::tree hunt 2012::

At the very end of November we all headed out in our big black car to find a Christmas tree. We've made it a tradition now--the last two years we went up into the mountains southeast of our neighborhood and found a big tree to cut down. Then we went to the small town Dairy Queen over there and had lunch. So of course we had to do it again this year! There was no snow during our tree hunt this year, which made things much easier, but much less festive. It took a good amount of searching to find a good one. It's been a dry year with lots of fires and we had to stick pretty close to the road because the black car doesn't have a lot of clearance. So we had to look hard to the left and right as we went along. Finally when we were just about to turn around and try a different road we spied this tree:

It was tangled in a big grove of desert oak trees, but it was the most perfect and symmetrical tree I had seen all day. I knew that if we could get him out, he'd be a gem.

The boys went a took a walk to make sure we didn't miss any other good looking trees.

Nope, this guy was the best, so we committed and went for it.

This was probably the least complicated tree extraction we've had actually. It seems like the last two were down in little gulleys or on the side of a steep grade--with snow.

Sandy watched, though all he really wanted to do was wander around and pick up "baby rocks."


And out the tree came! It was really surprisingly nice and symmetrical and healthy despite the oaks. It was nice, I think nobody else had grabbed it because it seemed so tangled up in there. It was the prefect height too.
Next I wanted a little tree--one Max's size. I like to hang a bunch of family pictures that I laminated on the little one in another room.


Luckily there was a cute little one right nearby that was perfect.

It was just Max's size--truly.

The triumphant hunters!

It was so hard to take pictures because of the bright sunny day! Overcast snowy days make for much better photo documentation. But oh well.

We tied them to the top of the car and only had one scare on the way home when the baby tree tried to escape. Kris tied him on tight, but the whole rest of the way Max kept shrieking with fear when we hit a bump, thinking that we would lose the tree and just drive away. We didn't. We got them home and set them up. I got the big tree (which is just the perfect height for our living room) all lit, and then it sat for a week and a half without lights because I ran out of time. It's the story of my life right now. I'll post some tree pictures later!