First day in the bay

Well, there she is. Last weekend we decided to try her first maiden voyage in the ocean. And I can say it was a success. We were still waiting on the new drive shaft so using the old one that is a little bent made for a little more vibration and noise. We were also using a older propeller that Zac has recently changed.

We invited Nick and his girlfriend Jordan to come out with us. We thought we would do some Halibut fishing while we were out there but it really wasn't the best day to catch halibut. It was gorgeous out on the bay though, probably 80 degrees! We started off with some fishing and then ended up just hanging out. The roof makes for a very nice place to lay out. The table was also perfect for when it was time for me to make sandwiches for everyone. I must say this is my favorite boat that we have owned so far. 

On our way back from our little trip out into the bay we found a man who was stranded! We gave hime a tow back to the launch and he was so grateful. You just hope that if you were the one stuck that someone would do the same for you. Anyways I really don't have a lot to talk about for this post but I do have some pictures from our fun day!

 Nick and Jordan enjoying the cruise out

 Captain of the boat

 Headed under the 580 bridge to Paradise Cove

 Doesn't get much better then this!

 The "merman" that we rescued

A great day! The weather could not have been better.

I am a week behind with my blogging, so hopefully this week I can catch up and tell y'all about mine and Zac's trip out on the bay catching bay-rays and sharks! So much fun.

Go big or go home

You know the saying go big or go home? Well I felt like that would be a good title for my blog post today because I am going to talk to y'all about our newest boat.

Now Im sure all of you remember the monster fish that I caught. Of course I posted a picture of it to your left. Well I am still living off that catch. I talk about it all the time and if I can ever show anyone a picture….even random people…I will. It was a pretty exciting day for me to say the least. And that big fish really got me hooked (pun intended) on ocean fishing. Don't get me wrong, I love the lake. You could even say that I love lakes more then I love the ocean, but I have a feeling that my love for the ocean is going to be growing. Needless to say, after going out in the ocean in a 14' aluminum boat Zac and I decided that we needed a bigger boat. The search for the bigger boat went on for weeks, months even. Zac was on-line every single day and we even went to go look at a few. I wasn't impressed.

Finally one day Zac showed me a boat that looked a little to good to be true. It had everything we wanted in an ocean boat but what was wrong with it? It was all the way in Oklahoma! I just laughed it off like…yeah right Zac! Although Zac's wheels started turning. After looking at even more boats Zac still came back to this Oklahoma Uniflite. He started seriously talking about making the journey to go get this boat, weighing the pros and cons and adding up all the expenses. 

After e-mailing the owner of the boat and finding someone crazy enough to make the journey with him everything was all planned out. Zac was going to get off work at 8:00, drive to Oklahoma ( almost Missouri) pick up the boat, drive all the way home and go back to work. It would take him three days. He chose to take his 93 Dodge truck. It made it all the way there and almost all the way back. He was about 8 hours from home when it broke down. So after being awake for almost two days straight and towing a 23' boat now they had to sit and wait for Zacs dad to drive down with another truck and trailer. Zac was suppose to work that day but didn't end up getting to work till 2:00. 

So thats the short story of Zac driving to get the boat. Since we have had it home we were able to take it out to lake sonoma to makes sure it worked….and floated for that matter. We put the boat in the water, turned the key and it started right up! What a relief. I must say that I am excited about this boat and I feel like it is the best one we have owned. Zac has been fine tuning it the last few weeks, making sure everything is working and she will be sea worthy. 

My birthday is coming up and Zac asked me if I wanted to do a spa day or something for my birthday but I told him it would be fun to do a dinner cruise on the boat! So if the weather permits Zac and I are going to do a little dinner cruise out on the bay. I am excited about it. Did I mention that out boat has a little table? Its pretty sweet.

So anyways, I will try and get some better picture of our boat. Wish us luck!

