Mt Lassen

Happy Labor Day!

We camped at Mt. Lassen this weekend. The weather was perfect. Here are some pictures of this beautiful volcano and park. You can see Mt Shasta in the distance at the top.

Joshua climbing up the summit block.

Hiking across the snow fields.


Benjamin at the top with Shasta in the distance.




An alpine view of Lassen.

The kids love to climb on rocks. This one was carried 3 miles away from the mountain during the last volcanic eruption. It is called Hot Rock.

David on top of Hot Rock.

We floated on Manzanita Lake. This is where we camped. It was a very relaxing lake.

Joshua with Lassen in the background.

Megan attempting to manuever the raft.

Marin County Beach

We tried to see the Muir Woods one Saturday afternoon, but it was too crowded.

So, we headed for the coast and found a great secluded beach.

It was a 1.5 mile hike down, but well worth it.

We played in the water and sand, saw the tide pools, and enjoyed the scenery.

Then we went back to Muir Woods after the crowds left.

Here we are at the top of the hike looking down to the water.

It was chilly up there.

Heading down the trail to the beach.

First glimpses of the beach

David and Ben

Playing in the sand

Abby loved the beach!

Bonus: A petting farm right next to the beach! This place has it all!

First Day of School at Cooper Elementary

Here they are, ready to go to school! Abby wants to go too!

I got to go to the first day with Joshua. It was pirate day. Isn't his teacher the cutest? He loved school!


First mate Josh.

Emily and Abby model their somewhat tattered princess wear. We are going through another princess phase. They wear these dresses every day.

Via Ferrata

For David's birthday this year I gave him an overnight date. We drove down to Lexington, KY and spent the night at the Hilton (very posh). Saturday morning we drove over to Red River Gorge to climb on the Via Ferrata. It is a climbing adventure that is totally safe. We were clipped in the entire time, and there were rebar hand and footholds. Perfect for me! Here I am at the beginning.

David taking a rest.

I stopped after the first 3 sections, but David finished the entire course. The guides down at the bottom were impressed with his first attempt. No one else came even close to finishing while we were there.




This is what the course looks like from below. It is in a "holler" which is Kentucky speak for a "large ampitheater-shaped gorge."



Here is the scout troop behind us. The guides thoughtfully put us in front of them all! We were grateful, because it took them awhile. We were the only non-scouts there. Of course, it was raining, as you can probably tell.
We had a really fun time and look forward to climbing again.

Easter with the Chesnuts

Sarah and John and their boys drove over for Easter. Although it was a little bit rainy, we managed to get outside a little bit. Here are all the kids after church. You really have no idea how difficult it was to get this picture, so if it looks a little crazy...IT WAS!!!

Joshua and Matthew got bug catchers in their Easter baskets.


Ben is learning how to tie his own tie.

Abby did not want her picture taken. She looked awfully cute in her Easter dress, though!

Ben

Emily

Joshua

Andrew...isn't he beautiful???

One last picture of Abby, because she is so cute!

Happy Easter!

Abby is 2!

We celebrated Abby's second birthday today!

Here she is in her new birthday dress! Opening presents with A LOT of help!

Abby loves dogs, so Emily, Josh, and I made her a puppy dog birthday cake.

What a great 2 years we have had with our little Abby!

Spring Break

We took a couple of days this spring break to check out the Red River Gorge in Kentucky. We have wanted to visit this area for a couple of years, and decided this was the week. It wasn't quite in season yet, and you can see from our clothes that it was a little chilly still. The plus side was that there were very few other visitors. We had the place to ourselves.

Here is our one picture of the whole family. We are on top of "Natural Arch," looking out over a valley.

This is the cabin we stayed in. It is called Sundance. It had a hottub and a sattelite dish! We watched iCarly!

Everyone loved climbing on the cool rock formations.

Abby wasn't quite as adventurous in her climbing, but she still had fun exploring.

At the Angels Windows we found a geocashe treasure. Here is Abby with the M&M's she found in the geocashe box. She was pretty excited to do the next hike, and then disappointed when there were no more treats.

Dave carried Abby whenever she would let him. She is getting too big for the backpack, though. This might have been her last hike she gets carried on! Too sad.

Here is the bottom of Natural Arch. It was a very pretty arch, and I was glad we were there in early spring so we could see things before the leaves came out. There were lots of flowering trees in bloom, but no leaves yet.

Emily wanted her picture taken every couple of minutes! You can see from her attire that it was a little bit brisk.

Joshua on a swinging bridge across a lake.

Hiking out to the Angels Windows

Ben with an arch behind him. It is hard to tell that it is an arch in the picture, but it is. It has a stream running through it. Very pretty.

A waterfall on the stream that cut the arch above.

Dave and Abby on one side of the stream. We all crossed the stream to get down to the waterfall. It was really slick, and Dave took a pretty bad fall. Abby was fine, but the camera was broken, and Dave's elbow still hurts 2 weeks later!

We had a really fun trip.