Great Basin National Park!

We took a little side adventure on our way to work on cleaning out mom's house! It was amazing and crazy and we were ill prepared! Ops! 

Riley has his learners permit and got to drive highway speeds this trip! 

Gas station antics are always fun! These two crack me up.

The park is about 6 hours away from our house so we pulled in late in the day, but it was beautiful! 

Being that it was the end of September we planned to camp at the lower camp ground, unfortunately half was closed for renovations and the rest was full! So up to Wheeler Peak Campground we went...all 10,000 feet! Ek!

Most of the camp grounds up there back into a beautiful meadow, perfect for star gazing! One of our goals was to see the Milky Way, our kids had not before!

We did see the Milky Way that night, and also nearly froze to death!

The morning finally dawned, bright and frosty! The rangers at the visitors center were wide-eyed that we had tent camped with kids up there. Yes we are crazy and now more people know.

Unfortunately the super cold temperatures killed my camera battery so all of my pictures were taken on my phone as we began our hike the next morning. The fall colors were brilliant!!

Our goal was the Bristle Cone Pine Forest! Here is our mountain goat when we made it!

These trees are hundreds and thousands of years old! Their wood is so dense they can stand long after after they die.

This is Methuselah, this tree is over 3,000 years old! 

Thankfully we warmed up on this hike! It was about 2 hours round trip.

This is a trip we will do again, with more time available and in warmer months!! 

Back to Lassen!

 We headed back to Lassen Volcanic National Park for 3 days of no cell service or wi-fi! HEAVEN! Our goals were to see Bumpass Hell, eat smores, join the Volcano Club, and just be.

 We found a great campsite near the visitors center as we arrived just a few days after they closed the more remote camp sites for the season. There is nothing quite like camping in the caldera of a volcano!

 As most of you know food is always at the top of my list! Chili & rice with peach cobbler for dessert! The peaches were from our tree, super small but super sweet!

 Bumpass Hell! We learned about this in some history reading we did. And I love any geothermal action!

 This was the most friendly park we have ever visited! We have so many family pictures because so many people stopped us on the trail and would ask if they could take our family's picture!

We did not attempt this trail this trip. But it was pretty!

smores CHECK!

Oh yea...and bears CHECK! We ran into a mama and two cubs on our last day. It was unnerving as bears always are.

And Leili was sworn in as a Junior Ranger and Dan, Riley Fern, and I all got competed the Volcano Club requirements and got a patch!

This is a trip we will take again, the park is huge and we saw just a nubben of it! It was the perfect place to spend a three of the hardest days of my life, this year we made happy memories that hopefully year after year will out number the hard.

Road Trip!!!

Well...things got a little crazy here! I needed to run over to mom's to empty and finish cleaning out the office because we finally were selling it! And since Dan was home he decided to come along with me...WE TOOK NO KIDS! Crazy!!

We made a quick stop at some petroglyphs just outside Fallon, it is always nice to walk around but also so interesting to think of people here so many hundreds of years ago!!

Dan drove part way while I knitted away...it's a long 10 hours over but beautiful.

We then spent Dan's birthday driving around in my daddy's truck and emptying the office.

Except when we were trying to get the truck running again! We know how to have an adventure...

Then the rain started threatening, but we worked anyway. We don't melt.

We also enjoyed the plumbs in my mom's yard and brought home a lot! 

And enjoyed the memories, here are my three older's prints from when my mom first moved into this house. Fern was so little we had to use her foot. 

Maybe they are weeds but the little sunflowers all over the yard were so very beautiful and happy. It was lovely and peaceful to be there as always.

And who would complain about hanging out with this guy for three whole days (yea you read that right, we drove 10 hours the first day, moved the office the second, and drove home 10 hours the third. Lets just say that was exhausting)!

Nature Journal - 4th of July

July 4, 2016

3pm

90 degrees

Fenno

It is hot. Dry. Some winds with the promise of bringing the smile back this evening.

I hear wind rustling through the tree. A lawn mower next door. Birds chattering. Cars speeding past.

I don't smell bbqs yet. No smoke yet. I smell dry earth & grass. Dry %& hot.

Today is the Fourth of July. I made macaroni salad like every year, but today is not like the other years. This year she is gone.

June Yarn Along!

Joining Ginny!

Obviously I have a problem...I can't just read one thing! From left to right; Pride and Prejudice, book club (while it is a favorite it is sometimes not distracting enough right now). Soul Gardening, poetry, stories, and spirituality from Catholic mamas (I am no longer in the trenches of early motherhood so it's mostly read with a knowing nod). Taproot Magazine, my early morning tea and hammock read these days (I read through these slowly as the stories and articles seem to fit in my always thinking brain). Mormon Feminism Essential Writings, this can swing wildly from inspiring and rising to action to frustrating, discouraging, and maddening (This may take a while to get through as I have to put it down for a week at a time sometimes). How to be a Wildflower, this is light and happy and beautiful, everything I need in life right now.

I have done a little knitting here and there, mostly while listening to podcasts but also at piano lessons. But since it is gardening and river/lake season there is just not a lot of knitting time! I am listening to bits of Feminist Mormon Housewives, Year of Polygamy (which as you can guess also needs breaks) and yesterday I started the three part on Rob Cast titled God (so far it is great), and I HIGHLY recommend his interview with Friar Richard Rohr)!  The pattern is Moho by Chris Salas in Madelinetosh fingerling in the color way Jamie's Kilt.

And a parting shot of our beach day yesterday!