We’re driving home from Buena Vista (pronounced by the locals Buna rhymes with Kuna Vi-sta like mista). It’s a gorgeous mountain town about 2 ½ hours southwest of Golden (120 miles, Wes informs me). The branch is in our stake. It’s so small that other wards provide speakers for sacrament meeting. Wes volunteered. We exemplified reverence until he started talking. He spoke on the light of Christ, 3 Nephi 18:24. Christ instructs the Nephites that He is the light of the world. We should hold up that light and do as He did. Wes outlined some of what Christ had done previously, such as allowing each person to touch Him, teaching the doctrine of baptism, teaching the Sermon on the Mount and from Isaiah, and showing love and compassion, healing everyone in a very personal way. Great talk—and I missed half of it! Ask him more about what he learned. The boys loved nursery. They chortled the entire way through the mountains this morning and now—mercifully!—sleep.

I’ve had an emotional week. Seriously, who cries over a hot dog? I do. In public! Yesterday food just didn’t work for me so we went to find something the boys would like. Friends recommended a local hot dog shop: the place loads the hot dog with a ton of toppings of your choice. They have everything from Thai toppings to sauerkraut to the traditional chili dog. I’m not a hot dog person, but since nothing worked anyway we tried to venture into a new realm. Good grief. The thing came out and I almost died; add to that body odors coming in and out and my general sense issues these days—and we’ll all be grateful for good-humored Wesley who cared for the boys, ate both hot dogs, and thoroughly enjoyed himself.  Levi loved the sweet potato fries. Afterwards Wes insisted on buying me a burrito, which Joule appreciated very much. Poor kid. No wonder he’s small.

Yesterday morning we drove to Boulder for our long-anticipated campus tour. We scheduled ahead and everything, but the tour left without us. Alas. We caught up with them, then realized that we needed to adjust our expectations. Wes showed us the engineering complex and the surrounding buildings. We gathered a few rocks. Then the boys let us know that we needed to leave. So we did. Beautiful place and good time regardless of the change in plans. We like Colorado. Since both boys adamantly skipped naps, Wes took them to the mall to look at carousels, trains, toy stores, and people. What a good man. They came home full of stories and excitement.

A few other funny moments occurred this week. The boys, including Wes, battle a slight cold. We took our van in for an oil change and the shop discovered the rack and pinion needed work. In an uncharacteristic move (due to a fuzzy mind), Wes told them to fix it without much of a second opinion. Let’s just say we’ve now started much larger investments in this van. He regretted the decision by the time he came home—but at least we’ll be that much safer now! We’re doing check-ups on both vehicles before we go to Texas. I hope nothing else is wrong!

I cut everyone’s hair on Monday. No one really expects much from toddler haircuts and Wesley’s curly hair forgives practically every mistake. Note for the future: when you cannot think, walk, or draw in a straight line, why would you cut your own bangs? A few weeks ago Levi pulled a chunk of hair out of my head and I’ve had strands growing with gusto in weird directions. Still. Looking in the mirror has given me another reason to chuckle.

Have you ever heard of a Splash Pad? I hadn’t, but oh how I love them. The city revamped an old pool area into a flat run-around space with buckets filling with water (like mini-kitchen sinks), various sprinkler and spray things, covered picnic area, decent bathrooms, and only $1 admission all day. The boys blasted each other with water and splashed with delight. So fun.

Wesley’s UT professor visited this week. He was on vacation, so he took some time to see Wesley’s work. They met up with a guy who is connected to Pecan Street and NREL stuff. Now everyone is buzzed about future collaboration. The next morning, Dr. Edgar met Wes in Boulder to meet with Dr. Henze to talk more about Wesley’s research, buildings, energy, and ideas. Wesley returned bright eyed and eager to press forward. He works with wonderful and intelligent people.

A woman saw the boys in the grocery store and commented on how sweet they are. I said, “I think so.” This is the point she notices Joule. “Wow! You must!” Haha! I love gathering these quotes. She covered her embarrassment by saying that her baby is 41 this week. Kind lady. This was before Lincoln decided to express his teething tendencies on Levi’s sunburned shoulder and Levi screamed in understandable pain. They are sweet boys.

Despite teething, Lincoln gives tons and tons of real kisses. He especially likes to kiss Levi’s back. He reaches to touch people. He grins and says, “HeLlo!” and “Bye-bye!” to everything from people in the store to flushing potties. He knows what he shouldn’t do—like sitting on the table—does it, then waits patiently for removal and/or reprimand, when he shakes his head and finger and says, “No, no, no!” cheerfully. He says “Vi!” excitedly and wishes he was “Vi,” too. Levi receives a constant onrush of deliveries from his brother: toys, shirts, cups, pats on the back, rocks (the ultimate gift). Levi’s figuring this out. By the end of the week he was making requests like, “I want the fire truck and the dump truck, Linc. Go get it.” And off little obedient brother tromps. We’re working on expressing gratitude rather than orders. Lincoln’s greatest love, next to Dad and Levi, is rocks. Almost any issue can be solved by talking about rocks; all problems can be solved by touching them. He fills his pockets. He crams his shoes. He carries as many as he can at one time. He couldn’t find his pocket at the park and I found his diaper stuffed with rocks! My goodness. Interests to encourage, I guess. 

Levi’s new schedule includes waking up before five. I hear him start moaning about 4:30. I told him a few times that the sun was still sleeping and he needed to as well. He stayed patiently in bed until 5:45. “The sun awake now, Mom.” And he’s right. Plus, when I’m already up doing stuff, neither of us can invent a very good argument for him to go back to bed and wait. He is becoming a yoga masta himself since I haven’t had as much gym time. He’ll tell you that “it’s kind of tricky.”  We do our best for a successful rest time to morph into a nap, but usually we just try to maintain emotional control. Such a good boy. He’s a trooper. And he walks up and down steep paths like an apprentice backpacker. In fact, he dances up and down the hills singing. “Come on, Mom! No go slow now!” His pretend play has expanded. He’s been a “little boy dog” quite often this week, which cracks me up. Panting, trying to eat without hands, barking. All the good stuff. He also pinches tiny pieces of paper and tape into balls, then loads his dump trucks with the backhoe. Or the garbage man goes around the house collecting his precise trash. Last night he surprised us by saying, “I want to go to Coldstone!” Well. What a good idea. Maybe this week.

 At the Splash Pad!

 After a big walk and a park with an excavator toy...

 Squinty pictures at Buena Vista. Such a darling church! Check out the mountains. We're already 10 thousand feet high! There are over 50 mountains over 14 thousand feet in Colorado!

Just a quick update on our Texas status. It looks as if we’ll be renting a house outside of town from a couple who just build a new house, but have lived in this house for 25 years. They are in the ward of some of the other ChemE students. It sounds like much more than we need—4 bedrooms, a sunroom, a fenced yard, all sorts of dreamy things—and the people are very nice. It’s closer to everything with a good bus. Hopefully it works. We’ll be with the Longmores two weeks from today!