Saying Goodbye

The last couple of weeks have been a slow goodbye to Bug as he made final preparations for his mission. Bean flew home for the weekend and we went to the pool for one final dinner and swim,

and Bean decided that she needed to illustrate all the adventures that Bug is going to have on his mission--sad Bug as he watches someone surfing,

celebrating Carnivale (haha--guess this is why they pretty much lock them up for two weeks during that time.)

Being chased by a flock of birds,

hanging over the Amazon (which isn't actually in his mission area),

being attacked by a monster,

and saving his companion who forgot his parachute.

She was cracking me up with all of these, which will hopefully not be true.

Bug's farewell talk at church was great and we appreciated having family join us for the day.

Always love a chance to get the cousins together.

Bug had all his grandparents there, plus a couple of uncles.

Bean had to say goodbye this weekend, too.

She stayed to see him set apart that night, and then headed back to school Monday morning.

I wish we'd gotten a family picture--I don't know why we didn't, but we're so bad at getting pictures when we're all together.

And then, Bug had a week of home Missionary Training Center--lots of online classes all day long where he started learning Portuguese and how to be a missionary, and we got to see him for meals and short breaks (and getting in a final back cracking--hope he has companions who can do this for him!)

He played the piano for us a few more times (and practiced playing with the kazoo, too, haha. I don't think he'll be taking that with him.)

Saturday was his preparation day, which was mostly spent watching General Conference, 

but we did sneak in a walk at Sycamore Grove between sessions. 

Conference means all types of good food--and we've been making all Bug's favorites, too. Cinnamon rolls, German pancakes, french toast, tacu bowls, gnocchi, and salmon with grilled peaches and onions. We've been eating way too much good food!

And then, it was time to say goodbye for real. We had to be at SFO by 6 a.m., but even Bean woke up early enough to do a video chat with us at the airport.

I'm so grateful for technology that lets us be together even when we're not. It's going to help these next 2 years not be any harder than they already will be.

Had to get a photo of these two because I'm pretty sure that Peanut is going to change quite a bit before Bug sees him again.

Brothers

I love that these pictures all just show Bug's face and how excited he was.

I promise that the rest of us were not smiling quite as big. May have been a few tears shed.

But this kid is ready for this. And we're so glad that he gets to have this experience.

And so glad that he was willing to indulge us with a few waves as he walked away. I think we're going to miss him a lot more than he misses us.

And again, with the technology--he had a long day of travel, but called us the next afternoon/evening to let us know that he made it and was getting settled into the training center where he'll be living for the next 6 weeks. He will be able to call home one day a week and keep us up to date on everything he's doing which will be really nice, for us, and for him to be able to share the adventure with us as it's happening. 

And now, we're back to having our family spread across 2 different continents! If Bean ends up in Switzerland for grad school in the next year or two, we're going to be really far flung!

 

Wrapping Up the Trip

I woke up early each morning, but not crazy early, which was perfect to get out of the van and wait for Bug to wake up. I was able to nature journal or walk around a little, bird watching. Got to watch the sun light everything up.

And then, after we made breakfast, we drove to the McCloud Falls area for more hiking.

It was our last full day and we wanted to see the three McCloud Falls. Starting with the smallest one,

And then making our way up the creek.

The middle falls are my personal favorite.

But the third falls are pretty impressive, too.

I like that you can see the middle ones from the top and bottom.

We went back to them to eat lunch,

And were quickly bombarded with some very persistent chipmunks! I was wading in the water while Bug started eating, and then I noticed a chipmunk sneaking up behind him.

He was joined by a couple of friends at one point, and they were begging for our food and trying to help themselves to our backpacks. This is why no one should feed wild animals--they become total pests and are dangerous to us and themselves.

And then, we had to hurry to our next stop--a Lake Shasta Cavern tour.

We took a boat ride across the lake where a bus drove us up the mountain to the caverns.

They were pretty cool. We've been in a couple different caverns, but it's always fun to see a new place.

I love the drapery formations.

And then, we headed south to Red Bluffs for our final night. We camped right on the Sacramento River. It was much hotter than it had been at the higher elevations, but we were in a campground and it felt safe enough to leave our back doors open and use the new bug screen we put in this summer. It helps to cool the van down for sure.

I woke up nice and early again and went for a walk on the nature trail in the park. 

Found quite a few birds, including this kind of blurry Northern Flicker.

And then, we had to head home so we could both get back to work. It was such a fun adventure with so many beautiful places and some really great hiking.

 

More Hiking

Night #2 was spent on the north side of Lassen NP, just outside of the park boundries where we could pull into the forest and camp for free again. It's really nice that this is an option!

And then, after an incredibly long drive on a dirt road that was way bumpier than I liked, we made it out to the far east side of the park where the Cinder Cone volcano is.

We hiked along the lava flow for about a mile. It looked nothing like I expected (it's a rougher form called ‘A‘ā instead of the smoother flow.)

I realized that we weren't going to get a good view of the top of the lava flow without actually climbing the volcano, which wasn't our original plan.

It's a really steep path--500 feet elevation gain in about 1/4 mile, and on loose small lava rock.

I don't think pictures really do justice to what it felt like going up, but I just told Bug I'd meet him at the top and slogged away at it. He beat me by quite a few minutes,

 

There were some nice views, even on the way up--Mt. Lassen is there in the background. (And this gives a good look at the 35 degree angle of the volcano.)

And made it to the top!

There's a trail all the way around the rim with views in every direction.

Finally got to see the lava beds from on top with the painted dunes in front of them. Ash blowing from the eruption mixed with other elements and oxidized making the colors.

Bug walked down to the center of the cone (he's the tiny person down there.) I didn't feel like doing more uphill, haha.

It was a beautiful day up there.

And then we put our feet in Butte Lake for a few minutes before we had to make the 50-minute dirt road drive back out to the main highway for our next couple of stops.

We made a quick stop of the Subway Lava Tubes.

There's some cool formations in there.

Look at these colors!

And then, the final stop for the night: Burney Falls!

It's not a long hike, but it's so pretty.

We did the loop along the river and then went to pick out a campsite for the night. We had to run into town for a couple of things that we'd forgotten for our remaining meals, but it was nice to have showers and flushing toilets to come back to.