Oh Summer!

How do you sum up a month's worth of summer? In 50,000 words? In 400+ pictures (and I didn't take nearly enough)? Over days? Weeks? Bear with me....

Week 1:

We drove 22 hours straight through, took two 20 minute gas/potty stops and arrived at 2:00 am here-- in the northwest corner of beautiful Pennsylvania.

This is the house I grew up in, surrounded by hundreds of acres of fields and forests. Beautiful. 

We did a lot of reading. 

And relaxing. Outside! In 70-80 degree weather. 

We picked raspberries.

And ate them. 

We swung around. 

And we helped out on the farm (in our church clothes, apparently). 

We sent my baby brother, Brent, on his 2-year mission in Brazil. 

And Joe and I celebrated 11 years of marriage by spending 3 days in New York City. Alone. Without kids. !!!!

Joe has all those pictures on his phone, though. Also, it deserves it's own post. 

We finished the week by joining the kids and grandparents at Cayuga Lake and campgrounds. We camped, swam in the lake, kayaked, saw the Hill Cumorah Pageant, toured my Dad's hometown, and took Joe to the airport. 

I don't have pictures of that, either. 

In short, week one was busy, memorable, and fun, fun, fun!