Mount Diablo State Park

Over the weekend the girls told me they wanted to go hiking. Hmmm, okay. I decided it would be fun to take them up to the summit of Mt. Diablo. We always are talking about it as we drive into Walnut Creek and I was able to find a relatively short trail around the summit that I thought they could handle.

After a long morning of swim team photos we headed out. I underestimated the amount of time it would actually take us to drive to the summit. When we reached the guard booth and paid our entrance fee ($10) I was informed it was another 30 minutes to the summit. I kept that information under close guard and read all of the signs on the way up to the kids.

Once we finally reached the summit I was actually amazed at how excited the kids were, they just kept saying "this is so awesome!". I'm not sure if I would have thought it was that cool at their age. We explored the observation deck and the visitor center. The center is relatively small but the kids loved all of the activities  and the information movie that was being played.

At the summit

Eventually I convinced them to head down to the Mary Bowerman Trail, which circles the mountain just below the summit. It's .7 miles and I had read that the first part of the trail is wheelchair accessible, so I figured that meant it would be kid friendly. Of course, that would have worked out great, if we had started at the start and not the end.

At the trail head or trail end as we discovered. 

It was all going great until the trail narrowed and the steep cliff to the right started to make me nervous since Miss. Ky has a skill of tripping over her own feet. When the bugs and various creatures started increasing in numbers and Syd started saying she was scared, I decided it was time to turn-around.

When we got back to the car, I found the start of the trail on the other side of the street, but by that point they were over the whole "hiking" thing. I told them they tried it and that was great, and if they didn't enjoy it that was okay as well. They decided they wanted to head up the visitors center one more time.

The actual summit is inside the visitor's center, they were
so excited to be standing on the top of the summit

Summer has arrived

We've been on hiatus over the school year but with both girls out of school we are gearing up for a fun filled summer. Mostly we will be at our pool as Sydney is swimming on swim team for the first time ever. This is scary for us as parents as we realize (or I realize) I just dedicated my entire summer to the pool and swim meets. If this is something she loves, I'm happy to support it and tote her all over town so she can swim her heart out.

She had her first meet over the weekend and I think we fared pretty well for rookie parents. We arrived early to make an attempt at getting somewhat decent parking and hopefully a spot to set up base (chairs and cooler). Thankfully Sydney was only swimming in two events, freestyle and backstroke. Even with only two events were were there from 8am until about 12:15pm. Sydney did fantastic and I'm super proud of her, she took over 3 seconds off of her backstroke time in just one week. Kylie on the other hand started crying that she wanted to go home after Sydney completed her heat of freestyle. Okay, so I may need to find some alternative arrangements for Kylie for the summer, as I'm not sure we will last through too many more meets.

Besides swimming I purchased some bridge books for the girls to make sure they stay sharp on their academics over the summer. Okay, not so much a concern for Kylie but if her sister has something she must also! We will be hitting the library this week to start their summer reading program and check out their Discover and Go pass program.

Yesterday they decided they wanted to go hiking. Hmm, okay. I researched today some places that we could go "hiking" with a 4 year old. This little girl will run her heart out with you, but complains about too much walking. When the weather cools down a little bit we are going to check out the Mary Bowerman Trail at the summit of Mount Diablo. It appears to be a fairly short and easy trail around the summit and should offer some great views. I'll let you know how that works out for my little hikers.

Our family garden is growing beautifully! In fact, my garden is still full with my winter vegetables, so for Mother's Day the family built me a second bed. While I wait for my garlic to cure and my onions to be ready (late July) I need to start planting some more in the summer garden. So far we have tomatoes, a cucumber and some parsley thanks to my mother-in-law. Scott also installed a drip system, which will make my life easier.

I've been experimenting with some new recipes geared for athletes. The results have been great for me and I've even found some family friendly ones! I'll share those with you over the summer.

If you are looking for some good books over the summer, I suggest checking out the Goodreads website. You know when someone mentions they read a great book and you try to remember it? Yeah, that never works for me either. I love Goodreads because I can keep track of all the books I have read, want to read and what my friends are reading. Check it out and friend me.