Collins Lake

Isn't my little family cute? We had a nice mini camping trip this last week to Collins lake. Although we just had a camping trip to Big Sur, Zac and I wanted to have a get away of our own. I just so happened to be on spring break and Zac actually had 4 days off in a row so it worked out perfect. 

After doing a little research on some new lakes we thought we would just head back to Collins Lake. We had been there once before and it is only about 3 hours from where we live. Zac got off work on Wednesday morning and it took us a little bit to get loaded up with all the camping gear and get the boat ready to go. We ended up leaving around noon and getting to Collins about 3:00 in the afternoon. We were both surprised to see that Collins was more full then the last time we were there. Last time we went there was an island in the middle of the lake that we took Hudson to to run and play and it was completely under water. The original campsite that we wanted was closed so we ended up going to the opposite side, a little closer to the damn. It was actually a great campsite and pretty close to the water. One we set up our campsite we loaded up the boat and headed out to do a little fishing before it got to dark. Our usual routine is to let Hudson run around for a bit and then he will sleep while we do some fishing and that is exactly what we did. 

It always makes me so happy to see him run around and play. He is having so much fun. While me and Huds did a little playing Zac was getting the rods ready to do some trolling. We didn't do to well last time we were here so I didn't have my hopes up about catching a lot of fish. I guess if we really wanted to do some good fishing we would of gone to another lake. This was convenient and a nice little lake to get away to. Anyways, after letting Hudson get some running in we thought we would give 

it a go. We stayed out till it started to get dark and surprisingly I actually caught a fish and a pretty good sized one too! It was about an 18' rainbow trout. I was pretty excited to say the least. There was defiantly some screaming going on. We got the attention from another boat in the distance and a guy yelled out "hey, thats MY fish" but I told him I got to it first. He was probably out there for hours and then we came in and caught one. But I feel like thats how it is at Collins, its a difficult place to fish but when you do catch one its usually a decent size. A lot of the fishing report from their website says that most people catch them from the shoreline. Well I was just happy to have beaten the Collins lake skunk. After that fish we called it a day and headed back into camp so that we could cook some dinner and enjoy a warm fire. The night before we left I had made some homemade soup to take with us and also some banana bread. It was really yummy to have some fresh tasting soup to warm up the first night.

Sorry for the overload of ME pictures. Its just Hudson looks so cute I ad to share. The next day we decided to start our morning with a little trolling. We ate some delicious breakfast and headed out. We didn't have any luck. Before we knew it, it was time to head back in and cook up some lunch. I was feeling pretty tired because I didn't sleep very well the night before. After lunch I just sat down in my wonderful zero gravity chair while Zac did some organization of his tackle box. I thought about taking a nap but I really wanted to sleep good and usually when I take a nap I'll be wide awake when its bedtime. Once everything was organized and Huds and I did a little relaxing Zac and I thought we would change up our fishing a little and try bass. We headed across the lake and let Hudson run and swim and while he did that we did some bass fishing. Which I must say was much more exiting! We were getting bites right off the bat and we both caught two! Hudson likes the bass fishing too because instead of being in the boat he just hangs out with us.

After our more successful fishing we thought we would give one more go at trolling the lake before heading back for dinner. Still no success Zac and I started throwing out the idea of heading up to Bucks Lake since we were so close and we have had better luck at Bucks. So we decided after dinner we would get most of our stuff packed up and leave 5:00 in the mooring. We were a little concerned because Bucks usually closes down during the winter because they are all snowed in however our weather has been so nice lately we thought we would give it a go. 

