Christmas Party

Well, last night I had my 4th Christmas party with my office.  This year we headed over to John Ash for dinner.  It is such a beautiful venue, but I might be biased because thats where Zac and I had our wedding.  We had to work yesterday but only a half day.  Then we headed home to get ready and back to the office for some wine and to open our secret santa/white elephant gifts.  

I feel so blessed to be part of such an amazing office.  We have a really great group of people right now. I think we ended up getting to John Ash around 7:00 and probably stayed until almost 11:00.  We closed the place down.  

Now that the party is over we have two more days of work and then we will be off till January 5th.  Its hard to believe that 2015 is going to be over soon.  Its been quite the year, one of my favorites!  Im hoping that 2016 will be even better!  

My family is going to be coming to our house for Christmas this year.  It will be our first time hosting Christmas at our house. I feel a little overwhelmed that everything will go smoothly but luckily its my family and I know we will have fun no matter what.  My parents are going to be driving up on Tuesday and I will be picking my sister up from the airport here in Santa Rosa on Wednesday.  As for Thursday ( Christmas eve) we are going to be spending it with the Fleckners.  Zac has to work on Christmas day so I thought it would be nice for all of us to get together.  

Well, I know this is a short post but once I got going I kinda realized I don't have much to talk about. So Merry Christmas everyone!

The Smith

Well, the hubs and I just recently got back from a wonderful trip to the Smith river.  We fell in love with this place when we were there in January and knew that we would be going back one day, we just didn't know we would be lucky enough to go twice in the same year!

Who knew that November would be our vacation month.  I usually think of summer as the time to head out on vacation but for us it was November and I must say it worked out well.  Just a lot of driving weekend after weekend.

So I was able to only work a half day on Friday, Zac came to work to pick me up and we headed up north.  The Smith river is practically on the California/Orgeon border so it took us a solid 5 and a half hours to get up there.  The cabin that we stay at is in a small town called Gasquet ( which I learned is pronounced gas-kee).  Zac and I had planned to drive up Friday, fish Saturday, relax Sunday and then head back home Monday.  A few days before we left on our trip Zac told me that he had booked us a guided fishing trip, I was pumped! The last time we were up we fished for two days and didn't get ONE nibble! Hopefully this time would be different.

I think we arrived at the cabin about 6:40.  They have two options to get to the cabin. Last time we were up we drive our truck right to the cabin which takes a little extra time because your on a dirt road up the mountain and then all the way back down to the ranch.  This time we decided to take the bridge!  The have a small bridge that you part your vehicle at and then a little golf cart comes and picks you up to take you to your cabin. It worked out perfect for us.

We cooked dinner once we were settled in and headed to bed fairly early because we would be up early to head out on our fishing adventure.  I had been keeping an eye on the weather since we booked our trip.  I was hoping that it wouldn't be pouring rain on us…..and we lucked out. It rained up until we arrived and then Saturday it was pretty much dry and then Sunday and Monday was back to raining.  It worked perfect for us.  

So Saturday morning arrived and the alarm went off at 5:00!  We were up, getting ready, eating breakfast and dressing warm! It was still dark out when we left the cabin to meet our guide.  Of course that always makes me a little nervous because I don't like being in a boat when its dark but before we knew it the sky started to lighten up.  We met our guide at the local (only) gas station in the town of Hiouchi.  The first thing I noticed on his boat was the paint job….it had bananas painted on it.  If you know anything about fisherman they can be very superstitious….and having bananas on your boat is a no go. It made me smile.

We hopped in his truck and we were off!  We launched the boat with a few other people.  It was so interesting to listen to Mick (our guide) talk about how the weather looked, how the water looked, just constantly checking things out.  He has been doing this a LONG time!

So for those of you who don't know we were in a drift boat.  Bascially a boat with no motor that just drifts down the river.  Mick had a set of oars that allowed him to guide the boat and slow it down when needed.  You could tell that this was going to be a very relaxing trip.  Nothing that he was doing was rushed.  He took his time with everything but I think thats what helped us get on the fish!  It was cold out when we first started, mostly because of the wind….although if you're around Mick you don't talk about the "W" word!  Lucky for me he had a nice little heater that ran off propane and when the "W" word wasn't blowing it out it kept me nice and toasty!

