Summer trippin'

The end of June took us to Utah and Idaho, because it's cheaper to fly to UT than ID and because we love the chance to see Grandma and Grandpa, Beth, Ian, and Emma, any chance we get. It was a busy trip centering around this lovely occasion in Boise.

Bride and Groom. They are so beautiful.

I spy Bonnie... 

Burke loves to be with his brothers.

 Next up was a very short weekend trip to Atlanta to see the Escobars. Life is super busy for all of us so we just had about 24 hours there, but we loved every bit of it. Of all the Atlanta attractions we picked a Braves game and a hike up Stone "Mountain." But the main attraction was catching up with these lovelies! Thanks for putting us up, we loved getting to see you!

And then it was our upstate NY trip. Whew. I think I'm still not far enough removed from it to forget how terribly much driving it was and how terribly hot it was up there, which wouldn't have been as big of a deal if places had AC. The occasion was a family reunion near Palmyra. We spent some time with some distant family (cousins of my dad, etc) and our closer family (my own cousins, aunts and uncles, etc). I was really looking forward to Niagra Falls which I vaguely remember seeing when I was about 5. It was so fun. Burke and I got to spend some time exploring super rural Amish country around Lake Ontario while Mom and Dad helped out with Youth Conference for their stake which happened to be the same week up in Palmyra, but we didn't take any pictures there.

We walked up these stairs next to the falls after our boat tour...

...And got completely soaked. There was no helping it.

Before we headed out of town we took a beautiful hike near Lake Seneca.

But this picture pretty well sums up the trip. 

And in case you hadn't heard, this is the year of the wedding in the Anderson family so our summer travels will wrap up in a few more weeks with a trip to Wisconsin/Chicago for Becky's wedding! Wow, three new sibs in one year!
In the meantime we are enjoying being home. sigh.

He's home!

Is there anything more fun than having a missionary come home? Aaron came home from his two year mission in Monterrey, Mexico complete with a sweet little Mexican accent. We were so happy to welcome him home! Beth, Ian, and Emma came out from Utah for a short trip so they could be here too.

The next day we packed up and headed to Virginia to a nice campground on the New River to spend a couple of days of quality time camping. 

On Friday we drove to Mt. Rogers to what must be my family's favorite hiking spot. Seriously, this place is beautiful and unique in so many ways. 

Usually the wild ponies are hard to miss, but we had to go looking for them this time. But we found them! And when we did, they started following us. They must get fed a lot.

Before we left we did some canoeing, kayaking, and tubing on the river. So fun!

It was kind of a whirlwind, but we loved being in some beautiful places and being together. And of course we loved chasing around this firecracker.