5:00 came and its so hard to get out of a warm sleeping bag when its cold and dark outside! Once we got moving it wasn't to bad. We got all packed up and were on our way. I got a small bar of service to try and check the weather and it said Bucks was 29 degrees…Brrr. I was hoping that that would not be correct but it was about 30 degrees when we got there. We realized that we did have any night crawlers to fish with and since Bucks was

still pretty much closed for the winter we had no way of getting any. We drove by the resturaunt/bar and it was all closed up. We drove to the other side of the lake where the boat launch is and because the lake is so low the boat launch was unusable. We ended up just driving onto a steeper part of the beach to launch the boat. Surprisingly it wasn't as frigid cold as I was expecting. And once the sun came out it was actually quite nice. I have never seen a lake so calm before. It was so beautiful! And good thing it was beautiful because the fishing was not good! I got a few bites and ended up catching a little kokanee. After doing a few loops by the damn we decided it was time to call it quits. We were pretty hungry and it would take us at least an hour to get to a place where we could eat. Plus we were suppose to head over to Lake Wildwood to meet up with Zacs family. So off we went.

After getting some food and a few hours later we made it to Lake Wildwood for some family time. Of course being on a lake Zac had to throw in a line and ended up catching a bass. I just sat in the sun enjoying the beautiful view and Hudson was passed out in the back of Steves truck. It was fun being able to hang out and chat with Zacs family. We stayed till about 9:00 and then headed back home. We were both pretty tired and happy to be in our own bed that night. That was our trip in a nutshell. 

Zac is back at work today and Hudson and I are taking it easy. I actually didn't feel very good yesterday and I feel like I am still getting over something today so I am taking it easy. To much going on and its catching up with me! Hope everyone has a good weekend.

Big Sur

The week before last I was hanging out at this loverly place. When you look at a picture like this how could you want to live anywhere else but California!? We have it all. What a beautiful place to live. 

I wanted to do our first camp trip of the year so I looked at the calendar and found Zac's 4 day so that we could plan a trip. I invited my sister, her husband, my best friend Janelle and her husband. My sister and Bob were unable to make it for this trip. It felt like we were looking forward to this trip for a long time but before I knew it, it was here! 

I had to work on Friday but I was able to get off and hour early. Luckily Janelle and Dylan were able to leave early and reserve us a campsite. On our trip down we got a call from Janelle that the Kirk Creek Campground the campsite we originally were going to stay at, was full. I was pretty shocked that a campsite was full in March. I didn't think that there would be that many people ready to camp so early in the year but then again we sure have been getting some beautiful weather! Anyways, Janelle called and said that they were just down the road at Plaskett Creek campground. At first I was a little upset that we didn't get the original campground that we had wanted but after thinking about the lack of tress and the wind from being on a bluff….I was happy to take our second option that was more of a park like setting. 

Zac and I probably arrived around 9:30. We set up our tent and the headed right over to the campfire to relax! We didn't end up staying up to late because I had worked all day and then after a 5 1/2 hour drive I was pretty pooped. I was pretty shocked to find that our new campground was full when we pulled in. I am thankful that Janelle and Dylan were able to get there a little early to save us a spot!

When we woke up and cooked breakfast we all decided that we wanted to go on a hike and we also wanted to see the Mcway waterfall. I had a little trouble finding a place to hike with a dog. You are not allowed to take a dog on state park trails. We had to drive up the road probably about 20-30 minutes before getting out of a state park. I was excited to go on a hike! After about 45 minutes Janelle and Dylan were ready to head back down. Although I would of liked to keep going I was happy to head back down and go check out the waterfall. Hudson was not welcome there but he was content from our little hike so we left him in the jeep. 

The hike to the water fall was .64 miles so very short! It was a warm beautiful sunny day. After we saw the waterfall we decided that we would head back to camp to eat some lunch and then maybe walk down to the beach that was right across from our campsite. Once we got back to camp we made some lunch and played a little corn hole before we headed down to the beach. We took Huddy with us and although there were 

quite a few people there we walked to the very end of the beach and let him off the leash to run around. I am always a little nervous to let that boy loose when there are people and dogs around but he stayed over by us the entire time and he just has so much fun running in the waves and checking out every little nook and cranny her can find.

