Gone Camping

We will be out camping till next week up at Shasta....which is looking more like a river and less like a lake these days.  Above is an older picture, below is from April of this year. Hiking down to the water will be interesting, but we are looking forward to getting away for a few days and relaxing regardless of how low the water is.

Below is the bridge the kids usually jump off of. They swim out to the arch and jump off of it.  90% of our swimming is usually done back in that spot behind the bridge. This pic was back in Feb. of this year. No jumping allowed this trip, and we're going to have to find a new swimming hole.

Going Back to Last Month.....

 Last month I finally got to go on a field trip with one of my kids!! The only field trip that has happened so far this year.  I didn't know we'd be starting off with wine, but that is a good incentive to get more parents to volunteer!  Anyhow, we were heading off to Sacramento to visit the capitol building, Sutter's Fort, Old Town Sac, and the Train Museum.  That's really a lot for one day!

 Yes, I found it hilarious that we were going to be pulling up to the state capitol building in these wine tour buses, and that a long line of kids would come staggering out.  What actually happened is that Sophie's teacher, Mr. Nick, missed the last step getting off the bus and landed face first on the pavement.  Must have been some fumes from the last tour left over in the bus. So these pictures are not in order and it's 100 here today and I'm cranky, so you will have to deal with them being out of order because I'm not fixing them : )

 After we went to the state capitol, we spent some time with our group of kids wandering around Old Town Sac before we went to the Train Museum.  I bought my group some of Old Towns famous mini fried donuts and later some Icee's cuz it was hot!

  Then it was finally time to go see the trains!

 But before we went to the train museum, we went to Sutter's Fort.

 They were using the sun and a magnifying glass to burn their names into the wood, it was surprisingly fast!

And below, last in this post, but first on the actual day we went....the inside of the state capitol building.  Did you know you can just walk up, go through a metal detector, and walk around inside?? Who knew.  In fact, the rooms where they pass the laws and debate stuff have audience seating upstairs because it has to be open to the public.

 

 Inside of the dome.

Twas a fun day. Long. But fun.

Redwood Ranch Stables

Over Spring Break, while my Dad was visiting, we were able to get out to Redwood Regional Park to visit Redwood Ranch Stables.

I've mentioned growing up with horses before, and one of the things my dad had really wanted to do was to go horse riding on the trails with all of us. While we were unable to find a company that does rides on Mt. Diablo, he was directed to Redwood Ranch Stables. 

The ranch's trail site says they started offering trail rides as of  May 1, 2014....they were more than accommodating to taking 6 of us out on the trails in April.

The ranch is literally up against the park boundary, so the trail access is pretty amazing.

By "pretty amazing"....I mean beautiful!

Even though I did grow up with horses, it had been somewhere around 20 years since I had rode, Brian...well he's never done any "real" riding, neither had the kids.  So we all started off a little wobbly. I was expecting maybe a little bonding time/instructional time pre-ride, but we just mounted up and took off pretty much.  Their horses are plow reined, rather than neck reined, which is how we reined growing up.  What does that mean, you ask? Well, it' sort of like the difference between power brakes/steering, and manual brakes/steering....plow reining is a lot more work, you really have to tug/pull to get the horse to do what you want....so that took some getting used to.  I.E.- to turn left with neck reining, you just barely move your hand to the left so that the right rein lays on the right side of the horses neck and it turns away from it.  Plow reining, you pull pretty hard on the left rein and bend the horses neck to the left. Not my style of handling a horse, but I still really, really enjoyed my time out on the trail.

 

There were a lot of dogs out there, and we did have a few scares. Myle's horse tried to kick a pit bull, another dog got dad and Sophie's horses pretty jumpy.  Emma's horse decided to take a right instead of a left at one point and then made a move like it was about to go off trail and run down a steep hill to get to where we were...but the wrangler with us talked her through getting him to back up and get headed back down to us.  Everyone handled their scares without freaking out, and stayed firmly in their saddles!  We had both a guide/wrangler gal, and one of the owners of the ranch riding with us.

Everyone was very helpful and friendly. We weren't rushed out after the ride, but invited to stick around as along as we wanted and were free to roam around and look at the ranch, horses, stables...whatever we wanted.

It really was a great time!

The kids loved it, and I think it brought back memories, as well as made new ones!

 

THANK YOU, DAD!!!!

A Fun One

Just registered the family for this fun and beautifully messy 5k at the end of this month! We are all so excited!! It just happens to benefit the American Diabetes Association.

Photo Credit - Wilkie Productions

Trails, Trails, and More HOT Trails

 It's been super hot here all week, like mid 90's. I've managed 2 runs, both just shy of 4. Pretty pitiful, but beautiful.  You guys know I don't do well in the heat, but it felt good to get out and get moving again.  The trails look so different now than a few months ago when I was training for Way Too Cool. There's so much grass! Which is pretty, but does make it hard to see the trail very far ahead of you, and the snakes are back out.  So it can be tricky.  Anyhow, here's a few pictures for you from this week.-

 California Poppies and Mustard covers a large part of the Mountain right now.

 I was really cooking in the above picture, starting up the last big climb to get back to the car.