Quick Thoughts for June 15

Just a few quick nuggets:

Happy birthday to my very best friend and wife Stacie! I hope you enjoyed our little trip to the mountains this weekend and our date to Brickstone in West Jefferson Saturday night. (I thought our stomachs might explode with all the food!) I hope your day today is an awesome one and that you know and feel the love your three boys and I have for you. Life is so much better in every regard with you in it, so be sure to have many, many more happy birthdays, will ya?

Now, for anyone who has been keeping up with Gabe’s health the last 10+ years here’s an update: The ultrasound showed Gabe’s kidney still looks good. As a matter of fact the pediatric urologist said his kidney is even beginning to look more and more like a normal one as he (and it) grows. Even a bit of the “kidney bean” resemblance is beginning to show. So we thought that was wonderful news. So the doctor recommended that we go and speak with a nephrologist at Duke U. Medical Center very soon and check on some things as he gets closer to life as a teenager with one kidney. The nephrologist will do a few different tests on functionality and blood, etc. Hopefully these will be good reports, also.

Our 3-day weekend family trip to the mountain house was pretty awesome even though the river was too murky to fish from all the recent rain. We enjoyed the hike in Mt. Jefferson State Natural Area. The overlooks are great and the boys always scramble up any big rocks they can find. We took the boys swimming in the river. They love the cool water and played with some new friends they met. I don’t think the boys have ever met another kid that wasn’t an instant friend. We’re looking forward to our next trip up there coming very soon! I’ll try to post a couple more pics tonight or tomorrow, time permitting.