Playing Catch Up

Here are a few pictures that didn't get posted yet. These first ones are from last weekend (nine days ago).

Brian and I went to a movie, came home and took the kids to see some tarantulas. My sightings have dropped way off, and I really wanted the kids to get to see one up close and live before the season passes and they go back in the ground till next August.

 That's just a pretty green vine turning red.

 We hung a left on the way back out of Mitchell Canyon, onto Globe Lilly trail. If you've never taken this little trail (and most don't, most stay on the main fire road), it provides some great views! You go out the valley to the second park bench, hand a right, and take the first right. It takes you back to the first park bench.

 This batch is from last weeks run. It's Brazen's/Save Mt. Diablo Trail Challenge 10k course.

The picture below is me standing on the same rock that  I'm standing on in the picture you always see on the left side of the blog, only w/no water.

 Above is a close up of the deer, and one of my favorite pictures I've taken lately.  Below is what it actually looked like not close up, from where I was standing.

 There are two ponds on the left of the trail, and they are both bone dry, deeply cracked, desert looking ponds right now....yet somehow the trail is sporting this green grass/weeds with yellow flowers.  They looked really out of place surrounded by all the brown/tan landscape.

 Above, that's just me. Below, I was on the hill that drops down to Stage, and I stopped to look at the dried up froggy pond (there are no froggy noises this year) and heard something crashing around in the dried reeds down there. I figured I should stay put till I spotted whatever it was since I was going to be running right past there in a few minutes. It was a buck.

I'm thinking tarantula season has rolled out, and deer season is picking up. Turkey season is never ending here, haven't seen a coyote in a long time. Not sure if they really have a season, or if the drought has them in other areas. I know there's a few spots with water still, and when I'm near the watering holes, there's tons of tracks from all sorts of animals.

Anyways, wanted to get these posted before moving on to more current events, like my awesome weekend!!

Bushwacker - For Dad

Bushwacker is currently the top ranked bull in the world,and the greatest PBR bull of all time.  He gets to retire this year, but for the rest of the PBR circuit, until finals in Vegas, he is the bonus bull. So, the winner of each event wins $50,000. Then, that one cowboy gets a chance to ride Bushwacker. If he makes 8 seconds, he gets a bonus of $50,000. Thing is, since 2009, only 2 cowboys have ever gone a full 8 seconds on Bushwacker.  He is really an amazing animal, just huge...all muscle, and full of attitude.  Pretty amazing to see him in person!

17 Years Later-

17 years of wedded bliss will be celebrated tomorrow.
One of our first dates (that wasn't a date because we were "just friends") was to a PBR event in Portland, OR.  So while it may seem odd, it's really fitting that we celebrate 17 years with a return to a PBR event!  I'm so excited!! What better way to celebrate than watching some of this -

Ok, well maybe a few of ya can think of other ways you'd like to celebrate, and for some of ya celebrating your anniversary at this event would have marked the last anniversary you celebrate, lol.  For us.....it's perfection.

So, HAPPY 17, HONEY!

Thank you to both dad and mom for making this anniversary a special one for us! Mom, I will look at a few cowboy butts for you. Dad, we'll eat something really good for you! Thanks again.

So Little!

 Goodness! While looking around the 100's of files of pictures I have, trying to put together another post, I came across these hiding in files I seldom look in anymore. Man, the kids are so little!!  And.....I remember these moments like they were yesterday!! Both these videos are from our house in GA.  The moral to that top one....if you help papa re-attach the dryer hose, momma will reward you with giant peanut butter balls covered in chocolate. : )

5th Grade Camp

There has been much talk about 5th grade camp not happening this year. There's a new CA law that makes it so that no child or child's family can be asked to pay for field trips or donations or to pay for things like camp, or school supplies. Also, if one child cannot afford to go, then either nobody goes, or there has to be fundraising so that all the kids can go.

