I'm a busy gal

I have been a little slow on my blogging so now I have to do a post just to update y'all on what I have been up to. And I've been busy!

The hubs and I headed up to Fort Bragg the end of April to do a little fishing. Although we weren't lucky to catch any salmon we were able to get limits of ling cods.  We couldn't send down a line without getting a bite before we even hit the bottoms.  It was quite a good time.  And those lings put up a really good fight. Love catching me some big fish!

Then we are going to move on to early May. Zac and I had been discussing getting me a Jeep since they came out in 2011.  We just loved that new body style however at the time they were SO expensive and we just couldn't afford it.  You might remember my black jeep wrangler that Zac bought me, that was what we could afford at the time. And I loved it. Then one day he comes home with my new truck…so long jeep and hello truck.  Well I've had that truck for about 9 months.  In February Zac and I started to talk about building a new garage and with that new garage our discussion about the jeep came back up! It just made more sense for Zac to have a big truck that he could tow the boat with and do all the stuff he needs instead of having to borrow it from me. Anyways…long story short the beginning of   May we went to go pick up my Jeep!

Zac told me that he wanted to get me a vehicle that I really wanted and boy did he.  It is perfect! I love everything about this Jeep. I can't believe how fancy it is, Im just not used to it after driving around my big truck.  

Moving on to mid May. I know this blog is kind of all over the place but bare with me here while I get you caught up on everything. Okay so next up is Color Me Rad.  So at the beginning of the year Rebecca (from my office) suggested that we all do a run together.  She got us all signed up for a 5K called Color Me Rad, maybe some of you have heard of it before but for those who haven't it is a run where they spray you with colored powered until you are covered.  Now, Im no runner but if Im going to run might as well have something fun going on during! We got to the race at 8:15.  We were able to walk from my house because it was right at the fairgrounds. Not everyone from work could make it but we still had six of us there.  My doc was kind enough to pay for all of us to go, thanks Dr.Jay!

I had never done a 5K before but Rebecca is a runner and she had done this exact race last year so she new exactly what to do and where to go.  Before the race started the music was blasting and they had some Zumba dancers up on stage getting everyone warmed up before the race.  Once it was time everyone gets herded to the starting line.  Luckily they have you start at different times so that there is not a stampede of people all at once. They do the count down and then off we go!  There are different areas throughout the race where they are throwing colored powder at you. I was quite impressed with myself because for not being a runner I actual ran the whole time.  Once you go through the finish line they hand you water, a granola bar and a packet of of colored powered.  Then everyone gathers together and another count down goes off and then BOOM! Everyone throws the powered up and its just a cloud of color. When you can finally see again you are covered! Here is our end result.

All in all it was a great experience and one I can check off my list. I must say that 2015 has been a very busy year already but I am absolutely loving it! 

Fisher Girl Tuff

So after I had my amazing birthday trip to pismo beach I was able to come back home and then go on a fishing trip with my hubby.  Salmon season opened up the beginning of April and I had just been itching to get out there and try and catch some salmon.  We had such good luck last time we were in Fort Bragg ( minus the whole boat getting stuck incident) we decided we would head up that way and see if we could do it again.

We left at about 5:00 in the morning and I think it took us almost three hours to get there with towing the boat.  I tired to sleep in the back of the truck but I have never been very good at sleeping in cars. Although I was excited about fishing I still got that gut wrenching feeling of when we were stuck. The memories were back and they were the not so good ones. I though to myself as long as the launch goes okay and we make it out into the ocean I'll be a-okay.

Things worked out nicely. Luckily the tide was a bit higher then the last time we launched and although it was only about 3 feet deep we out it out safely.  Once we got out there even though it wasn't to crazy of a swell I started to feel a bit sick.  The boys were getting all the bait and rods ready and I just sat down and closed my eyes.  I think it was about an hour of fishing without anything before things started to really heat up.  Once we caught our fist fish it was non-stop.  Everytime we turned the boat around to go back we would catch another fish. I think Zac caught the first one, Kyle caught the second one and I got the third.  Mine was the smallest out of all of them which I wasn't to happy about so I told Kyle and Zac that I wanted to catch a big one.  My dear sweet husband asked me what I wanted to catch it on and I told him to put "pinky" out, which is my black rod with my pink AVET.  As soon as it was placed in the rod holder it went off! There was my big fish.  It was quite a work out trying to reel that guy in.  He ran couple times, but in the end I won! It was so much fun and the biggest fish of the trip.  We still had two more fish to catch for limits, which we did. I think we were on the water for maybe two hours, two and half before we were all set with limits and it was time to head back in. Now that is the way to go fishing! So much fun and I was able to catch my birthday fish!

