we. are. back.

It's been awhile, but we have returned home at last to the pleasant shores of Long Island. Ami and the chilluns were away almost the entire summer. I did come back for a few weeks in the middle for employment purposes. At that point I thought about posting a post, but my activities at the time were pretty unremarkable (work. come home. watch part of a movie, consume ice cream. sleep. repeat).

This grand trek to the Western US was split into several phases. After our arrival in SLC and a few days with my parents, we headed to Idaho for Phase 1: McCall, with a quick but great stop en route to see my cousin John.

None of the extended Anderson family lives in Idaho, but that didn't stop them from renting not one, not two, but three large cabins. (And with all the little Anderson descendants around, we were all just fine with that much space.)

So, lots of great cousin time. This was helped by the plethora of Legos stocked in one of the cabins.


















Not sure if you can see, but Ellie is building a giant tower composed entirely of Lego heads. Sort of an eerie Lego totem pole. Approved!

Two of these cabins were right on Payette Lake, and with powerboats supplied by the Barnes and Hepworth contingents, there was much watersporting.


















Ellie loved it, as we all expected, and continually lobbied for the boat to go ever faster. I was impressed with Nico, though, who overcame his usual reluctance for such activities and rode the tube several times. By the end he was really enjoying it. My favorite part: I was riding with Ami and Ellie, and we hit an enormous bump. I looked over and both my companions were gone -- thrown off the tube. But after a split second, Ellie landed right back in her spot and hung on! She must have bounced more than five feet. Ami was not so lucky that time. Ha!

Ellie also tried out wakeboarding and enjoyed that as well, although she has some practicing to do in that department. Suffice it to say that she has now learned to let go of the rope after you hit the water.

When they weren't on the boat (or crashing through the wake of the boat), the kids spent most of their time on the beach.


















Nico created the crater that Ellie and Brit are standing in. It came to hold some kind of mystical significance for all the kids, though I never figured out exactly what it was.


















It wasn't all watersports, though. We also kicked around McCall, which is a great little town, and one day took a hike in the nearby mountains with the Barnes and B. Ray the Intrepid.
















I say "Intrepid," because it turned out we were all a little crazy for trying this hike. The rivers were raging and the snow was high, and there were downed trees all over the place. We forged ahead for some distance until the trail became impassable. Beautiful scenery up there -- we don't really get that in New York.





















































Toward the end we celebrated the 4th of July by viewing the fireworks out on the lake.























And then we drove to Utah for Phase 2! To be continued...