No pictures here..

I don't have my fancy camera cord thingy that makes pictures magically transfer from my camera to my computer.  We are up in the mountains of California.  Near Mt. Lassen.  Fly fishing, hiking, enjoying family, and of course feasting.  Jake's been on a 3 week break and we have been busy.
First, we had our very dear to our hearts, far from our CA home, friends the Thomases, out for a visit.  We hiked, beached, ate, laughed, and cried together while they were here.  We continue to marvel over this amazing family and the impact they have on every person they come in contact with.  They brought their Foster daughter along with them and we had the immense pleasure of loving on her with them for the week, we knew she wouldn't always stay with the Thomases, thus the tears.  Their son, Beau, was the family hit stealing the hearts of a few of our children while he was here.  We were sad to see them go and oh so glad that they came.
We spent some time in San Francisco visiting Alcatraz.  When we disembarked from the ferry and stepped foot on the island we laughed out loud when Libby declared, "I'm so excited to be in Prison!"  It was an eye opening experience learning about the rock.. Did you know that military families were actually stationed on the rock while it served as a jail?  Now I always thought Corpus Christi was an awful place to be stationed, but to be on the Rock with only a wire fence separating your family from the nations most heinous criminals is a completely different type of awful.
Next up my folks flew in for a weekend visit.. well actually they were celebrating their 35th wedding anniversary and touring the wine country.  They came down for a couple of days and spent some time with the family.  Jake, myself, and my folks went out for a double date which was fabulously fun.  Mom and I got dressed up and we must have sat at the dining table for at least a couple of hours enjoying each others company, it was so much fun. Thank you dad and mom.
Now we are here, up on a mountain with a swiftly flowing creek well stocked with beautiful trout beckoning us to reel them in.  Our lodging is quite comfortable with room enough for a partial family reunion.  Literally.  We had Jake's folks, his Uncle Bill and Aunt Becky, Cousin Andy and his wife Jackie, Cousin Will and his fiancee Ashley, and the Matriarch of the crew, Great Grandmother Hardesty, all over last night for a rather impromptu barbecue celebration.  It was a good time.  The family brought along their two dogs and our Salty, who is here too, was in doggy heaven.  He literally ran around the whole night, "shaking hands" with the girl dog.  I say shaking hands because Louisa was baffled by all of the lingering sniffing that was taking place.  I told her it was like people when they shake hands.. maybe not the best analogy, but it will do.

That's it for the explanations. I will try to remember to post pictures later, but for now I'm signing off.. hopefully not for so long this time.