Summer Roadtrip Flashback

When we started this blog in September it was in the hopes sharing some of our amazing summer with all of you but as the semester got going I never got around to posting anything from our summer. So we're going to go ahead and post a few highlights now, six months later.

Among other things we took an amazing road trip in August. On August 4th we left Portland, OR to head for Spokane, WA home of the Bunkers and our first stop. From Spokane we drove to Priest River, ID where we stayed with Matthew's Aunt and Uncle Mike & Ruth for two days that included visiting the church Mike pastors and a drive up to Priest Lake to see our friends the Vancils who had just begun a ministry there.


Us with Mike & Ruth Brooks (top) and Ted & Kathy Vancil (bottom)


From Priest River we headed east across Idaho and Western Montana to visit our friends Matt Reed and Annie Masscorro in Missoula, MT. We got to spend an afternoon and evening with them a few months before they left the country for Africa. From there we went further east to beautiful Yellowstone. We camped in Yellowstone for three nights and were able to see a lot of the park. Including the famous geysers...




Amazing wildlife...







and spectacular scenery....

















On our way out of the park we drove through the majestic Grand Teton Range, where we took in more of God's amazing creation and even saw a Moose (though we didn't get a picture).















From there it was back to Idaho but this time to the South East corner of the state to visit our friends David and Andrea Zimmerman who had recently moved to Soda Springs, ID from Portland. David has begun serving as a pastor in this small mining town and it was wonderful to see them and learn more about how God has been taking care of them.



David, his sister (to his right) , and Andrea (2nd from right) pose with Emily in front of their home

From Soda Springs it was off to California for 10 fabulous days with friends and family in he Sacramento area. But since it was only going to be an extra 30 to 40 minutes we decided to stop in Salt Lake City, UT on the way. We drove through downtown and took a brief tour of the Mormon Temple before heading west on I-80 across the Great Salt Flats and traversing the Nevada desert on our way home.




We really enjoyed our visit in California as well. It was wonderful to see our parents, siblings, niece and nephews, and many old friends. We thanked God for the time and money to be able to take such an awesome road trip recognizing that most people don't have these kind of opportunities and that we may not have another one for a long time.

All told we traveled through eights states, logging nearly 3500 miles over tree and a half weeks of summer fun and adventures. What a trip!