Did I tell you about my birthday?

I must tell you I had a fabulous birthday!  Obviously you can tell by the photo above.  So I found out that I was actually going to have my birthday off from work! Its been awhile. So I wanted to make some plans.  People who know me, know that I love riding quads, ever since I was younger and I first road a quad at my friends house I was hooked!

I thought it might be a bit of a crazy idea but I knew my good friend Jen would be down for the trip so I mentioned it to her. Of course she was in. After doing a bit of research we decided that the least expensive way to do our trip would be to leave on Thursday, ride quads and head back home on Friday. We found a hotel that actually had a really good deal. We were able to get an over night stay, hour massages (with free robes), complimentary wine and breakfast! It was perfect.

So Thursday came and we ended up leaving Santa Rosa at around 6:30. It was quite the drive down (about 5 hours) but it seemed to go by pretty quickly with some good conversation.  We ended up getting into Pismo at 12:00. We stopped and got some monster nachos because we were feeling hungry and then headed out on the dunes! We quickly found a place to rent our quads, we had our little tutorial about where to do and where not to go and off we went.  Very similar to the last time I went to pismo my thumb started to hurt after not to long pressing down on that thumb throttle.  Its just so much fun though I kept going. We played around on the dunes and explored sand highway.  Towards the end of our ride we ended up accidentally doing a jump.  I must say that it scared me. I did NOT see it coming and as soon as I knew it was happening my first thought was, Jen us following right behind me and I need to warn her.  But by the time that I turned around it was to late and I was able to see her jump.  Luckily we were both okay and ended up laughing about the hole thing.

Of course we needed to take a picture of the MONSTER jump that we did.  I think it was about an hour and half that we were on the dunes before it was time to head back in.  We wanted to stay out longer because it was so much fun but we had our massages scheduled at 3:30! Its a rough life but someone has to do it.

We got to our hotel enjoyed our hour massages! It was wonderful.  We checked in to hour hotel went upstairs and got ready for dinner.  The restaurant at our hotel looked over the beautiful ocean. The view was amazing.  We made it in time for happy hour, got a few drinks and ordered some food.  I must tell you it was the perfect end to such and amazing day!  I had an amazing time.  The next morning we slept in and then got up to enjoy our complimentary breakfast and I must say that it was delicious! When we finished our breakfast we sat by the pool for a bit just soaking in the sun and then before we knew it, it was already time to check out.

It was a wonderful way to spend my birthday! Here are a few more pictures from our trip….

Girl Power

Look at those smiles on our faces. We were three girls about to head out into the mountains by ourselves and do our first backpacking trip without boys (and for some of us first time backpacking…ever). We were pretty stoked. This all started when Rebecca and I started hiking together. We were having so much fun going on hikes every weekend that I said, why not try backpacking. Of course Rebecca was on board. So we started planning. We thought since this was a first time trip for some and a….its been awhile for others (me) that we should take it easy, short hike, close location and not to desolate. 

Point Reyes was the perfect location for us. After doing some research and being able to book the last spot available it was meant to be. We decided that we would leave Santa Rosa at about 7:00 in the morning, grab some breakfast and get to the visitors center hopefully around 8:30-9:00ish. We figured with about 25lb packs that it would take us a few hours to hike into our site and anyone who was there before us had till noon to be gone.

We arrived at the visitor center….well probably a little later then we had hoped but still, we were there. Our dear friend Stephanie was out late the night before so we let her sleep in the car while Rebecca and I headed in to get our permit. The man who gave us all of our information was an interesting fellow. He was very informative though.  While we were there they mentioned that Arch Rock was closed due to a rock slide. I didn't really think a thing of it until we returned from our trip and found out that people had died from that rock slide. So sad.

We got back to the car, put our packs on and off we went! We had already mapped out which trails we were going to take to get to our campsite. It would be a total of 6 miles. The forecast was calling for possible rain. As we hiked we were thankful for the cool weather because we heated up quickly lugging those big packs around.

