Lassen

This was our first big destination. We planned to take it slowly and just enjoy time with each other and the kids. We didn't consider the possibility that part of the park would still be closed due to snow. It was! The closure helped answer the questions of how much hiking we'd do, whether we'd see mudpots and fumaroles, and whether Jeff would try to summit Mt. Lassen.  Jeff was a good sport about not getting to conquer anything huge, especially since he had climbed Mt. Whitney recently.

We got to go through a lava tube, which was fascinating. It was a cave that we could walk through without ducking (yay, since you wouldn't catch me crawling through a cave, especially with kids.) Here are Jeff and the kids at the end of the tube.

The nature center at each spot had pretty neat little animal puppets.  Jonathan was fascinated, and it helped keep him busy while Jeff had his typical long chats with the park rangers.


I don't think that this was exactly what Jonathan had expected when he planned to see a volcano, but he still enjoyed it.

My little explorer.
I should note that my dear husband told me specifically that I should not pack pants or long sleeves on this trip.  I should not have listened to him, even though he is usually right on this stuff.  It was cold.  Luckily, I had long sleeves for myself and warm things for the kids.  (Don't we always do things "just in case" for the kids?)  But I had no pants for myself.  Brrrrrr!  And there was not a thing I could do about it.



"Bird!"  Says our outdoorsy girl.



At Manzanita lake with their favorite guy.  The manzanita were blooming and were really pretty.


My girl


Jonathan realllllly wanted to go out on this log with Jeff.  I am soooo glad they didn't fall in!


We were freezing in this picture.  We had just eaten a picnic lunch, and I shivered, wrapped up in the butterfly blanket, with Grace on my lap.


It was beautiful, and we were excited for our next stop, too.