What Have The Burks Been Up To Lately?

Well, let's start at the beginning.  First of all we had to decide what we were going to do this summer.  1) stay in Virginia, work, and try to see as much of the East Coast as we can, or 2) go to SLC and try to spend as much time with family as we could.  Jen ended up finding jobs for two different dentists in the area - that pretty much made our decision for us.  We're grateful for the income (which was badly needed as we have now officially become poor college students), and we plan to exploit as many weekends as we can touring the sights.  So far we've decided on: Hershey, PA; Rochester, NY; Niagra Falls; Hilton Head, SC and Savannah GA; Ocean City, MD; and Gettysburg, PA.  We may try to throw in a trip to the Outer Banks, NC if we can manage the time.

With Jen's pending reentry into the world of the working - we booked tickets out to see our families.  This will be the first of two posts: Salt Lake City v. 1.1 / Salt Lake City v. 1.2, and Monticello.


SLC v. 1.1

We wanted to be able to maximize our time with our families and so Bryn and Jen hopped a plane to SLC while Nate was still knee-deep in finals.  Everything seemed clear for take-off until...

 

(Not Pictured: Reality)

Tornado!! A rash of tornadoes in the DC area shut down Regan National for a few hours. Jen and Bryn tried to stay sane while stuck on the tarmac for two and a half hours. For those of you keeping score, the Misses and the little Miss are 2 for 2, 100% on multi-hour delays when traveling alone.

After finally making it to the valley the two hoodlums passed a relatively uneventful week, unless you count giant fireballs and motorcycle racing as an exciting night... 

 

 With finals completed Nate made it to Utah relatively unscathed. However, with the girls gone for an entire week his grooming took a major hit.

Have we mentioned yet how much Bryn likes bananas? Lets try an put this into perspective... Bryn likes bananas as much as people like air, fish like water, and as much as Jen likes Law and Order. Here's the little monkey in action.

Now we'll take a look at the worst of Bryn and the best of Bryn. I think our parents finally understand why Brynlee can't wear clothes when she eats.

 For Mother's day we had a delicious dinner and an even better dessert menu. I'm not sure how many times we ate strawberry shortcake while we were out there, but I'm sure it wasn't nearly enough as we should have. Although our little scragamuffin looks like she may have had one too many dollops of whipped cream.

SLC v. 1.2

After a fun and relaxing week in Monticello Jen took off home to begin her new jobs working for 2 different dentists in Virginia. Nate stayed on another week or so, allegedly for work, but one might assume it was to take in the U2 concert.

Behold the power of The CLAW!!

 

The U2 stage was impressive, imposing, and larger than life. Apparently it was one of 3 identical stages which were built and leap-frog each other traveling to different cities along the tour schedule. The crew was made up of both local union workers and a traveling iron crew out of Belgium. You can just make out a couple of the Belgian workers perched on top of the stage here. Apparently Belgians hate safety lines and are in no way afraid of heights.

 

Bryn of course had lots of work to do to oversee the concert.

Here, you can see a few of the trucks that travel with the stage

 We'll leave you with a few pictures from the concert.

Oh, and between the time that Bryn left for Utah and returned to DC she started walking, standing up on her own, and has now added running to her repertoire.