The scenery was gorgeous! As we weaved through the trees it almost felt like we were in the jungle. Everything was so green. It reminded us of Jurassic Park. At one point it felt like it might be raining but because we were under the large trees they were only large rain drops that were very sporadic. About halfway into the hike…maybe a little more we finally came out onto the bluffs and could see the ocean. It was so beautiful. It seemed as though we had also found the sun and blue skies as well! 

After hiking up hill it was now back down to the beach to find our campsite. When we finally arrived we were a little surprised. For getting the last camp available we were the ONLY people there. I thought it was a little strange but maybe people were a little worried about the rain in the forecast. We found our site, #12 and it was time to set up our tents. We had a minor issue because Rebecca had a new tent that she had never set up and I was completely forgetting how to set mine up. We worked through it though. Once we figured things out it was time to cook some lunch and on the menu was our freeze dried chicken fajita mix and tortillas! They actually turned out to be quite good.  

When lunch was done we thought we would go explore. We started hiking and then realized that it would probably start to get dark by the time we wanted to head back to camp so we turned around. Our new plan was to take our wine down to the beach and watch the sunset.  Well there wasn't much of a sunset with the fog coming in but we were still able to enjoy our wine and watch the whales! Before we knew it, it was already time to start dinner. We were all hungry so we decided to cook our chicken teriyaki with rice and mac and cheese….cause why not? So we ate, and ate and ate.  Now it was dark and with no camp fires allowed it was time to head to bed.  It was a good thing we did because not long after we got into our tents the rain came!  Throughout the night I would wake up by the sound of rain. It was really coming down. 

The next morning we woke up to no more rain.  We also woke up to the trash from the raccoons breaking into the raccoon bin and stealing everything! All our granola bars, nuts and oatmeal, gone.  Well nothing sounded better then to pack up camp, hike out and get ourselves some FOOD. And thats exactly what we did. 

We pretty much booked it out of there.  It probably only took us about 2 and half hours to hike back out.  And by the end of our hike we were really starting to feel everything, the sorness, the blisters and the tiredness. We made it back to the car for one final after picture and then it was off to get FOOD!

I felt so accomplished and proud that we were able to do this. There is no better feeling. Thanks ladies for making this trip with me! I will never forget all the memories we made. Until next time.

Smith River

Its finally time for me to talk about our Smith River trip. Zac and I decided that we wanted to take a little trip, just the two of us. Originally we thought we would get some good fishing in but because of how clear the water was the fishing just wasn't good. However, that didn't  matter because we still had the most amazing time!

Zac had to work Friday and didn't get off work till Saturday morning so as soon as he got home we started our drive up north. It worked out nicely because I ended up having to leave work early Friday night because I was sick. So even though I would of liked to take off earlier it was nice to have a day (Saturday) to be able to just sit in the truck and not do anything. Luckily by Sunday I was feeling much better.

It took us about five and half hours to get there. I have never been that far north on the 101. It was a very beautiful scenic drive. Its always a little nerve wracking heading to an unknown place….. I don't mean going to the Smith River, I just mean renting a cabin just from the pictures….you just never know!

Luckily when we arrived it was beautiful! Zac, ya done good. As we got settled in it just kept getting better and better. We were staying on a ranch. There was a large main house where Im assuming the owners lived and then throughout the property not only did we have the river coming right through but also three little cabins. We stayed in the Ravens Nest. It had a full kitchen VERY well stocked. A living room, bedroom, two bathrooms, laundry and my favorite part a deck with a hot tub that looked out onto the river. Heaven.


Like I said, by Sunday I was starting to feel MUCH better. Nothing that a little hot tubbin doesn't fix. We arrived to the cabin around 5:00, just in time to start making dinner. So we cooked dinner, went in the hot tub and headed to bed.  The next morning we woke up and were ready to check the place out. We cooked some breakfast and then walked down to the river rods in hand.  We started off right by the cabin and after getting no bites moved from one hole to the next. We found this one spot that was absolutely gorgeous. (See first picture) Its like we had our own private beach, the teal water AND a waterfall. If it wasn't so cold out I would of loved to walk right in and go for a swim. Might have to go back sometime in the summer when its a little warmer out. By then it was already lunch time so we headed back to our cabin to make lunch. We did a little more fishing afterwards and then back to the cabin to settle in for the night.

