Picture of road east of Westhope, won't be open for much longer!

What a day!

We were quite busy today with the unloading of the truck that held all our belongings from Oregon into my aunt and uncle's garage. We made it fit and crammed our room in the basement even more full :) It was great to have my mom, Chari, Bev, Katie, and Kim all around to help with the kiddos while Ben and I got out stuff where it needed to be.

We had been planning on leaving for the lake tomorrow sometime to stay for the weekend with Ben's family. As the threat of the last main road being closed and turning the 1.5hr drive into a 3.5+ hr drive we decided to kick it into high gear and get on the road after the babes night feed. We couldn't have gotten packed and ready without the help of family, but we did it! We are about half way there and finally calming down from our chaotic rushed feeling. We have to learn to get use to that feeling as nothing much comes easy for us these days.

We are looking forward to seeing some family and friends that we haven't seen in years this weekend! We also have never stayed at his cabin yet so it will be a special weekend all around. I hope the only water we think about his weekend is the big lake right in front of us that is suppose to be there! We will worry about the long ride home later :)

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Randoms from the road

Warming bottles ;) Feeding the babes was challenging on the road but luckily no one went hungry. I fed them in their seats once, a few times we found a restaurant to take over and the other times we did it right before leaving or the minute we arrived to a hotel. It was chaotic to say the least. It was the 1st time the trips went into a restaurant though, we all ate with our free hand :)

The boys got some swim time in Coeur d'Alene. It was short lived as Brody's sensitive skin (ever since he was sick??) broke out in hives and the trips about overheated lounging poolside due to the humidity.

I must have been too tired to take pics in Bozeman and too scared to take pics in Miles City! We had a nice hotel room in Bozeman that had a big restaurant, casino and lounge downstairs, but no one enjoyed it. We sat, depressed, catching up on facebook of the tragedy unfolding back home. It was a somber night. The next night we got to Miles City and everything was booked except for a Motel 6. Within 20 minutes Mel and I decided that we would keep on driving into the night until we got to Bismarck! It was worth it, we loved waking up at the Oase's Saturday morning and only being 106 miles from Minot.

Getting closer to Minot! It had been so long since Ben and I drove on these roads, it still feels like we are on vacation and will be returning to Oregon any day now. I suppose that feeling will change once Ben starts working and I am faced with the REAL reality of being a trips mom, YIKES!!!

Diaper change line up

Home at the Waind's, Ben had 2 sleeping on his chest while sharing a beer with a good friend who came to visit!

The only "flood" picture I have taken so far. This is right by the storage are we had to pull all of my Mom's stuff out of 2 feet of water. This city is crazy right now, to say the least.

Kara and her mom came to help hold some babies!

We love you Oregon!!

Brody is happy to be "home" with so much family around!

 

Away we go...

We will miss you P-town, City of Roses

Ben is especially going to miss seeing Mt. Hood on sunny days- it always brought a smile to his face

We made it to Hood River, time to relax for the night!

Matt and Melissa- it was beautiful here. We are so grateful for all of their help on our journey home, we couldn't have done it without them for sure! I think we are all ready for an adults only vacation! Heck, I think we would settle for an adults only dinner out ;)

Happy, but sad!

Ahhhh, a nice treat while the babies nap :)

Brody was lovin life!

Drey relaxed with the Mobi-Go game for a bit

He loved looking through Dad's binocular's...which are now MIA...hmmmn...

Me and my babe!

Love this pic

Love this kid!

Final days in Oregon

Payton sandwiched between Brody and Cousin Drey!

These two sure do love each other, and they have so much fun! B and D watched Cars about 3,234,999 times, which was great because we just packed everything up around them! I can't wait for the trips to be older and entertain themselves too, hee hee.

I had to see if I could still get B in the ergo, it worked pretty good! He'll always be my baby ;)

This is just before they got CRAZY washing their cars!

Having too much fun!

My Dad's sisters came down from Seattle (area) to give us some extra hands during our last days- it was great! We love you aunties, thanks for the baby stuff and all your love and support. We can't wait to see the caravan roll into Minot to visit one day :)

The rain let up and the boys spent many hours outside- it was great!

