Summer Travels

I apologize for the lack in posting but Justin, Grace, and I have been busy so far this summer. In June, the morning Grace and I were getting ready to head off to Oregon to visit my parents for a week (Justin was at a welding seminar/conference in Georgia) my dad called and told me that my 16 year old brother was in a skateboarding accident and was sent by air ambulance to the University Hospital in Portland. We ended up spending the week in Portland taking turns visiting Spencer in the ICU. He suffered severe head trauma and had to undergo surgery. This accident totally changed our plans for the rest of the summer. We had originally planned a trip to Turlock for the week of July 4th, but with Spencer in the hospital we changed our plans and the whole family met up in Portland for the week. We had such a great time visiting with each other and Justin and I had the chance to meet Nathan's wife and new baby, Courtney and Karly as well as Sarah's newest baby, Brianna. Just before we left for Portland Justin found out that he was going to be traveling for work for the 3 weeks after our trip, so Grace and I decided to stay a little longer. Justin had to go to Montana for a week, then to Mexico for 2 weeks. Grace and I stayed with my parents for 2 weeks, then my mom drove us to Boise where we met up with Justin's mom and headed down to Utah for a week with the Nessen's. We had so much fun but it's good to be home and back together as a family. Below are a few of the pictures from our trip. I will post more when I get them downloaded from Justin's camera.

On the 4th of July we took some family photos. This is a 4 generation photo of my Grandma Ames, my mom, me, and Grace
Grace's first trip to the Pacific Ocean and first time putting her toes in the sand.
Grace's first time swimming. She had so much fun. She kicked and splashed and laughed the whole time. I can't wait until she is big enough for swim lessons!
The town Justin grew up in had their founder's celebration the weekend we were there. They had all kinds of activities. This was during the rodeo. As you can see Grace is thrilled to be there :)
This is a picture of me playing second base during the championship game in our softball tournament. Our entire team was made up of Nessen family members. We had a blast

I will continue to post pictures of our summer activities and hopefully it will get done in a more timely manner.

P.S. Spencer is doing really well for the extent of his injuries. He is home now pretty much for good. He will have to go back to Portland for surgery sometime soon, but he has truly been blessed and has had a miraculous recovery. We have seen the Lord's hand in our lives and answers to prayers and know that we are very blessed.