Denise & Steve | Yellowstone National Park | 30th Anniversary

Pay close attention, because this may be the most meaningful post that ever appears on my blog. These are my parents. As of this past June, they have been married for thirty years. Part of the celebration entailed getting together as a family out west, where my mom and sister had never traveled to. My parents left a week before the rest of us in their car, making stops at various national parks in Colorado and Utah along the way. I flew into Chicago, where my sister lives, and she, her husband and I took route 90 all the way out. We spent time in The Badlands, Mount Rushmore, and Grand Teton before meeting up at our rental lodge in Big Sky, Montana. I also feel the need to mention that we made stops along the way at the world's biggest corn palace (what even is a corn palace?) and Wall Drug (but seriously, there's nothing to see for the first 2/3rds of South Dakota).

Big Sky is located approximately 45 minutes from the east entrance of Yellowstone National Park. Most of our vacation was spent venturing into Yellowstone, exploring the Big Sky area, or eating amazing ribs. It's difficult to summarize all of the highlights, but here are some of the activities that we enjoyed the most. We had one extremely early morning, getting to the park before the sun was up in hopes of seeing wildlife. We didn't spot any bears or wolves this time around, but we encountered hundreds of bison and elk (which even posed for a few photos with my parents below), as well as a few pronghorn. Yellowstone is a beautiful park no matter when you visit, but you can definitely appreciate it more when it's 7 A.M. and hardly anyone else is around. A few days after that we had another early, but not as early, morning in which we drove to one of Yellowstone's hidden gems, the Boiling River. As you can probably guess from its name, the Boiling River is the one geothermal area in Yellowstone that is safe to swim in. Cascades of boiling hot water flow into the freezing cold river, making for a bizarre, but sensational feeling. Just by standing in one place without moving, you would feel drafts of hot and cold water simultaneously.

Prior to the trip, I decided it would be a great idea to dedicate some time towards photographing my parents. Not only is it a grand occasion, but they're on vacation, with family, free from any real world stress, so what better time to capture their happiness?

I'm thrilled to have had a chance to take anniversary photos of my parents for such a big milestone, let alone in a setting as beautiful as this. Every time I make a trip home to their house in Connecticut, I see the black and white 8x10 on their mantle that I took on the day I got my first SLR camera. Several years later, I'm so happy to be able to present them with some new photographs to commemorate the love they've shared for over three decades. Congrats, mom and dad, on thirty years of marriage!