As the sun began to set we were back in camp getting the fire going. We had our music and our drinks and were enjoy some time together. We talked about heading down to pismo the next morning. Although I wasn't to thrilled about having to drive almost an extra two hours to pismo everyone seemed to want to go and there was talk about renting some quads. It wasn't the most ideal trip to have a dog and ride quads at pismo but if someone rented a quad I was going to ride it! Once we got there the idea of quads was out the window and we decided we would just take the jeep down sand highway and I wanted to let hudson out to run around since he had been in the cat forever. By the time we were done with all that it was time to find some lunch, I was hungry! 

It was pretty busy in down town SLO. There was a certain restaurant that Janelle and Dylan wanted to go to but after driving by and seeing the long line out the door we were out! We finally found a place with a patio so we could eat and Hudson could sit with us. The joys have bringing a dog camping with you. Although it really was a last minute trip to Pismo. After our bellies were full it was back to camp!

When we got back I wanted to take Huddy down to the beach and let him run some more. Zac was a great sport and came with me. The beach was much less crowded and come to think of it so was the campsite. It was Sunday night so I guess a lot of people needed to head back home. Well, it felt like we had the place to ourselves. Which I didn't mind.

And before we knew it our camp trip was already over! It was very fun but I must say it did go by quickly. It was Monday morning and we packed everything up, said our goodbyes and headed back home. It felt good to get our first camping trip done! Although I must say it left me wanting more. Its so relaxing to be out in nature and just enjoy the peace and calm. 

I am pretty calm right now though because I am on spring break. I was able to go grocery shopping and do a pretty deep cleaning on the house. Zac gets home tomorrow and we will be packing up the jeep and the little boat and heading out for another camping trip, just the two of us….well three counting Huddy. Although I love love camping with people I am sure excited for it to just be Zac and I, we need a little time alone. 

Beach Day

I haven't blogged in a really long time. I have had a lot going on so I feel like I have a ton of stuff to catch up on. I am going to start with this weekend and then I think that Ill have to go back in time. But for now a quick post about my day at the beach.

The weather has been pretty gorgeous up here. Last weekend Zac and I went on our first camping trip of the year in Big Sur. It was awesome (blog post to follow). Since we were busy last weekend I thought that this weekend we could plan a little beach trip. I texted zacs brother Nick and invited him and his girlfriend to join us. I thought we could take the dogs and let them run around and have some fun. I am very thankful that Hudson has a friend and that him and Dozer are getting along.

We met up at safeway at 12:30 to pick up some snacks and drinks. Then it was off to the beach. Zac and I had gone to this area about a year or more ago with our friends Chelsie and Jason. We found a secluded beach for the dogs to run around. It is mostly secluded because you have to go down a cliff to get to it.  We gave nick a bit of a warning about the trek down but I don't think they were really prepared. Hudson is like a mountain goat and he zoomed down. I am always so amazed at how well he does on rocks. He scares me half to death sometimes but he makes it seem like its so easy.

Once we got down to our private beach for the day we let the boys run and play. We set up our music, some towels and just hung out. It was nice to actually have a sunny semi warm day at the beach. We were there a few hours before the fog started to roll in and it got a little chilly. We decided it was time to head back up the cliff to our vehicles. I had made reservations and Willis Wine Bar at 6:30 so we had enough time to head home, freshen up and then head to dinner. 

Hudson slept the entire ride home, he was pooped! Once Zac and I got home we realized how tired we were and took a little nap before going to dinner. It was a great way to start out my spring break! 

Yesterday Zac and I were able to spend all day at home just hanging out. It was really nice. Zac was getting some work done on our new boat (blog post to follow). It was such a beautiful sunny warm day out that I just sat in the boat while he worked away!

Early in the afternoon Zac got a text from our friend Kyle about stopping by to see the boat. I haven't seen Kyle or Lorena since they had there little baby Tomas 3 weeks ago so I was excited to see them! They live pretty close to us so they were able to walk over to our house. When they got here the boys were in the boat working while Lorena and I sat on the porch with little Tomas catching up. I can't believe how much hair that kid has! All my friends are having babies with tons of hair. He is pretty cute and a very good baby.

