WHO SAYS PREGGOS CAN'T HAVE ANY FUN

In between morning sickness and back pain, Brian and I have tried to get as much fun in as we can before these little guys arrive.

We finally took a trip up to San Francisco to visit Ashley and Christine (Two of our best friends in the world. Yes, I said OUR, even though Ashley was originally mine, and Christine, Brian's. What can I say, we married into more than just good families.) Anyway, we've been talking about it for almost 2 years, so I was ecstatic to finally be there.
Ashley
Christine

We saw the city by boat and a lot by car and I can officially confirm now, San Francisco is so pretty!!!

This is the captain of our sailing trip under the Golden Gate Bridge. How amazingly captain-y looking is he???
The wind out on the water was OUT OF CONTROL. Brian fearlessly walked across the front of the boat without holding onto anything but when I went to follow him, I got stuck in the wind halfway across and couldn't move. Paralyzed on the spot, I thought I was going to have to hit the deck and crawl my pathetic butt back to the side. Can you imagine a pregnant woman army crawling on the front of a boat??

How embarrassing.

Luckily some friendly strangers formed an assembly line of hands to help usher me across. Brian, completely oblivious to my near tragic crossing, just smiled and took more pictures.

Not that I'm complaining. Thanks to him we have these... And thanks to the wind, he had this...
Luckily the babies played nice and let me enjoy the road trip, boat ride and the rest of the weekend.
I can't believe the boys didn't think this would look cute. Who needs boys. We'll show them how it's done.
After the weekend in the city, we spent Monday with Christine in Palo Alto. Christine is taking a leave of absence (GENIUS) so she was able to be our tour guide all day.

The majority of our day was spent at Stanford under these amazingly huge umbrellas.
Thanks for a fabulous weekend girls! We love you!

BELLY BUTTON ON ITS WAY OUT

For the record, my belly button is already on its way out. At 15 weeks. Poor little guy never stood a chance.

So incredible, so amazing, but also so strange to think I'm growing babies inside me. Not that I'm really doing much of anything, but they're growing with or without me! What a miracle that we can do this!!!

Never in my life did I consider having twins. It wasn't even in the realm of what I thought was possible. After initially being told there was only one, the doctor proceeded to find another heartbeat. We thought she was kidding and until she was able to get both babies on the monitor at the same time, I genuinely thought she was just showing us the same baby from different angles, and she had mistakenly thought this was a different baby. But those 2 little heartbeats didn't lie and Brian and I just stared at each other in disbelief. Every emotion running through us. Shock, excitement, overwhelmed, blessed. My mind started racing with thoughts of 2 crying babies, 2 feedings every 2-3 hours, piles and piles of dirty diapers. Brian's mind went straight to the cash register... 2 kids turning 16 and wanting cars at the same time, 2 kids going to college at the same time...

Our nurse took us aside and told us that she thinks the Lord selects special couples to raise twins and how it's a blessing the Lord has given us. I know she's right about the blessing part and even though I'm pretty sure she was just trying to calm the fear in our eyes, bless her heart because that's exactly what we needed to hear in that moment.

We are BEYOND excited and can't wait for these little guys to get here!

THE TWINS

You know the feeling when you actually take the time to capture a moment and get all the details down and are happy with the outcome (judging by how often I blog, you can see how rare these moments are for me) and then something happens and technology slaps you across the face and deletes everything you've just worked to create? That's what just happened to my twins blog.

So whereas a minute ago my feelings were joy and excitement as I was finally ready to "blog announce" my pregnancy with TWIN BOYS, my feelings are now borderline rage and I just can't bring myself to write it again right now.

But rage or no rage, nothing makes me happier than saying or typing twins and I wonder just how long it'll be before that shock will wear off. Maybe never.

I will say how happy we are and how blessed to be able to tell the world that we have these boys on the way... and will someday in the somewhat near future (expected arrival = mid-late October) we will be responsible for raising these 2 little guys, which is overwhelming but mainly just pure joy.

And I promise something more detailed will be coming soon.

Here's the 15 weeks and growing belly bump proof.

TRIP TO CHILE

Chile might not be high on everyone's vacation spot list, especially with the recent earthquake and all the aftershocks, but it is so beautiful there! The whole family went to visit my parents over Christmas break and had an awesome family reunion. Here are some pictures from our adventures. Ok fine - a lot of pictures.

There is no way to describe how terrifying this bridge is, how high up you are, or how wide the gaps are between those wooden, wobbly boards.Or how scary it is when you're taking a picture in the middle of the railroad track that you thought had long been abandoned and a train comes through. This might be my fake scared face, but believe me. I was shaking.

This is the view from our hotel balcony in Villaricca.

Volcan Villaricca
We decided it would be a good idea to hike this active volcano. Why not right?

Here we are getting cocky. Thinking it doesn't look as hard as we thought it would.

Here we are realizing we were wrong. So so wrong.

Collin and Kate decided to play a trick on Eric and never say how tired they were no matter how bad it got so E would think he was the only one hurting. So when Eric would say he was exhausted, they would say "Really? I'm not feeling it. I think it's been easy so far."

