In an effort to get everyone all caught up on my life in one night of blog posts, let's continue on to July :)
The very beginning of the month started off with our long-awaited 10 day road trip up to Oregon to visit family and friends. First we made the 10 hr drive to Eagle Crest Resort in Redmond for my family reunion...
Because of Jake's work schedule, we were only to make it to the reunion for the last day but it worked out fine because that was the night we were having the big dinner and photos taken. The downside was that we got there on the ONE day of bad weather they had all week. I was looking forward to some pool time, bike riding, and exploring the area but instead we were greeted with rainy skies for most of that Saturday. Don't feel too sad for us though... we instead spent most of our day relaxing and hot-tubbing at our cabin :)
Saturday evening was the big reunion dinner and it was so nice to have almost all of our extended family in one place. Some people I hadn't seen in over 10 years! Guess that's what happens when you have a massive extended family that is scattered across the west coast.
We're still waiting to get the professional pics from the photographer but here's an awesome one from my camera of my immediate family showing our "true colors" haha! Jake's face is especially attractive in this one...
I have to say though that the best part of the reunion for me was seeing my sister, which is something that doesn't happen as often as I wish! We had fun catching up and taking pictures - Although the wind was clearly not cooperating with us...
My sister also caught a fun, semi-candid photo of Jake and I that is my new favorite of us :)
On Sunday morning we had a nice brunch with some of my family and then continued our drive up north to Hood River to Jake's parents house. I was so excited to get there - Hood River is one my absolute favorite places to go in the summer! And I know that Jake was beyond excited to go back home considering he really only gets a chance to visit once a year.
We spent the first half of the week catching up with Jake's family, relaxing at the house, and having a date night or two downtown, and then Wednesday was the 4th of July so we had a day FULL of festivities. Jake woke up at the crack of dawn to run in the July 4th marathon (Me? Yeah right, come on people, I totally slept in) then his family and I went to meet him downtown for the parade.
After that we went to back to the house for a big family BBQ and then later that day our friends Ann & Derek (fellow Air Force friends, currently stationed in Washington) drove down to spend a few days with us. When they got into town, we headed down to the river to watch the sunset, catch up, watch the kite boarders, and wait for the fireworks show!
Afterwards I was excited to go back to the house and do the sparklers that Jake bought for me (Sparklers are my favorite!) but something was wrong with ours I think because literally all they did was smoke. See for yourself...
The next day we did all sorts of fun touristy things, starting with a hike at Multnomah Falls.
It was so much fun getting to catch up with our friends. I really REALLY hope we can all be stationed together at some point in the guys' careers!
The rest of the trip was filled with more sight-seeing, family time, and enjoying all of the wonderfulness that is Oregon in the summertime :) After being away for 10 days though it sure did feel nice to get back home and back to our puppy dogs! They were happy to be home too... So spoiled...
I didn't stay home for long though - just a few days later (aka this past weekend) I headed to Turlock for my best friend Allison's baby shower. It was so fun to shower her and baby Joshua with gifts and love :) She's pretty much the cutest pregnant lady EVER! Seriously, I'd like to see someone try to challenge this...
But now onto the not so fun part of July that I know I should probably blog about so everyone is filled in...
After the baby shower, while I was still in Turlock for the night, I got a call from Jake at around 1:30am telling me that he had been in a serious car crash in Fairfield with two of our good friends. When I heard him on the phone, at first I didn't comprehend just how serious the situation was - I was thinking "Well he's calling me, so it must not be
that bad right?" And then he tells me that he's on a stretcher in an ambulance with our friends and the lady in the other car had been life-flighted.
{Insert me freaking out insanely here.} It was a horrific feeling to be hours away, knowing there was nothing I could do as my husband and my friends were being rushed to the hospital with who-knows-what kind of injuries.
Here's what happened (as far as we know at this point).... Jake was riding in the backseat of Dan & Megan's car as they were driving home on I-80 from a wedding in San Fran. While driving 70 in the fast lane, there was suddenly a car in the same lane rolling backwards with its lights off! Megan didn't even see the car until her headlights were close enough to shine on it and by that time it was too late to react.
Here's a visual of what the car looked like after the crash (these are pictures taken a few days later)...
Somehow - PRAISE GOD!! - all 3 of them walked away from the accident with only minor injuries. Hitting a stopped car at 70 mph could've easily been a fatal crash and that thought alone is terrifying.
Thank you, Lord for protecting my sweet husband. I have no doubt that you hear me when I pray for you to watch over and protect my loved ones.
Jake was pretty banged up after the accident
and has been recovering slowly-but-surely this week. He's almost feeling back to normal now and I'm just so thankful. Events like that really make you count your blessings. Ladies, go hug your hubbies right this second! Scary stuff...
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Alrighty, so you're now completely up to speed on my recent life happenings.... well except for my new business launch... but considering its 1am now, I'll go ahead and save that for another post :)