For day two we headed back to our gorgeous fishing hole just to give it another try. After no bites we decided we would hop in the truck and do a little exploring. We did some research  and decided to try out another fishing hole that was further down the river. We saw a few drift boats going down the river while we were there. I felt kind of bad because the fishing wasn't very good and Im thinking those poor people probably paid $400 to drift down the river and not catch anything….but hopefully they had better luck then we did.

So like I said, even though the fishing was no good the scenery was so beautiful it really didn't matter. We had so much fun just being outside and enjoying each others company.

The water was so turquoise it almost looked like someone put dye in it! So our second day it was a little warmer. We were actually able to take off our coats and enjoy the sun. We tried our fishing a bit more at our new hole and then decided it was time to explore…even more! So back in the truck and off we drove up the coast. Zac was in the mood for a milkshake so we were trying to find that for him. We almost made it to Oregon but then decided we might have better luck if we head towards crescent city.  So we found a place to get some food and then headed over to the beach to check that out.

And that was the final day at the Smith River. Our last night at the cabin was dinner and the hot tub. Perfect end to a perfect getaway.

Hopefully we will be able to plan another trip up there when we can catch some salmon! Until next time.

"I am most

ALIVE

among the 

TALL trees"

Fishing Post

Im going to give you the good news AND the bad news. The good news it that Zac and I had an amazing weekend last weekend up at the Smith River. The bad news is Im not posting about it tonight….and….I lost my wallet.

What I AM going to talk about tonight is a wonderful little fishing day we had a few weekends ago. My best friend Janelle was able to come up and visit me which was SO much fun. Zac had been gone for 16 days so I was trying to keep as busy as possible. Monday (day 17) had come around and Janelle headed back to So Cal and Zac finally came home from So Cal! We decided to spend the day out at sea and tried to do a little sturgeon fishing. As you can see from the picture above, the bay was pretty much a lake. I could not get over how beautiful it was. There is something about being out on the water with it looking like glass. 

I of course assumed it was going to be chilly, because lets face it…it almost always is! Well to both mine and Zacs surprised it really warmed up out there! The sun came out and we had to remove jackets and sweatshirts. I probably could have had a bikini on! The nice thing about sturgeon fishing is you weigh 

 anchor, put the rods out and then just get to sit back an relax until you see that little bump. It a pretty chill type of fishing, especially compared to salmon where you are working down riggers and constantly moving.

I think we were out there for a few hours and didn't have any luck with the sturgeon but we did end up catching a striper bass and what we believe it s haibut…I say believe because we have just never seen one with the strange colors it had. That the thing I like about ocean fishing. I feel like even if you don't catch what you are aiming for, you still catch something!

I am still hoping to catch a sturgeon one of these days. I think it would be a fun fish to reel in. The only thing about catching a sturgeon in the bay is that they don't recommend eating a lot of it because of the mercury content….a little sketchy. I think Zac was telling me they have regulations that men can eat one serving per week and its not recommended for woman in child bearing age. So I don't know if I will be having sturgeon any time soon ( with the whole being in child baring age) BUT I have heard its pretty good eating and I wouldn't mind trying it….maybe just a bite?

 Anyways, my dear sweet husband knows how much I love pictures so he puts up with me through all of this. I always tell him that when we are old we are going to love having these memories to look back on. I feel like only yesterday it was the start to a new year and by the end of this week we will be starting into February. The time goes so quickly and I plan to enjoy every second Im given…(maybe not loosing my wallet).

"Its better to sit in a boat

thinking about God

than to sit

in a church thinking

about fishing"

"Today is the first blank page of a 365 page book, write a good one"

When I first read that quote it just sat well with me. I thought, what a great way to describe the start of a new year. I must say that my 2014 was definitely a good year but I am so excited to start 2015. I already have so many things to look forward to! And Im excited for a fresh start and to make this year an amazing one. 

I have definitely been slacking on the blogging. Life gets busy, what can I say. Sometimes I don't mind the lack of blogging but it sure is nice to be able to look back in time and see what I was up to over the years. An on line scrapbook. Its pretty cool. Who knows maybe 2015 will be a better blogging year for me. Well, lets go ahead and get started.