Well, that isn't as big a deal when we are talking about needing $10 per kid for a local field trip...if someone needs covered, it's not usually a big deal to kick in an extra $10. But, for something like 5th grade camp, we are talking about a total price tag of $25,829....or roughly $300 per student.  It's not as easy to kick in enough extra to make sure everyone can go....and if you pay the $300, and then it's cancelled because there aren't enough funds raised, you don't automatically get a refund. You have to request a refund from the district, and then sit and wait....that is also new.

Up until today, word was that it was just not going to happen this year, however, Sophie came home with her flyer, so excited that the school found a camp finally! (Due to the new law, the district wouldn't allow the school to use the same camp they had always used). 

Now 5th grade needs to get busy fundraising as the deadline is December 1.

(I'm in no way soliciting funds here, Sophie is totally covered.)

With that, here's a look at Camp SEA Lab, located 15 miles south of Santa Cruz, on the beach of Monterey Bay. Activities include:

- kayaking

-Night Beach walk and campfire

-squid dissection

-plankton labs

-invertebrate surveys

-beach exploration 

-ocean current labs

Look!!

I almost flattened out my blue line on the second half of my run today!
(you'll have to click on it to see the amazingly almost flat line)

My pace was a little more consistent, which is no small feat after that climb.

woodsy kids

Eagle Peak Trail to Mitchell Rock Trail, Mitchell Canyon, Mt. Diablo

Yesterday morning's adventure was a 4 mile, 1191 ft of climbing, loop out of Mitchell Canyon. I went up Eagle Peak trail, and came down on Mitchell Rock trail. Conditions are as expected, super dry, crumbly, rocky, loose, and slippery. However, the views are worth it, and the down hill can be as fun as you dare to make it.

 For now, I'm running past this, but in about an hour I'll be running down out of those woods on this trail.

 

  Looking up the back side of Mt. Diablo at the summit. Those craggy nooks and crannies towards the left of the mt are where the Waterfalls Trail loop is I've posted about a few times over this past year.

 Above, working. Below, resting.

 You can adopt a trail and maintain it, and I highly suspect Eagle Peak has been adopted as it's in really good shape, even sporting some new little rock walls right at the switchbacks.

 Above is from where I came up, below is what I'm going down.

 Yes, you do go right up over that last hill and straight down the other side.

 I love running through the Pine's.

 That's the park down there, where I'm parked.

And this is the trail I said I'd be running down in about an hour, and I'm running down it right on schedule.

A great morning on the mountain.

Girly Post - Ipsy Glam Bag

Some of ya may have heard of these monthly shipments of beauty products. They really picked up last year in popularity. I'm not super girly, and I generally loath having to by makeup/beauty products because they have gotten so expensive.

However, I'm about to turn 37, the kids are getting older, and I'm looking older. I find myself wanting to try new beauty products, either out of need to erase wrinkles, dark spots, and pimples, or just wanting to try something fun/new for a change.

I also, if I'm being completely transparent, feel like I don't do a whole heck of a lot for just myself when it comes to my appearance. I don't go to salons - I cut my own hair, color my own hair, do my own nails, don't get facials or spray tans or massages or teeth whitening or anything like that, ever. So if I can do something beauty related that's just for me for $10 a month, I refuse to feel guilty about it .

So, I signed up for Ipsy. 

It's a monthly shipment of a Glam Bag with 5 products inside. Products are beauty related, but not always makeup.

After being on a waiting list for a few months, I finally got my first bag!

 It came USPS in this bright pink package.

 

And that's what was inside. 

A really nice full size nail polish, mascara, and lip gloss. A super nice hand cream that I really like, and a face powder.

And it came in a nice, reusable silver travel/makeup bag.

Super excited to get a bag of beauty products every month!!

(I clearly spend way more time perfecting my trail pictures than I did these. I have priorities : )

Back to regular info--------------------

After failing on Friday to get up Eagle Peak, I did indeed get it done this morning and had a blast. That post will be up soon!