I love Lake Mead!  Each year our family goes the water is absolutely perfect.  You feel like you are skiing on jello because there are no waves or even little ripples.  Enjoy this video of our vacation!

Click the play button to watch video.

Issac and I started off this summer on the beautiful Hawaiian Island of Oahu! An old highway once connected the two sides of the island. When it was originally built in the late 1800's, the road was narrow and unsafe to anyone unfamiliar with the path. In the 1940's the US expanded and improved the highway until the Intersate was built. We found the old highway and took a little hike. What was unexpected though was the wind at the top of the highway. At some points the wind would become strong that it would push me up the hill.

This spring I was invited to meet with Bobbi Brown and her team in New York. The experience was memorable!  I was hosted to very comfortable accommodations, to the most delightful staff at Bobbi Brown, and to a fun and informative make-up session with Bobbi Brown herself. 

While eating the most delicious lunch, Bobbi asked me why I was in a wheelchair.  I told her and everyone present about my automobile accident at 15 months old.  I told them that being in a wheelchair had its’ perks.  That morning I was in a rush to get ready and needed to iron my pants.  The iron in the hotel room was struggling to work.  When Issac finally got it hot, I didn’t have time to iron them with the detail I would normally want.  I decided the front would do just fine and left the back of my pants unironed.  This wasn’t a problem because of my “rockstar transportation” (a.k.a. my wheelchair)!

"Getting up Again"

I have required the use of a wheelchair from the time I was 15 months old. Being that I was so young and structurally undeveloped, my orthopedic doctors were always finding ways to help me stand in the upright position so that I could be as healthy and active as possible as I grew.

When I was 6 years old, a revolutionary new product became available to me. I was given a very sophisticated set of braces that not only helped me stand upright, but also simulated walking gates.

While wearing my braces at school, my mother feared that at recess, I could fall down and not have the ability to get up.  She envisioned that I would begin to cry and that my peers would view me as helpless and not want to associate with me.  She decided the best way to deal with this fear was to prepare me for the worst.

She sought help from a cute girl named Becky, who was also in a wheelchair to teach me how to fall and then to get up.  “Always fall with your hands out.” She advised me.

I would practice what Becky taught me in our home on carpeted areas.  Once I got pretty good at this, it was time to put my skills to test using the world around me.  My mother and I would go on walks and she would tell me to fall. I would throw my crutches away from my body and fall, then without any assistance I was expected to get up again. The places I would fall down were not on patches of soft grass, but rather on gravel or on the pavement.  By the end of our walks I would be bruised and scraped up.  I can’t imagine how difficult it was for my mom to watch the scene, but she knew my body would heal.  She also knew I would gain the confidence I needed to get myself up after I fell, and this would go with me to recess and throughout my life.

Challenges and set backs are inevitable as we journey through life.  A very valuable lesson I learned from this experience is that when these times happen, quickly get up and continue moving forward. Do not linger in feelings of discouragement, bitterness, or anger. Rely on your inner strength, that you have what it takes to get up again.

In January I attended a commuter rail conference in the Pacific Northwest.  I learned about the efforts that an international company, Bombardier, is making to insure their trains are wheelchair accessible.  This trip took me all around Seattle, Portland, and Vancouver B.C.