EEG

Solomon had his EEG today to find out if there is still abnormal activity in his brain. A tired brain gives the best test results, so we worked hard to make Solomon sleepy. I kept him up until almost 9:00 last night, and then Vince got him up at 4:00 this morning. Poor kid looks exhausted.

Vince took Solomon to Starbucks at 5:00 to sit and play.
Then Vince shaved Solomon's head (makes it easier to get all the goo off from the electrodes).
Asher went with Vince and Solomon for one sole purpose: to keep Solomon awake in the car during the 45 minute drive to the hospital. Asher was a champ and did a great job!
"Cheese!"
Solomon did great and fell asleep quickly. We are thankful for so many people who were praying for him. It will be two-three days before we hear anything.

Rockies Game

Vince took the oldest 3 boys to a Colorado Rockies baseball game yesterday. This was the first professional baseball game for the boys and they were super excited!

Asher was particularly excited because he starts his first season of baseball this week.
In spite of being up in the nosebleed section, the boys were convinced and hopeful they would catch a fly ball.
The game got a little long for Obed, but he did great! As an aside, our apologies to the people sitting below Obed who got quite a few peanut shells dropped on their heads until Vince realized what was going on.

This picture makes me laugh. It looks a little like Vince raided the looney bin and took three of them to a game.
Ice cream, in a baseball hat, for snack. Nothing better!
And of course, there's the famous 4-handed runner.
The sunset on the ride home, tinged with clouds and smoke from the on-going forest fire.

Fire Update

It looks like the forest fire that we saw from its inception (which the camp host told us was only 6 acres and would be contained within the hour), is now over 5000 acres and still only 5% contained.

Eight!

Ezra turned 8 on Friday. Eight. Wow. He's growing up so fast and we love him so much!

As birthdays go, he opened his presents first thing in the morning. And please disregard Solomon in the background digging for gold (or boogers, as the case may be).

He got a special trip out for frozen yogurt to celebrate the beginning of his 8th year.
And a lemon cheesecake to end the evening. We love you Ezra and are so very thankful that God chose to give you to us as our son.

A Camping Adventure, Part 1

Last year we went camping with some friends for Ezra's birthday, per his request. We were going to do the same this year, but the weather was crummy last weekend, so we postponed our trip for a few days until the weather warmed up. We drove up the Poudre Canyon for about 45 minutes and landed at the same campsite we camped at last year.

The first night we had burgers for dinner.

Uzziah and Vince hanging out by the fire.

The first morning there, we had pancakes, eggs and bacon for breakfast. Ezra made a bacon pancake taco.
The kids spent most of the day playing down at the river.

Obed and Vince have similar fashion ideas.

They also spent a lot of time digging in the dirt.
Uzziah and I chilling out down by the river as the kids play.
Solomon didn't sleep so well his first night, so most of the day on Monday, his face had some sort of sour expression on it, as seen here.

But, every now and again, he perked up and played in the water.
We loved watching the river rafters and kayakers go down the river.
Then, at about 1:00 in the afternoon on Monday, we began to see smoke. There was A LOT of smoke! The camp host (who was rather old, hard of hearing and seemed to be a couple fries short of a Happy Meal) told us that the fire department said it was a small forest fire of about 6 acres and they should have it out in less than an hour.

The real story, however, is that the fire is still burning out of control and has currently burned 640 acres and is only 5% contained. It's the Hewlett Gulch fire, should you want to read any more about it.

The kids took their camping chairs to the road to watch the smoke and flames as they grew.

A Camping Adventure Part 2

In spite of being able to see the flames on the mountain on Monday night, we all slept relatively well and awoke to a beautiful, albeit it, smokey, morning. The boys enjoyed some hot chocolate around the fire.

Uzziah, keeping warm before the sun heated the air.
The best part of waking up while camping; french press coffee in the cool morning air. Delightful!
Nothing like a fist full of bacon while sitting around a fire.
The kids played in the hammocks while the adults worked on breaking up camp.

The boys got absolutely filthy.


This was Solomon's response when I told him it was time to get in the car and head home. He put his hands over his eyes and started sobbing, refusing to come to the car (which I think was about 50% disappointment, 25% being overly tired, and 25% defiant 2 year old).

A few more pictures of the fire as we drove down the canyon. This is about 3 miles from our actual campsite.