Saying goodbye to Jaxzon was tough :( We miss you and your sweet mama's so much! Watch out Mount Rushmore- we have a road trip planned someday with a bunch of silly boys coming your way!

Don't they look girly with their pretty purple lips! Darn thrush, we are still battling it!

Can't believe this day finally came...

We REALLY miss our king size bed, once you go king, it's hard to go back!

The last night was the hardest, but the movers understood and left one of our TVs unpacked so the boys could watch...Cars, of course!

 
One last pic before we rolled out, kinda reminds me of this one- one of our 1st pics taken with our 1st home in Oregon:

 

Miss you, Denise!

R, E, P with Denise! We miss her soooo much! She may not have been our Doula when the boys were newborns, but she was our Angel when we needed her most! This was one of the only triple pictures where they all stay calmed without crying- she must have the touch!!

It's tough to stay positive!

I know we said we were going to, but dang it's tough to do! Life is chaotic right now to say the least! It was sad today having to help my mom and Steve re-evacuate from the storage area that was unfortunately flooded (I think from ground water). They (and many others) have been worked to the bone and I hate to see their pale desperate faces- breaks my heart. Even though it was horrible I was happy I was there to help for a few hours at least. I am not sure how much more our family can take- do I sound like a broken record or what!?!?

We are fortunate to have the basement at my Aunt and Uncles house, we are so grateful. We are much better off than many people, but I couldn't help but shed a tear as I fell asleep last night. I never thought the 6 of us would be sleeping in one bedroom at the same time and not even because of sick kids crawling into bed with us! We are getting very cozy to say the least.

To top things off Minot now also has a boiled water mandate in place due to a water treatment contaminant as a result of flooding problems. Like we don't have enough to worry about and now we can't use plain tap water for anything and have to boil everything! This brings cleaning bottles for triplets to whole new level! We can't even give them a bath without heating sterile water first, ugh. Please oh please don't let any of boys get any kind of gastroenteritis from this mess- I won't be able to manage that into our mix right now!

I am thankful we are surrounded by family and am praying for peace to come our way sooner than later.

On a positive note, it isn't against the law to talk on your cell phone while driving here! I know blue tooth is the safest, but it feels so good to be able to answer a quick phone call if needed!

Hopefully we can get our computer set up soon so I can do some real posts with pics and all :)

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Not looking back

So after my last post Ben and I had a few more hours in the car together. I had an emotional, tear-filled conversation with my Mom- she felt bad about my wedding dress being left behind and how she never thought water would get to her upstair bedrooms, we will see. She told me the only thing that was getting her through all of this was that we were all coming home and coming home healthy (she reminded me how happy we should be that Evan is pooping out of his bum ;) ) After that call Ben and I bitched and moaned some more about just wanting some normalcy in our lives, etc, etc. We then decided we were done and ready to move forward with a positive attitude. We decided we need to work together and keep each other positive in order to survive as a family. So, here we go- on to a new chapter, a new adventure for the Waind party of six!

I wasn't expecting to be in the car tonight, bit after checking into the only rooms available in Miles City (due to a Mason convention??) which happened to be at Motel 6 we decided we were better off driving late into the night with sleeping boys as we wouldn't be getting any sleep in the scary disgusting rooms given to us. Now I'm not a princess and neither is Melissa, but when their is a litter of babes and toddlers to consider we couldn't possibly make it work and feel comfortable about it. We didn't care that the rooms were paid for- we ordered a pizza, fed some bottles, changed into PJs, and hit the road! Ben and Matt's younger brother (uncle Dan) lives in Bismarck with Auntie Haley's parents ( while the soon-to-be-married look for a house of their own) so we called them up and asked if we could crash in the middle of the night instead of pushing it all the way to Minot. Luckily Pam and Greg are great and we can't wait to share some Waind boys with them all in the morning :)

We know we are getting closer to home by the amount of bugs on the windshield and the complete darkness surrounding us by miles and miles of prairie land! NoDak, we have arrived!!