They ended up leaving around 2:00 and Zac and I decided it was time to get some lunch and run a few errands. As much as I like going out and doing things I must say it sure feels good to just hang out at home sometimes. Get things done around the house. Zac left for work today so its just me and Huds. I am planning on doing a deep cleaning on our house. I swear one of the hardest things for me to do is keep this house clean. I feel like I can never keep up with it.  I am going to try my best to clean up today so that tomorrow I can get some grocery shopping in because Wednesday Zac and I are going to go camping! I want to take advantage of my spring break and sometimes getting away is the best feeling.  Camping is an inexpensive way to have fun. Hope y'all had a great weekend!

Things seem to always work out

Happy Monday. The reason for the title of my post tonight is because everyone up here in northern california was freaking out about our "drought". Well I say you can't do anything about the weather so might as well enjoy the sun shine AND things seem to always work out so don't worry about it. What happened this weekend? Rain, rain and more rain and everyone was happy to see it here, even this so cal gal.

My momma was able to come up this weekend so it  made this gloomy weekend a little brighter! Zac and I bought her a gift certificate for Alaskan Airlines for her birthday so she was able to use some of that to come up and visit. Zac was actually home on Saturday and we drove over to our little airport here in Santa Rosa to pick her up. It was a little sketchy on the drive over with all the rain but driving with my hubby made me feel safe because he knows how to handle the crazy conditions like hydroplaning on the freeway.

We headed home to just relax. That night I decided I would cook a new recipe that I had found on Pinterest. It is a roasted red pepper soup and it was delicious! It really hit the spot on such a cold rainy night. But our whole day wasn't just relaxing we also did a little DIY. I have this little table that I've had….well to long. It didn't really go with the new decor in my house but I jet haven't really known what to do with it. My mom had a great suggestion that she had done to a dresser at home. She always has great ideas! SO here is the before and after! Goodbye black, hello white and faux wood.

Thank for all of your help momma I think it looks great!

Zac had to head back to work on Sunday but mom and I decided to do our usual trip over to Calistoga and St. Helena. I wanted to try out a new place in Calistoga so we ended up having brunch at 1226 Washington. The breakfast was pretty good. I am more excited to try it when its a warm summer night because they have a really cool patio area. But we were able to stay dry inside with a fireplace. After brunch we headed over to St.Helena. We stopped in a few stores and I bought buddy a gift of course.  Then it was back home to relax and work on my curtains.  As you might remember I put up curtains up in our living/dining room area except they were to long so my mom wanted to hem them all for me. My living room is really coming together! We watched a movie and recorded the walking dead! We were very excited that we were able to watch it together. It was a really fun relaxing day.

Before we knew it , it was already Monday. we both ended up sleeping in and went out to brunch. After brunch we stopped at TJ Maxx and Marshalls to do a little shopping. I wanted to find a small narrow table for my living room. I had in mind what I was looking for, now we just needed to find it…and inexpensive. We ended up finding something that would work but it was black and needed to be painted. Not a big deal. I must say that I am very happy with how it turned out.

Don't mind the cardboard at the bottom. I had to touch up the paint and wanted to see how it looked in place. Its hard to tell from here but I also bought some new frames at Marshalls, they are super cute wood frame. I think it looks just beautiful.  Anyways, that took up most of the day. And then I had to drive my momma to the airport. I can't believe how quickly this weekend went by. Crazy.

Now Im just sitting on my couch taking it easy.  Zac comes home tomorrow! Can you believe it!? At work for only two days and then home for four? He is actually getting to experience his normal schedule. Although this coming weekend he is back on a three day. However, we do have valentines evening together! An actual holiday where we get to see each other. Pretty cool. Im not a big valentines day person I am more of a its Hudsons birthday person! I can't believe that he is going to be four years old. We got him when he was seven and half weeks old. Speaking of Hudson let me show you what he was up to last night.