This year is a big one for my mom. On January 4th she turned the big 60! My sister and I had been planning a surprise party for her probably since August or September. We started early because this was going to be the mother of all surprises! My mom is one of the kindest, selfless, sweetest people. She does things for other people without a hesitation. So my sister and I wanted to plan something extra special for her. We decided that because coming up north is one of her favorite things to do we would fly her up here. Everything else fell into plan throughout the next few months of planning. 

We rented a house in Kenwood, we invited some of my moms closest friends (that to her are family), we planned out how we were going to hide everything from her, we rented a limo, we made reservations for a food and wine pairing at St.Francis, we made reservations for a tour and tasting at Korbel, we made dinner reservations and finally the next day we made lunch reservations. Everything was planned out to the T. We even made an itinerary so that we could keep everything on tract and on schedule.

It was finally here! Friday the 2nd. I had to work half a day and then I headed over to the airport to pick up my mom. Little did she know that my sister along with Tina, Ashley and Tiffany had left for nor cal about 4:00 in the morning and were on their way up to the house that we rented to decorate. I picked up my mom about 12:30 and told her I wanted to have lunch in Healdsburg….I needed to allow time for the girls to get the house decorated for my  mom! We headed over to Healdsburg, ate some lunch at Brava and then walked around a bit. Before I knew it, it was time to head over to the house for the big surprise. I told my mom that I wanted to show her a house that Zac and I had looked at before we purchased ours. I said that our realtor Courtney had just purchased the house and it was empty and we could go walk around. Luckily I know that my mom LOVES looking at houses so the plan worked perfectly. I texted my sister when we were there to let her know and everyone hid so they could jump out and surprise my mom.

When we opened the door my mom was shocked! She could not believe it. The plan had worked perfectly. My sister and I needed a little time to re-coop. After planning and lying and finally having everything work out it overwhelms you! In a good way. We popped a few bottles of champagne and the party started! 

Saturday was our big day out! No one had spilled the beans about our plans, which was nice. Now a days with social media we had to put everyone on a social media shut down so that my mom wouldn't find out a thing! We all got ready that morning and told my mom that she needed to be ready to leave by 10:30. Everyone was ready to go and about 10:30 the limo arrived to pick us all up! Our first ride was not very long, we just headed down the street to St. Francis. Luckily the weather was just beautiful that day! It was cold, but beautiful. Jen and I had planned a food and wine pairing. We thought it would be a fun way to start off our day! I must say that the food and wine pairing at St.Francis was just amazing! Everyone was so impressed with all the food. Large portions and delicious. By the time we finished we were full and it was a like we had eaten lunch, it was perfect!

After finishing our tasting at St.Francis it was off to our next winery, Korbel. I had never been to Korbel before and I actually have a patient who works there. I got to talking with him and told him I would love to take my mom for her birthday and he told me that he would set up something special for us. We arrived at Korbel around 1:30 and started off with a VIP tour of the winery. We were able to see the history and how the champagne is made. When we finished our tour it was time to taste the champs! It was the perfect way to end our day! The tour guide at Korbel pulled me aside and said that my friend hooked us up and that we would all have VIP pricing on anything we wanted to purchase which was 50% off everything. She also said that I could pick out any two bottle on the house! It was awesome. After we tasted I had my mom pick her favorite and I made sure the two free bottles went to her as part of her birthday surprise.

So much fun! What great memories. Once we finished up at Korbel and bought lots and lots of champagne it was back to the limo to head home. When we got home we were able to relax for about an hour and half before we were going to head to dinner. We originally had reservation for Redd Wood in Yountville but I kept checking the map and it showed that there was a road closure and it would take us an hour to get there. I decided that driving over and hour for dinner was just to much and decided to cancel our reservations and eat somewhere a little closer to town. The only thing was on a Saturday night with 8 people you beed a place that can accommodate. We finally decided on La Rosa. And it worked out perfectly. Nothing like some good mexican food to end your day. By dinner we were all pretty whooped from a busy day of wine tasting. We had plans to go into the hot tub when we got home but we were just to tired and it was SO cold outside it felt better to stay inside! 

Needless to say the weekend went perfectly! The newt morning it was already time for the other girls to head back home. We had brunch in Sonoma, stopped at one store and that was the end of the party! 

What a perfect way to start my new book! With an amazing party for my mom. Heres to many more adventure for the year!