On July 25th at 6 p.m. we welcomed Samuel to the Olsen Clan. He was 20″ long and 7lbs 6oz. This means he was born 2.5 weeks early (kinda glad because he would’ve been a big baby). Here is the, not so brief, story behind that:

Thursday we went in for the standard prenatal exam after eating a late lunch. Kristen’s blood pressure was high and had elevated protein levels. The midwife told us she wanted to have Kristen monitored at labor and delivery. Between 5 and 9 they watched her blood pressure as well as test the levels in her body. At 9 we were told they believed she has preeclampsia and told us the treatment for it was to deliver. We trusted their judgement and decided to start inducing Kristen into labor. They got us all situated and started her treatment with an IV that included magnesium sulfate to fight the elevated blood pressure. After that they got her started on something to get her to induce. We quickly came up with a list of stuff for me to go and grab, as we hadn’t had the chance to pack a bag beforehand, and I went home to get it. We spent the whole night not getting much sleep as Kristen started to have contractions. We spent all day Friday doing this and the midwife wanted to break the her water but didn’t because Samuel was still not low enough. Come early Saturday morning the inducing was having less of an effect so she was taken off for a few hours and we were able to get a good amount of sleep. They then restarted her later in the morning and had her try to walk around to get Samuel to drop a little. This had the desired effect and one of the doctors came in and broke her water. Labor progressed much quicker from this point as the contraction started becoming stronger. A little after 5 Kristen was ready to start pushing and at 6 p.m. sharp Samuel was born. Everything went great and we have a healthy mom and baby. After two days they discharged both of them and were told to get lots of rest these next two weeks. We’re all really excited to start this new season of life.

Go to the photo gallery to see a few pictures of this guy.

Here are our wedding vows and the seven things we liked about each other.

Joe:
I take you, Kristen, to be my wife, before God who brought us together; to love and protect you even as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for it, to lead you and cleanse you with the washing of water by the Word. That through His grace we might grow together into the likeness of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.

Kristen:
I take you, Joe, to be my husband, before God who brought us together, to love you, respect you, honor you, to submit myself to you in all things, and to follow you as you follow God. That through His grace we might grow together into the likeness of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.

Seven things I love about Kristen:
Attention to detail
Geek
Cute
Support she gives others
Patience she gives me
Knowledge of the Word
Constantly Seeking God’s Will

The seven things I love about Joe (in order):
7. The way he wraps his arms around me and says “Mine” – And continues to like the seagulls on Finding Nemo
6. When he laughs and says jokes – He always knows how to make me smile
5. How he loves others – He desires to have a home that is welcome to guests
4. The way that he looks at me – He makes me feel like I’m all he ever wanted
3. When he directs time in the Bible – God always shows me something new through him
2. How he leads us in musical worship – His love for God is really evident
1. The way that he prays – I can really see his heart for God

~Joe

After packing for the day we headed out to the southern part of Kauai. On the way we stopped off at a waterfall and took some more pictures. When we finished that we headed back toward the south. We were going to the Allerton Gardens to visit the site where different movies were filmed, like Jurassic Park. During the two and a half hour tour we were able to get many fun pictures that will probably end up as my wallpaper on my computers for a while. When we were done we came back to the hotel for a little bit and then headed out to Duke’s for dinner.

- Joe

P.S. Check out the pretty pictures.

So our first night as most of you know was spent at Cambria Pines lodge. We gave each other our gifts at that time. I got Kristen some sapphire/white gold earrings and a Nintendo DS Lite which I think she’ll enjoy, especially since she kept eyeing mine. She on the other hand, got me a beautiful Dean Edge 5-string bass, which I’m absolutely thrilled about. Unfortunately, she got to take hers, where as I had to leave mine in SLO until we get back. The room was very comfortable as it had a jacuzzi bathtub which was nice.

The next morning we got to enjoy breakfast with anyone that was around for the breakfast buffet. It was fun to see everyone again and we said our good-byes as we headed off to church. Church was great and we got to see all of our friends and headed to lunch at Sylvester’s Burgers. After we finished we headed back to our apartment to unwrap our gifts, everyone has been very generous.

That night we had decided to stay at Madonna Inn in the Bridal Falls room. It was fun because the shower was a waterfall. We went to dinner at the restaurant and they gave us a balloon with the words “Happy Honeymoon” written on it. The dinner there was very good and we enjoyed it alot.

The next morning we flew to Kauai and arrived at 11:40 Hawaiian time. After getting our luggage and our fun rental car we headed to the ResortQuest and checked in. First things first, we were tired so we took a nap, got up and ate dinner, watched the Wedding Singer in our room, and went back to sleep. The next day we just took it easy since we were still pretty tired from the flight. We started with breakfast here at the hotel which is really good, I had the waffles and Kristen had corned beef hash and eggs benedict. We just drove around a bit and visited a waterfall and that night we ate at a little Italian place down the road.

We’re having a great time and we’ll have more updates later.

- Joe

P.S. We have put what photos we have so far up.