The boys successfully completed their first two days of school on Tuesday and Thursday of this week. We had been anticipating this day for a long time, and we were both eager to get their school clothes, lunches and nap mats ready for the big day. After a big breakfast, I took them to school and introduced them to their teacher, Miss Val. She is a college student who has been teaching at Pebbles all summer. Neither of the boys wanted to go into the classroom at first, but Sam eventually succumbed to the temptation to play with a Noah’s Ark toy. Nate, on the other hand, was not going to take the bait. He began to cry when he realized what was going on, and he was clutching me with a death grip. Miss Val began holding him, and I made a quick exit.

Needless to say, I kept my cell phone handy the entire time I was in Denton, and I was just sure I would get a call. Well, the phone never rang and when I went to pick them up they were both sound asleep on their nap mats. I had to wake them up to take them home, and they both popped up and started talking about what they did at school. At first I was relieved that they liked school, but that emotion quickly turned to joy as I consumed their broken speech trying to describe all they had done. I was able to extract “music,” “playground,” and “big boys.” I could also see their lunch all over their shirts, so they obviously enjoyed all the yummies their mommy packed for them.

I am pretty sure the school experience will become a regular theme on the blog, so I will wrap this up. We feel blessed to have found a good school, and I am excited to see all that the boys will learn. By the way, the picture above was taken just before the boys left for their first day at school.

Our first adventure took place in the Big Horn Mountains, on a ranch about 15 miles west of Kaycee, WY. My dad and I have been going to this place to camp since I was about 9, and it has always been a dream to take my boys camping there as well. Dad and I went out on Monday and set up camp. After a delicious dinner of steak, hominy and baked beans (all cooked over an open fire), we sat around the campfire talking until well after the sun had set. We spend Tuesday and Wednesday hiking and relaxing until the rest of the gang showed up on Wednesday afternoon. I wasn’t sure how the boys would respond to the great outdoors, but they took to it like fish to water. Sam loved throwing rocks in the river, and Nate just loved running around. They also discovered that they could climb in the back of PaPa’s pickup and play around in there. Gina, GiGi and the boys spent the night in a motel in Kaycee, then came out the next morning for more outdoor fun. This time they got to play in the river, which was a lot of fun and very refreshing on a hot day. We packed up camp and headed back to Casper about 3:00, and after we unloaded all the camping gear we went to Johnny J’s Diner for hamburgers and milkshakes.

On Friday, we just kind of hung around the house resting from the camping trip. I also had to grade final projects and submit final grades for my online class. Fun. On Saturday, we attended a retirement reception for Tom Empey, our family friend and former theater director at Casper College. There were several alumni from the program that I got to visit with, and it was nice to hear so many people talk about the impact he made in their lives. That night we went to Mr. Empey’s final production, Sunday in the Park with George. I had never seen this musical before, and I was totally blown away. The cast was excellent, and the message told through the story is quite powerful. If you have not seen this show before, you should definitely try to see it someday.

On Sunday, we went to church at Boyd Avenue Baptist Church, enjoyed a delicious lunch at Guadalajara, and spent the rest of the day resting. We went to a Casper Ghosts (yes, that is really the name of the team) baseball game, where former MLB All-Star Todd Helton was rehabbing from an injury. The boys loved their first-ever (but definitely not last) sporting event, especially the yummy snacks from the concession stand.

This week has been a lot of fun, as well, with trips to the park down the street, the Casper Aquatic Center, GiGi and PaPa’s cabin on the mountain (twice!), the Audubon Center and the outdoor City Band concert. They have also gotten to play with some new friends and have thrown more rocks in different rivers and creeks than I could have ever imagined. Needless to say, they have gone to bed at each nap and nighttime exhausted, but they have always seemed to wake up ready for more.

Tonight Gina and I are going to my 20th high school reunion, then again tomorrow for some more activities. I am looking forward to seeing old friends and getting to introduce them to my beautiful wife and boys. We head back to Texas on Sunday morning so we can jump into the craziness of work and preschool on Tuesday. It should be quite a shock, but I think we are ready for it. Overall, this has been a great visit to Wyoming, and we have started what will surely become several special traditions. We are already looking forward to our next visit.

More Pictures Here …

Well, actually Miss Murrary (our neice Ella) lives in Washington, so she didn’t have to travel far to attend a special panel at the U.S. Senate on rare and neglected pediatric diseases, such as EB. The purpose of this panel was to urge lawmakers to help fund research relating to these diseases, and Alex Silver spoke on behalf of EB children and their families. His testimony is embedded below, or you can watch the full committee hearing (Mr. Silver’s portion goes from about the 103-108 minute mark). The video below contains a couple of shots of Ella with my sister Katie.

We are so grateful for the opportunity to have Mr. Silver speak before the Senate about this devastating disease. Only when there is more awareness about its effects and what life is like for EB families will there be more funding put toward researching more effective treatments and ultimately, a cure. Please pass this on to other people you know, and if you would like to know more about EB and getting involved, you can visit debRA. You can read my sister’s first hand account on her blog: teamjoella.blogspot.com.

This was a first for Gina and I. We knew they get into each other’s beds when they were waking up, but this is the first time I have seen them asleep in the same bed. It was pretty darn cute, and I hope they actually sleep all night like that. Nate is a notorious for squirming and kicking, so Sam may end up back into his peaceful bed where he won’t get kicked.

Some of the pictures at the end of the slideshow are not from the 4th of July, but I just left them in there anyway.

This was not my first twin event, but it is still funny seeing all these little sets of matching children running around. Most of them have matching or coordinating (we opted for coordinating this time) outfits, and most of the younger sets of twins and triplets stick pretty close to each other. Sam and Nate were no exception. Even with so many other kids to play with, they pretty much played with each other the entire time. I guess there is some comfort in familiarity.

