Videos!

Disclaimer: I hate hearing my own voice, it's so annoying, so I apologize in advance if you also find it as annoying as I do.

Here are three glimpses into some of the fun I had on the mountain with Emma last weekend- you will need to make the last video of the frogs bigger to see them most likely, but it's totally worth it. It took us 10 minutes to tiptoe through this mess of baby frogs!

A Peek Into the Past Few Weeks

  Backyard gatherings........

  The smallest baby deer I've seen in  a long time.

 Beautiful green and pink grass.

 Lazy cows.

 Alligator Lizard nearly as long as my size 11's.

My favorite trough has sprung a leak.

 So many baby frogs. I have a video I'll post tomorrow of hundreds of these guys covering the trail.

 Neat webs.

 See the hole in the tree? There were baby birds talking in there.

 Eating at Skippolini's in Concord for the first time ever. It used to be a bank in the 1800's, thus the bars back there.

 Below, a friend and I tried to go pick cherries in Brentwood...but every farm we went to was closed. They were waiting for what was left on the trees to ripen. We saw this work crew eating lunch, and I convinced my friend to get out and ask them if they knew of any farms that were open.  They tried to get her to buy from them a 20 lb box of cherries, for $4 a lb.

 Turkey Vultures are huge birds!

 That Toyota was also a crew cab, and it had truck envy.

 Emma's back was hurting her hiking up this hill...she fell pretty hard in the shower and is sore.

 The summit of Mt. Diablo.

 The summit is on the left, and North Peak is on the right. This entire side of the mountain is what burned.

 Hiking part of the old Diablo 50k course, in reverse.

 Myles had  a friend over and we had some fun. If you can't make that out, it's cowboys, Indians, and rubber bands.

 Garden is growing.

 Cleaned and conditioned back seat.

Calm before a weekend gathering this past weekend.

 Below, Sophie spends her Wednesday afternoons at a ranch helping our friend Pat.  This is on the way to the Mitchell Canyon entrance to Diablo, which makes an amazing backdrop to this property. It's stunning. Anyhow, Sophie does whatever needs done. She's learning about feeding, vitamins, vets, has cleaned hooves, stalls and the pen, brushes and puts salve where it's needed, and when the works done, she gets to ride!

Things get busy starting this week with end of the year events. There are awards assemblies, graduations, parties....lots going on the next 3 weeks!

22 Years Later

Brian did it!!!

 This is my first truck. It was a 78 Chevy Scottsdale, had a 350 in it with dual chrome exhaust that was so awesomely loud, and dad had it converted into a 3 speed...so it wasn't supposed to go much over 60, and it had the long shifter that came up from the floor in the middle of the front seat floorboard, no power brakes or power steering....and it has always, always been my favorite vehicle I ever owned. I loved this truck so much!!

 Below, it still has the original bumper on it, so I believe this may have been when we first got it. It is sitting here at our mechanics house. He put a lot of work into this thing seeing as it came originally with the engine sitting in the bed of the truck.

If my memory serves me right, I got my first Chevy before my license and was in the 15/16 years old range.....

Which makes this next picture a 22 years later picture-

 

 I still cant believe it!!!! Its a 2006 Chevy Silverado K1500 4x4 with 93k miles on it. Leather interior with rubber floor mats. 6 seater when the middle front seat is up and not used as a center console (which we've already had a kid ride up there). Has a nice bed liner.

It's a serious, serious upgrade from my first truck.

 We had tried shopping in town, and couldn't get taken seriously that we wanted a truck, not a pickup. No joke. It was really frustrating. So, we did some research on line and decided to drive out to Sacramento and Roseville to shop....where the real trucks live. It ended up working! My first stop was a Walmart to get a Travis Tritt's greatest hits CD for the ride home....the most awesome ride home I've ever driven!

 We scooped up the kids, and took the truck to meet it's home away from home...

 Truck (I haven't named it yet, so it's just "Truck" for now), meet Mt. Diablo. Diablo, meet Truck.

I can't thank my husband enough for making this happen. Yes, there are more conventional family vehicles, but none that would bring me this much joy, and allow me to be a mom, and still be me!! 

I Drive Fast

Or so I'm told. I don't get tickets, though. Except for once in Arkansas, but that's it's own post...moving on....

When Brian and I were down in SoCal we drove around Long Beach a bit. It just happened to be a day after the Long Beach Grand Prix.That's an Indy car race through the streets of Long Beach, and other fun activities.

 The course was just re-opening to traffic, but the fences and bleachers were still up. The advertisements were still all up along the sides of the course, the roads were covered in tire marks, and the corners were still marked with red and white paint, as well as barriers.....and we got to drive right down it!!!! It was super cool, and I was thinking about my mom the whole time. I knew she would have gotten such a kick out of it.

 

Then we went for breakfast at this Drive-Ins, Diners, and Dives place. It was a Dive.

After breakfast, we headed here.....