December Catchup Part 1

So to say we have been busy this December is an understatement.  Between winding up Budget and Planning at work and keeping busy during the weekends, I haven't had much time to post on this blog.  I was able to update the style of the blog, do you like it?  So this and the next blog will catch you up to what we have been doing up to winter break.

As the previous blog stated, we are now officially in our rainy season.  In fact we are facing two three storms this weekend that has closed I-5 at Lake Shasta.  However, for the most part, they have been major storms that push in for a couple of days followed by beautiful days of sun.

A couple of weeks ago, we decided to take advantage of a good day to take a hike by the Los Vaqueros Reservoir.  It is located just north of Livermore and just southeast of us about 15 miles (behind Mt. Diablo).  I was surprised to learn it was completed in 1997.  I wonder if it had anything to do with the earthquake swarm in the early 2000's (nerd me).  Emma was supposed to go on a field trip last year to the lake; however, got sick.  So finally we were able to make the trip out.

They have a nice, but small interpretive center there that talks about the history of the lake as well as the primary use.  This is a lake is a huge holding area for the Contra Costa Water district so that they can adjust the water quality through the year since they get most of its water from the Delta.  When the tides are high, the salinity of the water increases with folks not liking the salty water of course.

It is very pretty there with plenty of trails to hike.  We decided to follow the climb on the north side of the lake that took in sweeping views of the lake.  There were a lot of folks fishing there also (we eyed our fishing spots).  On the top of the trail, it had wonderful views of the Central Valley, the Snow Capped Sierras, and Mt. Diablo.  Beth and I could overlook the first quarter of the 50K we did back in April.  It is such a pretty valley, and now with the recent rains, the hills are turning green.  

The fun thing about hiking anymore with the kids, is that we basically look for hills to climb so we can run down them.  The overall climb was 1300 feet, which meant a nice run back to the car.  We did stop at the puddles to look at the wildlife tracks.  There were plenty of bobcat, coyote, and deer tracks.  Nothing bigger though (for shame).
 
I had the following Monday off.  The company had its holiday party the Sunday night before, and gave everyone else time to recover.  Well since of course we didn't go to the holiday party Beth and I took advantage of the kids being in school and did a run out of Castle Rock. The creeks were full which made for a great run. You can find the run detail on my other blog here.

 
I will leave you with a couple pictures from a recent break we took in field service.  Most of the time anymore, we go to the Chevron Extra Mile since we can get the kids what they want and the coffee is better.  So we haven't been to our old stomping ground (Sweet Affairs) in awhile.  So of course when we went there Myles wanted a cupcake.  You would think being six year, he would stop wearing his food; however, he is Myles and is always looking for a laugh. So here is the most recent picture.  Oh well....

Fun in the Rain!!!

We had a rainstorm and a half this past weekend!!  Keep in mind, what this really means it that we have really heavy downpours (in California terms) over 2 to 12 hours with breaks of sun.  This meant we got over 5 inches of rain in Concord over 4 days.  Keep in mind the entire total for November averages 3 inches and for December 4 inches.  But needless to say it was wet!

Now what did we do in the rain?  Well we run of course.  Well not really.  Plan was to have the kids run at the kids race held at the North Face 50.  This is the championship for the North Face trail series and is one of the few races where there is a nice purse for the winner.  So anybody who is anybody in trail racing is there.  It is a two day event, with the 50-miler, 50K, marathon, and marathon relay the first day, followed by the half-marathon, 10K, and 5K.

The challenge this year was that the course was so muddy that a few of the elite runners got lost, or had to slogged through the mud.  Our problem is that we didn’t get the e-mail to let us know that the kids race would be cancelled.  Oh well.  The kids were majorly disappointed until they realized that they could have just as much fun playing in the mud as running.  In fact they spent a bit perfecting the belly slide, then were asked by the announcer to demonstrate for the crowd (that was still there) the proper technique!   Needless to say, I have a feeling that our kid’s pictures now populate a few hundred peoples Facebook pages!!

We also enjoyed the walk back to the car.  It was along the course and we passed a few runners that were completing their run.  You could tell by the look  that they had really been pushed to their limit and then see the kids covered in mud and the biggest grin come over their face.

Then we faced the challenge of how to get the kids home in the muddy clothes.  The Headlands must have the blackest mud in the Bay Area, because it took three washes to get the clothes back close to normal and two baths a piece for each of the kids.  But in the end, we had a great time.