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What next

We have found ourselves not being able to talk about much more than the devastation back home, even though we say we are done talking about it, it seems to be all consuming. By the looks of it the water will be to the ceiling of our house. We are questioning whether we made the right decision by still moving when we could have called it off at the last minute. I don't think we will ever know the answer. We thought our house was too small for our family and now it may be many, many months before we have a house to call home again. The last 6 months has been the toughest time of our life and we can't imagine it getting any worse. We need our boys to stay healthy through this all as I have heard that if their is power issues that hospital services may be moved to surrounding towns even though the hospital itself isn't flooded. The only thing that is keeping us going right now is everybody's good health- Amen!!

The boys (and the parents) are ready for this trip to be over! Hauling too many bags and beds in and out of hotel rooms is getting old and the trips are quite sick of their carseats. We are staying in Miles City tonight, I know- woot woot!, and will be in Minot Saturday evening. Matt and family will continue to stay with gma and gpa Waind and our family will be staying with my aunt and uncle. They have a wet bar in the basement where we will set up camp so we hope to be as small of a burden as possible.

I look forward to the day when I can have happy posts! I hope the house will be salvageable and hope that we can get the help we need to rebuild it. My mom has been amazing through all of this, even when she knew she was leaving her home for the last time in a while; she kept her sense of humor by apologizing to mentor tracking mud into the house while they were removing kitchen appliances. Even though their plan all along was to move into their "new" house so we could have hers, I know she is going to have a really hard time seeing our family home washed away. All of our families and friends have been great and have pulled together to help each other out, we love you all.

I am just rambling now :) 249 miles left our trip today- tick to ck tick tock!!!

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On the road again...

We survived our 2nd night stay with minimal headaches ;) We all missed our suite in Hood River as we sat in our bare standard rooms in Coeur d'Alene. The big boys were able to take a quick dip in the pool with Ben and Matt before dinner and settling down for the night. We spent most of the night watching the news and weather channel showing devastating clips of Minot and surrounding areas. We even saw Melissa's dad get interviewed in front of our house and a few of my family members taking out the last of my Mom's things out on MSNBC. It's amazing to see so many people pull together throughout the entire city during this struggle and we are happy to hear that FEMA is also there to stay.

We decided to have a slow start morning and extend our trip by one day, what's the rush, right?? We will only go to Bozeman, MT tonight instead of Billings. When we saw the pouring rain this morning we decided not to rush out and conquer the mountain passes with the uhaul and all. We aren't sure where we will stay tomorrow night- any ideas? (somewhere between Bozeman and Minot). We will probably take the Bismarck route to Minot instead of Williston, it will add some time but probably will be safer.

Since leaving Oregon Ben and I have realized many small things we will miss as well:

Mandatory gas station attendants! I haven't pumped my own gas in 6 years and I am not looking forward to it!

No sales tax! I have loved paying $9.99 for something and not $10 and change- I never have anywhere to put all that change!

Farmer's Markets- you can always find one (or more) any day of the week during the summer in Portland and the suburbs.

Wineries, enough said.

We are excited to get home and see our family but scared of what we will see... Stay strong Minot!!

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Sirens

I was just on the phone with my mom and could hear the evacuation sirens blaring in the background- very sad. She was able to get pretty much everything cleared out and is now trying to get the house they will be living in on the hill settled. Matt and Melissa's place was cleared out for them since they have been here helping us with the move. I don't have the words right now to describe the feelings and emotions I am experiencing. We will get through this, we always seem to. Praying for the safety of everyone affected today and the long road ahead. They are predicting that the levels will rise 9ft higher than the flood of 1969 and this level may not reach until July 9th, that's a long time to deal with this water since it's already over the levees in some areas I hearing. Wow.

As for our drive, I have spent a lot of time in the back just holding the their hands to get them to stop crying (Riley's in the way back for a reason- ha!) We have left the state of Oregon and that brought a tear this morning as well. The boys are of course sleeping now as we are trying to figure out where to stop and give them their next bottles. We only have 3 hrs left today, we should have planned to go longer as the next 2 days will be a lot longer. Oh well, maybe we can do something touristy in Coeur d'Alene :)

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Good Morning!

The trips slept great last night, all the way until 5:40am. We had to accept that we have to be flexible with our normal 7, 11, 3, 7pm feeding schedule and just go with the flow to survive these next few days. Matt, Ben and I fed the boys and then enjoyed some beautiful sunshine with coffee on the patio before starting showers and the packing process :(

Unfortunately Brody has a fever, ugh. Since we shared a pillow in bed last night I am hoping he doesn't share any yuckies with me! He is still snoozin and we are hoping he will wake in good spirits and be ok for the next leg of our trip bringing us to Couer d'Alene, ID.