Kate (loudly): FEEEEEELING good.
Under her breath: I want to kill myself.

This game did not last long. Kate couldn't fake any kind of joy after 15 minutes.

Easily the hardest thing I've ever done.

But check out those views!!! And we're only half way up.

At this point, I was convinced this was Everest. The wind was blowing SO HARD that even with my crampons and ice pick, I would have to fight with everything in me to stay upright. Too bad I thought they were kidding when they showed us how to use the ice pick to keep from dying if you slipped. I had some close calls.

Yes that steam is from the volcano. Are we hardcore or what. Speaking of hardcore, Mama Swenson was the only Mom in our group to complete the hike. Others tried but they didn't last long. We were proud.

Papa, baby sister, lil brudder, big brother, Mama, me, Brian
Lindsay had to stay back because of the nugget (due in August)

Best part of the hike, on the way down, they put you in an ice chute and you get to luge down the entire volcano on your butt.
4 1/2 hours up.
30 minutes down.

How cute is this kid???!!!!
My nephew Sean, 2 yrs old, was the star of the show most of the trip.

He did NOT want to have his picture taken.

He wanted to DANCE!!!Chile has all kinds of gorgeous waterfalls. Waterfall #1 in the POURING rain. Please tell me you can see that my dad is wearing an H&M shopping bag as a hat.

ZIPLINE!!! Sexy harnesses right?

Waterfall #2

Waterfall #3 - this one we actually got to hike down and go under the falls. So sweet.

Does this look like we're in Lost or what? Where's Jack? Sawyer? Smoke Monster? I looked like freaking Rousseau after this thing. Haggard.I'm a little teapot, short and stout... Sean was being threatened by horseflies the size of my fist.
And a mangy, homeless, hairless, diseased dog that wouldn't leave him alone.
This is our "protect the wawa" (aka baby) stance while Sean played in the sand, completely unaware. Gotta have a stick.Family shot! (if you'll notice, Sean's still holding a stick.)

CONCEPCION, CHILE

As many of you know, my parents are in Concepcion serving as mission president and they just suffered a massive 8.8 earthquake with over 200 aftershocks. Thank you all for your concern, love and prayers for my family, the missionaries and the people of Chile.

They are finally back up and running with everything except water and my mom posted this note to her facebook page with some more details. Just wanted to get this out for anyone who hasn't seen it yet:

Day 8, Saturday March 6, 2010...

With the earthquake a week ago Concepcion lost telephone service, electricity, running water, gas, and food in stores (from looting). There was also a curfew from 6pm to 12 noon so they could clean up/fix up the city. They've made great progress. Last night (Day 7) we happily got electricity but no internet. Now internet has arrived and with it our first chance to communicate. But still no running water, which means more buckets carried up and down lots of stairs. But all is well.

I would really rather not be here when the earth rolls up like a scroll. Honestly, how can we ever be prideful when we live on a big ball that can shake its guts out at any moment? So began our Saturday morning around 3:30 am Feb 27. The mission home is a large lovely condominium on the top-6th floor. There is no way to explain how an 8.8 earthquake sounds and feels. It lasted about 3 minutes...the belly of the earth groaning as everything's shaking and dumping and shattering. We made it down the stairs and outside just as the main quake was finishing. The building held like a fortress. I've never been in an earthquake and had seen the devastation in Haiti, so I figured since the building didn't come crashing down maybe this wasn't that big a deal. So I turned to Joe and said, Do you think this will make the news in other countries? Cause I really don't want parents to worry.

So imagine how we felt when we saw the destruction you've all seen on tv...so worried for our 156 missionaries and their families. We had an emergency plan that thank sweet heaven worked perfectly, with missionaries meeting at designated chapels. We gratefully and humbly acknowledge the Lord's hand in protecting them so completely. Not one of them has so much as a scratch. All the homes are fine. There was a tsunami and we have many coastal towns in the mission, but water never entered their doors.

One night I sat on my bed, the weight of the worry overwhelming me...what the families and friends must be going through...but then I remembered all those 100s of people were praying for us and these missionaries, and I want you to know we felt those prayers so powerfully every moment of this crisis. And they were answered.

The north and coastal areas were mainly affected. Further south lost power for a day then went on as usual. So hopefully we're stronger for all of this. Lots to do to get ready for a temple.

We love you. Thanks for praying for us. President & Hermana/ Jolene & Joe

PINK, SQUISHY TOILET SEAT

When our sweet, sweet landlord offered to replace our old toilet seat with a new one over the Christmas break, we had no idea what a treat we were in for. Apparently the old porcelain white seat we had was just too out of style for his taste.

We came home to this beauty.

This gem is not only pink, but it’s squishy foam covered in plastic. And slightly smaller than the toilet with a very small hole… I’ve never had to worry about aim before, but with a target that narrow, you start to wonder.

(Have I said too much?)

After a few days of shaking our heads and uttering… “Seriously? Pink? Squishy?” and debating whether the landlord is colorblind or genuinely thinks this is a good look, Brian broke down and purchased a new one. Back to white – so boring.