakeboarding, camping, and overseas trips in Fall 2013 prevented me from hopping onto my new (new to me, anyways) surfboard until October.  The wait seemed unbearable.

My Al Merrick surfboard finally had it's "maiden" ride in Seaside. The bar of Sex Wax was accidentally left at home, so the new board got a little slippery out on the waves. But there was no buyer's remorse in sight.

**********

Part 2: Pumpkin Patchin'

It's a given in our circle of friends that parents will probably take their kids to at least one pumpkin patch each fall. Lena's first pumpkin patchin' experience was at Bauman Farms in Gervais, Oregon back in 2012.

In October 2013, we hit up the less impressive (by Kathy's standards) Walk on the Wild Side farm in Canby. The family-run farm did have a few pumpkins laying around, but "pumpkin patch" is a bit of a misnomer. More noteworthy attractions were the hay bale maze, petting zoo, train/tractor ride, and bouncy houses for the kiddos.

Somehow, the Walk on the Wild Side farm ALSO had a cage with exotic animals.

Lions? Random, but very cool.

For a more traditional pumpkin patch experience in 2013, Kathy preferred this farm near Smith Rock, Oregon:

**********

Part 3: Dairy Farmin'

Note: Kathy wrote this final section and also pitched in the pics.  Like the first two parts, "Surfin'" and "Pumpkin Patchin,'" Part 3 was originally intended to be a standalone blog post.

Thanks, Kathy!

Ever since Lena’s first Christmas, we have been looking for inexpensive activities that will become tradition.  We all have our Christmas traditions that we fondly remember and we want the same for Lena and her soon-to-be-born brother.  One such tradition we found is Christmas in Dairyville and Storybook Lane at Alpenrose Dairy in SW Portland.  The best part is that it’s FREE!!

On the walk into Dairyville there are lights wrapped around the trees and Christmas music playing.  The old-time store fronts with their wooden walk-ways are decked out in Christmas.  There is an old-fashioned school and bank you can walk into and on cold days there’s a place to buy warm drinks.  We stumbled upon a duck pond and saw a few horses.

A highlight for Lena was watching the oversized model train (aka: choo-choo) track and village.

Storybook Lane is a walk-through story time.  The display for Mary Had a Little Lamb had lambs, 3 piglets for The Three Pigs…you get the point.  We have been very impressed with Alpenrose and the family-friendliness of it all.

Lena tries to make eye contact with a lighted deer.