If it's true that a picture can say a 1,000 words then this post is the longest post I've ever made because it's basically all pictures

For my 50th Birthday I wanted to spend the day in Paris, I got my wish I spent 10 hours in Paris on my way to Denmark with my sister Cindy to visit my brother Ray and his wife Lis.

I can honestly say that while I enjoyed our time in Paris it was way too fast. We didn't even have time to have some of the wonderful food you usually have when you visit Paris.

Lis and I on a walk through the dunes on the way to the North Sea

In the middle of the North Sea and the Baltic Sea, it was amazing to see the two Sea's intersect

Bud, Lis and Cindy at a beautiful lighthouse, that is sadly falling into the North Sea.

Bud and Lis

It was still light at midnight, it does something to your mind to have it light that late.

We went to a deer park in Aarhus. Do you see that white deer it was an albino, I've never seen anything like that before.

On one of them many walk/hikes we went on, behind us is the Baltic Sea

One week after getting back from Denmark our family took off on a camping trip to Oregon. We had so much fun at Mt. Hood, OR. We spent one day at Skibowl which was a total blast for the kids.

Luke went on quite a few 4 wheeling trips through the woods and on the beach, this was a river at the campground we stayed at in Mt. Hood

We discovered a new beach Cape Kwanda in Oregon

We spent some time in Newport one of our all time favorite places. Luke was so healthy our whole trip, the first time I remember going on a vacation where he did not get sick once and he actually went swimming at least 6 or 7 times.

Amy and Lance joined us in Seaside and we had a great time down at the beach in Gearheart, we actually got a small baseball game going.

We built a huge bonfire down on the beach in Seaside for the 4th of July, getting Luke down there was by far the most challenging places we went to as the sand was very deep.

We went to visit Cape Meares Light house

More highlights of our vacation. I especially love the top picture of Luke in our van, I caught both Lily and Ezekiel holding his hands at the same time, the smile on his face was priceless.

After we got back from vacation Luke had a bunch of specialist appointments scheduled, thankfully they all went well with good news at some of those appointments.

3 days after getting home Luke had surgery scheduled to have the tendons in his ankles released to help his feet to loosen up so that we could stop his feet from pointing up towards his legs.

This is him right after the surgery we went home about 8 hours after the surgery, which I thought was a good idea until we got home and he began crying on and off through out the entire night. He had to wear these casts for 6 weeks, what was I thinking to have this done during one of the hottest summers we've ever had.

The kids had some friends over after one of the days they spent at VBS,they all signed Luke's casts:-)  There is also some pictures of Luke at PT, he was having so much fun playing with another little guy there.

My sisters Jill and Lori and Lori's grand daughter along with Lily and all went for a walk at Chambers Bay

Luke's casts filled up with signatures and pictures

Luke ended up with pneumonia after his surgery, I'm pretty sure it was due to the fact that he was sedated for 2 hours during his surgery, he was back on oxygen 24/7 for quite a few weeks. He is just now getting back to not needing the oxygen all the time.

Gordy and I celebrated our 31st anniversary by going out to dinner in Steilacoom and then went for a walk down to the waterfront to watch the sunset.

Me and my precious grandson Iwan on Daniel's birthday.

Daniel and Sarah celebrating their birthdays together.

My Parents celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary

Here is Luke and Penelope hanging out together

After dropping off Ezekiel at camp, Lily and her friend Ellie and I went to Crescent Lake

The kids and I plus some friends went on a hike up at Mt. Rainier, it was a gorgeous day!

Our family was invited to a 70's Party. Luke got a new wheelchair but the specifications on it were all wrong so we are waiting for them to order a new one, which will be a good thing because he has out grown his current one.

Natalie, Abigail and I went up to visit Daniel, Sarah, Penelope and Iwan one of the days that Natalie and Abigail were here for a wedding that Natalie was a bridesmaid in. It was wonderful day, which ended with a walk to Sunset Park in Ballard to see the Sunset.

Luke finally got his casts off, as you can see by the picture on the top Luke was ready, but after getting them off he screamed and cried for close to an hour, it was heartbreaking to hear. He is finally getting better, I think today was the first day he didn't have any crying.

The kids and I went to the beach for the day, it was a very foggy cold day, but we had a good time in spite of the bad weather.

Luke's first outing after getting his casts off. He did pretty good only cried once.

 

I'm actually planning to write another blog very soon as we are coming up on Luke's 10 year anniversary of his near drowning accident.

Luke's Mommy Sue