As we drifted down the river we tried a few different types of bait and types of fishing.  The first fish we hooked was a small trout which its always fun to hook a fish but we were going for the BIG guys!  The next fish I caught was a salmon, but it was a silver salmon which you aren't allowed to keep so back into the water to live another day.  Zac was the first to hook up to the king salmon.  Even though I didn't catch it I was just happy to have a fish on the boat!  The drift boat trip wasn't free so we had to make it worth it by actually catching some fish! After the high of Zac catching his fish the pressure was on for me.  However, I told Zac I was going to hold out to catch the big fish.  And I did.  As soon as I started to close my eyes I heard Mick saying "HIT IT! HIT IT!" and I set the hook!  He put up a pretty good fight and before I knew it he was in the net and Mick was giving me a high five! I was so excited.  I could of stopped right then and there but we ended up drifting down the river until dark! It was a fun and successful trip!

Our boat and Mick our guide for the day

 Zacs little baby fish 

 And mine :)

When we were done fishing for the day all I was thinking about was the hot tub! Did I forget to mention that our cabin on the river has a deck with a hot tub? Its heaven.  So a little hot tub, a little food, some Srubs (we're been re-watching all the seasons) and bed. It really was the perfect day.

The next day we woke up to some wind and rain but we were warm in our cabin. We tried to sleep in as much as possible before getting up to make breakfast.  Today was going to be our day to do nothing. And thats exactly what we did….oh and watch a Christmas movie. Before we knew it our trip was over and Monday had arrived.  We got up pretty early so we could head home to Huddy! Its always fun being able to come home to him. Thanks for another amazing trip Smith river! Until next time!

Already?

 Well, its still hard for me to believe that Im sitting in my living room right now and there is my Christmas tree. Where did the time go?  So after are busy Thanksgiving holiday we decided that we would go pick out our tree on Monday. Pretty much because it was the ONLY weekend we would be able to do it.

The thing about heading up to the mountains to get your tree is that you have to be available pretty much ALL day.  It takes a few hours to drive to Lake Pillsbury, get up the mountain and then find the perfect tree!  The first year that we went it was cold but sunny, second year there was snow everywhere and last year it was pouring rain so I was wondering what the weather would be like for this years trip.  I had a friend who was up over the weekend and she said there was some snow but as we drove up I could see a little white on the mountain tops but not much.

We probably left our house at around 7:00.  Pretty early for a day off but we wanted to try and get home to make sure we could still put up the tree and the christmas lights on the house.  One we reached the lake we were met with a herd of elf.  I am always surprised that every time I go to Pillsbury I see them but I guess if no one is hunting them they are okay just hanging out in the open.

This year we decided to bring Hudson with us. Its hard to believe that this is his first year picking out a tree with us bit the last few times we have gone it has been with Zacs family and his brother usually brings their dogs which Hudson doesn't get along very well with.  But this year was his year!  We let him ride inside the truck because it started to rain on the way up. Plus he doesn't bark as much when he is inside the truck.  When we finally made it up the mountain we found a spot and thought we would take a look around.  We didn't have much luck finding a tree but it started snowing on us and it was just beautiful.  There is something about being up in the mountains and its so quite but you can hear the sound of the snow hitting the leaves.

No luck at our first spot so we hopped back in the truck and headed to our next spot.  We ended up riding a tree.  I must say it isn't the most attractive tree that we've had but it was all worth it just for the experience.  My favorite part was being able to see my sweet Huddy run around in his element.  He has really become such a good dog.  He would run out of sight just doing his own thing and then Zac would give a whistle and before we knew it he would come running through the trees to come check in with us.

After we found the tree we loaded it in the back of the truck and it was back down the mountain to get everything set up! Hudson was passed out in the back of the truck! Im pretty sure he slept most of the way home.  Once we got back to our house it was GO time.  I stayed outside a bit to help Zac with the lights.  Our new garage is pretty tall so I wanted to keep an eye one Zac with his ladder.  When the lights were on outside we moved inside and while Zac took it easy I worked on the tree.  I had to be careful where I put certain ornaments because not all my branches had the strength to hold them up…..my poor charlie brown tree.  But, its up and we are all ready!  One of my favorite things about the holidays is Zac sets everything up on a timer so when I get home the lights are on outside, the tree lights are on inside and the heater is on warming up the house. Its a nice way to come home!  So now we are trying to get the house back in shape before we are off again for our next mini vacation! We sure have been busy and I don't think it will stop until the holidays come to an end.  Hope y'all are enjoying the holiday season and can pick out a beautiful tree!

 My cute little family!

The new garage with all her lights! (Thanks hubby for working so hard to build a beautiful shop and give it electricity!)