Yeah, hes a biggen. You can't really tell from this picture on the left but if you look at the one below you can see it next to Huddys paw and see the size of it. Yuck. Don't get me wrong I am happy that Hudson is killing these rodents but lets just say Zac can clean that thing up tomorrow. Thanks babe, love you!

Well I hope that you all had a wonderful weekend and that you really enjoy this fabulous week that has started. Cheers!

Before and during

I guess I don't really know what to talk about tonight. But I do know that I feel like I need to catch up on my blog. Its not that things aren't going on in my life and I have nothing to blog about…its in fact the complete opposite. I have a lot going on and when I have any free time why would I want to blog about it when I can finally relax!?

Well tonight I would like to talk to all you readers ( when I say all I mean mostly my mom and sister who I am sure are the only two who read this) about my house. I guess I should call it my home, cause it has been feeling more like a home lately then just a house. For those of you who have purchases a house you know how stressful and emotional it can be. For those of you who have yet to purchase a house, well, good luck! I strongly believe in the whole "everything happens for a reason" saying. And at first I didn't understand why Zac and I would place offers on houses and why we wouldn't get them. Now I know. Holding out for the perfect house for us.

We had a few things to get done to the house before we could even move in. First and one of the most important things was to put up a fence so that my sweet boy Hudson could run free, well, not free but you get the idea. Then there was removing a wall in the living/dining room, refinishing the hardwood floors and painting the entire inside of the house. When that was finished Zac and I spent the first night in our house on June 22nd. From then, it was game on.

 So this is what Zac and I were dealing with when we first moved in….I know, who paints their house peach with red and green trim? However, for some reason we saw past the ugly colors and the jungle yard and saw a diamond in the rough.  I have always liked ranch style houses, well this is might be considered an older version of a ranch style house. I have also always loved the look of craftsman style homes and I felt like this had a hint of that charm. The stats were things we liked, three bedrooms, two bathrooms, 1880 square feet, big master bedroom at the back of the house with a hug walk in closet…okay the closet was totally a bonus. Plus we also get to enjoy a laundry room, a detached garage and a little over 1/4 acre of land! We saw something and since the day we have moved in we have been working like crazy to turn this house into a home.

 Well, here is what have done within the last six months. As you might have noticed the color of the house was one of the first things to go! We painted out house a beautiful dark grey color with a nice bright white trim and I must say I love it. I do NOT however, love the door but the door I want is pretty pricey so it hasn't been a priority….obviously.  Zac was a dear and got rid of all those jungle plants in the front yard, flattened it out and we put in 1500 square feet of grass…you heard me right, 1500 square feet of grass! Im pretty sure thats bigger than the last house I lived in. Next will you please notice the new gravel because we got rid of the round driveway and if you look in the very back we put up a new fence! Its all coming together.

 Before we moved in….I guess they really liked plants. But what Im thinking…is if you like plants so much then why don't you make your yard beautiful and stop putting a billon potted plants all over your front porch? Oh well, to each their own.

Sorry bout the crooked picture and for that red door. The red isn't really that bad but I just don't like that door at all! One of my favorite things to do on a warm night it sit out on the porch with my hubby and enjoy a glass of wine. Its just the best.

 So here are some of the before pictures. Yuck. Im sorry but just so not my style.  So as you can see no front fence and that is a pretty big issue with having an alaskan malamute. He likes to check things out and thats a nice way of me saying he will run away. So lets check out some after pictures…which I don't know if I can be calling these pictures after yet because you are always working and changing things on your house. But this is whats going on right now.

Much better view wouldn't you say so? Its nice to come home to not only something you enjoy looking at but something you worked really hard to do! Well I think I am going to call it a night. Maybe my next blog will be pictures from the inside of the house because I feel like it is just as or more dramatic change then the outside! Hope you all have a good week. Mine stated today, I usually have Mondays off but we had a meeting about our new laser at work today and scheduled two surgeries so I offered to assist with them. It was a nice little day, little work, little grocery shopping and still able to relax at home. Alright, see ya!