A 5,000 mile trip...ended quite abruptly...

My brother Josh, and his friend Michael Hipps decided to go on a motorcycle trip across the country! Their bikes loaded, routes planned...they headed off for their 2 week trip. Who could have known what was to come...

We received a call from Josh saying that he stopped and bought a camera to capture all the gorgeous work of our Creator.

Michael had a slight mishap along the way, but his bike was soon repaired and they were on the road again.
The next call we got was not quite so happy. Josh had crashed and was suffering pretty badly. He had broken a couple ribs and his collarbone, punctured his lung along with some pretty bad "road rash". But he was alive...and we were grateful! The next step...how to get him home! The bike wasn't working and he couldn't fly because his lung. He was stranded in the hospital in Fallon, Nevada 24 hours away! The only other option was to drive...Dad hitched up the trailer and we made a bed in the back and mom and dad left to begin the long trip! 2 1/2 days later my brother walked/limped through the door! I don't think I have ever been so glad to see him: )

His wounds are pretty painful, and he is pretty stiff, but he is alive!

Thank you all for your prayers!

Thank you Michael for sticking with him!

Kitchen makeover!

For Mom and Dad's 26th Anniversary they decided to take a week long trip to VA. With Dad being George Washington in "Let Freedom Sing" he decided that that would be the perfect time to visit his gorgeous estate, Mt. Vernon, and the other historical monuments the DC area (hopefully more pictures on that soon).

The dream of painting the kitchen had been in the back of Mom's mind, for quite sometime...and so while they were gone, and with the help of many friends, we made that dream a reality! And we had SO much fun while doing it!

The first step was decided what we were going to do to "transform" our kitchen. We knew that Mom had been wanting to paint it red, so that was a start, but she hadn't said a whole lot moret...so we called up our favorite decorator (who happened to be skilled in just about every area that we needed: ) Abby, to help us!!! A whole day spent shopping...and we were ready to get started!!

We never knew quite how dirty the walls were, until we began to clean them...

We had lots of willing helpers...right John?

The painting process was so rewarding to watch! We have such wonderful friends that will come over and help! Luke N. came over and painted the red and cut in the white for us! He is a very skilled painter when it comes to red...after painting his grandma's bathroom in 7 coats of red, he found out the secret and did our red in only 2 coats!! He was so fast that we hardly got any pictures of him..but I did manage to find this one! Thank you, Luke!

Not sure how Noah U. fits into this...not sure why he was over...lol...but he did a very little bit of corner work...(did you, or were you just holding the brush while you paid someone to take your picture?)

Josh heard we were painting and came right over...well...not exactly, but we needed someone tall and he just happened to be in the right place at the right time! *smile*

While we were busy painting Abby and Anna N. were busy arranging the pictures that were to go on the big red wall!! And after a little arm twisting we got Caleb to screw in the pictures for us! He did a marvelous job!

Picture hanging is always a precarious job..."right, now left...no, too far now...up a little,...down just a bit, now to the right again." It was a happy thing when they were all hung and looking pretty!

Finally it was all done!! The "finished pictures" didn't turn out very well so feel free to come on over and see it for yourself!

Mom's reaction was just what we had hoped for! A lot of pleasant screams irrupted when she entered the kitchen!

A HUGE thank you for all of you who helped!!!

Open Swim anyone?

With Dad's encouragement one of Mom's goals this year was to swim in the Cornhusker State Games, 1000 meter, open swim! And accomplish it she did!!

If she got tired we couldn't tell as her smooth stroke never lagged a bit!

Those faithful trips to the YMCA payed off as she walked up to receive her gold medal (for her age group)!

Her personal best of 15:51 won her the gold medal in her age group and she placed 8th out of 15!

Congratulations Mom!!

We love you and were happy to be there to cheer you on!

Stephen

HAPPY 9th Birthday Stepthen!!

Can you believe that our baby is already 9 years old? He has added such life and sparkle to our home! He is one of our hardest workers and keeps us all laughing: )

We love you!!!