Houses are for Grown-ups.

A lot has happened since my last post, and if I try to write about everything I'll keep putting it off, so I'm going to narrow it down to 6 highlights.

1.  Lassen National Park. We celebrated Andrew's 33rd birthday at the end of September with a trip to Lassen National Park.  It was our first time sleeping in the truck, and it worked out perfectly.  Andrew found a quiet place to park along a seldom used dirt road, and there was a full moon (sadly, the pictures of the moon turned out terribly.)  We parked around 10pm that night and went right to sleep.

 In the morning, we had our first trailhead mostly to ourselves.  We had a simple breakfast tailgate of peanut butter bagels and coffee, and then hiked up Mount Lassen. Mount Lassen is an active volcano that last erupted in 1917, and is one of the largest lava domes on the earth.

 On our way up, we saw our first snow of the fall.

 We ate  burritos at the summit.

 The mountain in the background is Mt. Shasta, another active volcano, and the second highest peak in the Cascades.

 2.  We moved (again.)  Just a few days after we returned home from Lassen, we closed on our house!  Andrew and I were full of energy and excitement, and immediately got to work and pulled up the downstairs carpet.

Our first night in our house was also our third wedding anniversary - we celebrated in style with take-out burgers from a restaurant that buys all it's meat from local ranches.

Still full of energy, we bought a new sink, and Andrew replaced it after work one evening.

3.  Sierra Buttes.  After the excitement of the new house wore off, we were exhausted.  Houses are for grown-ups, and we've enjoyed being kids together.
Everywhere I looked, I saw parts of the house that I wanted to change, and I felt an overwhelming sense of buyer's remorse.  Many people told me this was a normal part of buying a house, and Andrew remained optimistic and encouraging.
Even though we have a lot of work to do on the house, we decided we needed to keep going on adventures on the weekends to stay balanced.

Our new friends Marty, Sarah, and Wilson the dog joined us for the trip to the Sierra Buttes.

Ah, mountain snow-fed lakes (Upper Sardine, Lower Sardine, and Young America)

So happy to be away from the new house!

4.  Yosemite National Park:  Reno's proximity to Yosemite was one of the top reasons we picked it, and we finally visited it together.  

We slept in the truck just outside Yosemite, and drove into the park at sunrise.

One of the perks of visiting Yosemite in October is you get the best views mostly to yourself.  During the summer, May Lake is crowded, but it's quiet and peaceful in October.

Andrew is really excited that we just hiked down from (the base of) Cathedral Peak.

5.  Weekend with Emily.  I had a week off in October for fall break, and so Emily and I met up in Ashland, Oregon.  Baby Alsea loves the outdoors, and was happiest when we were hiking or eating outside.  

6.  Mom's Visit.  My mom came out to visit at the end of my fall break...and I really regret not taking any pictures during her visit.  We drove to Lake Tahoe (mom's first time in California!) and walked along the Truckee River.  Mom also helped Andrew and I pick the new floor for our house.  We've been living on plywood and avoiding making the decision.  Hopefully, I'll have a picture of the new floor to post by the end of the month.

That's it for now.  The next post will focus more on the changes we've (ok, mostly Andrew) made to the house in between hiking and working.