I have included some pictures of the different activities they had for the kids to do.

The best part of the whole event was the reaction we got in the car when we asked Sam and Nate if they had fun at the picnic. I’ll let you judge for yourself.

The last week has been very busy as we unpacked our boxes and found a place for all of our stuff. And let me tell you, we have a lot of stuff. That being said, we have found a place for almost everything and our house is now starting to look like a home. With all the activity and changes, I have not really been motivated to blog much, but that will change in the near future.

The boys have adjusted to the move pretty well. In fact, Sam has adjusted a bit too well. He has become so comfortable in his new surroundings that he started climbing out of the crib. Gina and I were both surprised that it took either of the boys this long to start climbing out, and on Friday night the era of “captive babies” came to an end. Thankfully, we were prepared for this event and had already purchased bed rails, which are now installed on their cribs in place of the front gate. So far, they have been going to sleep with minimal resistance, but we’ll see if this holds up.

We are grateful to finally be here and are especially thankful that my parents (Ron and Gale) were able to make the trip with us and help with various stages of the move. They are swinging back through town tonight and there will be no work for them to do. This should be a nice break from the last couple of weeks. Thank you to all of you have been praying for our safe move and travels.

When we walked into our house, things really got interesting. For one, we are used to coming home to a clean house because we always make sure things are in order before we leave. When we left for this trip, we were in a hurry and had boxes stacked everywhere. I wouldn’t say the house was a complete disaster, but it was quite cluttered with boxes and items waiting to be packed. We had a hard time finding a place to put our bags and other things from the trip. I had turned off the AC while we were gone because the temperature had not been all that hot before we left. It was still relatively cool when we came back but the house was very stuffy and humid. I also detected a slight musty smell. That’s when I discovered the major surprise …

When I went into the basement (which is VERY unfinished) everything looked fine. But I noticed that some trash cans were toppled over and there was an abnormal amount of debris in the drain in the floor. Well, after some investigating it was clear the basement had flooded while were gone. I have no idea how much water was in there, but I am thinking between 2-3 inches, at least. Everything that was on the floor was obviously ruined or completely soaked. Thankfully, it had flooded (just a slight trickle) right before we left and we had moved most of the stuff upstairs. We had to discard a few items, but most of the stuff was saved. Anyway, it was at this time that I realized how done I am with basements. Don’t get me wrong, if the basement is sealed up and taken care of, like my parent’s and sister’s house, it is a great thing. I loved my basement in my house in Casper. But this basement has been a real headache for us. Besides the fact that it looks like a 18th Century dungeon and has almost no lighting, it is dirty and cold, leaks water and smells like an old storm cellar. I can’t wait until we have moved everything out of there and can close the door for good.

We also came home to an AC unit that wasn’t working. So, in the midst of dealing with the basement crisis, the upstairs felt like a sauna. I was able to call the AC guy who works for our landlord, and he fixed it right away. Apparently it was an easy fix because we had a cool house again by Monday night. Even so, it was one more thing to think about and keep us from doing the packing we needed to do.

Despite the setbacks, the packing and planning for the move is going well. My parents show up today to help with the final details, then we all depart for Fort Worth on Saturday morning. Thankfully, we feel rested from our vacation in Florida, and we have actually been sleeping better since we got home. You know how it is with toddlers and their sleep patterns when they travel. I have actually found some time to write this before the rest of the family is awake, which couldn’t have happened on our trip. So, the next time I update this blog it will be from Texas. In the meantime, I have some more boxes to pack.

I had a really interesting experience on Wednesday of our vacation. Gina and I left the boys with Granny and Granddad so we could swim in the ocean for a little while. We took our stuff down to the beach and left it under the tent we had set up. I had noticed during my last couple of times to swim in the ocean that my wedding ring felt kind of loose on my finger. I decided to take it off and placed it in my hat. After we were done swimming, I dried off and put my hat back on without even thinking about my ring. In fact, I didn’t even notice that I wasn’t wearing it until we had been in the beach house about 30 minutes. I rushed back to the beach without telling anyone why I was going and searched furiously in the sand for about 30 minutes. It became clear to me that this was going to be really hard to find. I came back to the house and broke the news to Gina about what I’d done. She was understanding, but she wanted to go back down to look for it. We recruited a few others to come with us, but after quite awhile we became convinced that the ring was gone. Later that day, I looked out the window and saw Don by our tent. I had this sudden thought, if I don’t go back and look while the tent is still up (which gives me at least a general idea where the ring might be) I will definitely not find it again. So, I went down there one more time and began sifting through the sand. After several minutes, I saw in the sand the faint outline of a circle. I dropped down and dug around it, and as the sand fell from my hands, a small silver ring — my wedding ring — appeared. I was so excited that I ran back to the beach house without even telling Don, Kendall or Zach, who were on the beach with me, that I found the ring. I also forgot to put my shoes back on and I stubbed my bare toe on the boardwalk pretty badly. I ran into the house, tracking blood the whole way, ascended the stairs and just stood in front of everyone. Gina could tell immediately what had happened. It was a really cool experience.

If you are familiar at all with the two stories Jesus tells about people who found something  they thought was lost (the widow and her lost coin and the father of the prodigal son), you know that both people ran with joy. I don’t think this detail was randomly added to these stories. After finding my ring, my first response was to run back home and tell people what happened because I was convinced the ring was gone forever. I think Jesus included this detail on purpose to illustrate the emotions God feels when we choose Him over ourselves, the world or thousands of other things competing for our attention. Pure joy and elation, the natural reaction to which is running toward the lost object in order to end the lostness as soon as possible.