More to come!

1st Stop

We made it to our first destination, Hood River, OR, at about 2pm. We purposely planned a quick trip out of town so we could enjoy some R&R :) I only had to make my way to the back of the van to attempt to soothe babies 7 times in 60 miles, ugh! M&M took the big boys in one car and Ben and I with the trips in the van pulling a small uhaul with the necessities. We booked a beautiful 2 bedroom suite right on the river for night 1 of our road trip home, we figured we deserved a treat after all of our hard work (not to mention the hard work that awaits us once we arrive in Minot). It's now after 9pm and we have had a great time enjoying our big balcony overlooking the river. We have taken lots of pics that I will post when I finally get access to upload them. I didn't want to pack baby baths and the trips were quite ripe, so mama put on her swimsuit and Ben brought them to me in assembly line fashion to the nice bathtub. I have to say, I loved it! The boys loved it so much more than usual too, it also really saves the backache from bending over the tub for 3 baths ;) I then got out and let the big boys have their turn, they were sure to get their cars really clean too!

We are of course tempted to stay here and enjoy some more beautiful weather, but the show must go on. We are lucky to have been busy enough over the last few days to keep our minds off of the pending tragedy set to start back home Wednesday evening, 2 days before we arrive. They are saying that major flooding is inevitable and that the levees built will not hold back the water level that is headed that way from Canada. Our families have been working around the clock clearing out the homes in the valley that will be affected. The house we are moving into and M&M's house may get water to the 2nd floors, we can't even imagine. We are going to be in contact with the driver of our current truck and he will most likely be delivering our load into a 3 car garage at my aunt and uncles rather than the home we were looking forward to our fresh start in. There are thousands of people being affected by this but we can't help but ask when we are ever going to catch a break. Thank goodness for a great support system and the best family to get through these difficult times!

Hopefully I will have some moments of silent on the next leg of our trip tomorrow to upload some pics- it will probably be sketchy since I am doing it from my iPhone, but at least I can share some of our chaos!

Xoxo

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Almost 5 months!

EPR

E

R

P

Where does the time go?? After 42 NICU night stays, 48 PICU/OHSU night stays, 3 ER visits, 2 surgeries, 3 Children's Hosp night stays for B, 21 Dr. appointments, and 1 pending lawsuit, I think we are safe to say we have had a jam-packed 2011 so far! We are hopeful that our new start back home will be a fresh start for the entire Waind clan!

Evan: 13lb 7oz, 24 in
Payton: 12lb 12oz, 23.5 in
Riley: 13lb 3oz, 23.75 in

Growing boys!! Payton's weight is falling behind probably because we can barely get him to eat with his reflux issues. Hopefully the new Prevacid tabs we started yesterday will provide some relief- fingers crossed! I will give it 2 weeks before I cry uncle and crawl under a rock until they are 12months old.

I had an emotional week saying goodbye to my work family, I am going to miss them and my job so much!! They had a great BBQ for us yesterday and I didn't even snap one pic :( Brody was quite entertaining and had the best time. There were many times when I didn't even know where all of our kids were (but that's ok, because I knew they were in good hands!) When I told Ben it was bottle time he laughed and said "look at all these people, I'm not feeding a baby!" We love our "breaks" when help is around. I only cried a couple times and tried not to think about what it all meant and just enjoyed the company. I definitely felt weird last night when I didn't have a blackberry or laptop to check :( I hate not being in the know even though I barely responded over the last hectic months- I like to know what's going on! I asked some of the therapists if they would start a blog to entertain me while I am away, they better! I can't say enough about the amazing friends I made during my years at KP, many friendships that will continue on through the distance :) I joked that I can now stop the filtering on here and facebook since I no longer have a job- so watch out! HAHA!!

Ben is leaving now to take Brody to his last day at school (daycare). He has been asked to take some pictures, he better!! We are taking the whole crew in this afternoon to pick him up- the great team at Learning Years has been waiting to meet the trips! This is all happening so fast, I just can't believe it.

Cheers!