The Gang's All Here!

Must be 4th of July time around here.....the pool's full of little rascals, the table's full of sweet watermelon and the house is full of people! Josh and Melanie got here this noon with their two kids Taige and Tia.....even though they live in Utah...not so far away ...it's been a year since we've seen them.......and what a welcome sight they are!!! Jill's boys are so thrilled to be able to play with "the cousins" and so far they've made the most of the day! Already a big "bear hunt", lots of swimming, a few video games and general running around being wild kids!

Grunky, my Dad , made a rare appearance ......it was great to have him up here to reacquaint himself with his great-grandchildren. I think we all enjoyed seeing him and I hope he enjoyed being here!

Tess and Molly are also here and yesterday Jill and I and "the girls" went down to the Folsom Outlet Mall.......I don't think I've ever laughed so much! It was quite the shopping expedition!

Supposedly Seth will be dropped off somewhere in down in Auburn tonight...after getting a ride from Idaho. The boys can't wait until "Uncle Bubbba" arrives......then the goods times really start to roll!

Doom and Gloom!

We're still on fire up here.......not that we're in any danger, but it seems the rest of mountainous Northern California is still burning and we're breathing all the smoke! Visibility is less than a mile and sore throats and burning eyes are all the norm around here. They've canceled the famed 100 Mile Western States Run ..........the trail runs near our house and the run is from Squaw Valley to Auburn...100 miles in all. The smoke is so thick however and fires so near that,as I said, it's been canceled .................so sad for people who've come from all over the world to compete.

I can't imagine running in all this ....as a matter-of-fact..I thought I would choke to death walking down the stairs this morning......I craved a deep breath of fresh air. They say it may clear up a little this weekend, but if it does it also means the breeze will carry in a storm system that will result in more dry lightning..........the cause of all this smoke in the first place!

On the bright side...Jill made her famous pizza for dinner tonight.........it was such a pleasant evening eating veggie pizza on the deck! In spite of the smoky, fuzzy landscape ..once again we managed to laugh, solve most of the world's problems and be so grateful to have each other.

Surrounded by Fire!

Only June and already forest fires are burning all around us. The closest one, I'm looking right at the smoke from it in this photo, is only 3 miles east of us. There's another one across the river from us, about 5 miles away. We always live in a threat of fire, but it seems awfully early this year. I'm not so into this global warming thing.........hot and dry is not my preference.......I fear for glorious Northern California!

The smoke from the fires was so bad today that we had to seek refuge down in the Mall.......where the air conditioning is so effective at filtering out smoke and heat! We just had to put it completely out of our minds that driving the 40 miles down there was one of the reasons for the deteriorating global climate............well , it was for the kids sake, conditions up here right now are so bad for developing lungs! Since we were there anyway Jill helped out the ailing American economy.......I just know the GAP is suffering.

We'll all sleep well tonight ...in spite of the smoke......knowing we saved the kids and supported US consumerism.........all in one day!

They're Herrrrrre!!

Here they are ...fresh off the plane in San Francisco!!!! What a welcome sight they were.........although tired and a little bleary eyed! All the tears at seeing each other didn't help the eye situation!

After we located the car....we were off to the mountains. A few stops along the way however..........first stop, as always In-and-Out for the first taste of the season of good old American fast food! Another 2 1/2 hours to Granny's house in Roseville ....another teary reunion.....and more food!! Finally.....another hour to get home to the "farm" where we were warmly greeted by our dog Jenny. Everyone pretty much crashed......with much anticipation of a wonderful visit lying ahead of us!

A Trip to Costco!

Off to the great and mighty Costco today! Yesterday I went down to Auburn and spent about $200 on groceries, but today was the really big event! It was remarkably uncrowded...I wonder if it's Tuesdays or the economy. At least I did my part for our recessive economy today......what you see in this photo is just a small fraction of what I bought. I figure it'll last about a week and a half since there'll be between 6 and 16 people here for 3 meals a day the next month or so! Anyone with any great huge quantity recipes ...please email to me!!

Of course, it'll all be a labor of love.......I'm so thrilled to have everyone here!

I'm pretty much ready for Jilly's arrival on Thursday.........it's beyond exciting when I see them come through the customs door at the San Francisco airport. I'll try to remember to snap a photo of the weary travelers at that moment.

Tomorrow I'll try to get all this Costco bounty organized.......it'll will drive poor Jill crazy if I leave it in such disarray!

Graduation!!

Well.. the big day finally arrived...Seth and Molly graduated!!! Graduation was at 2:00 pm on Saturday, June 14. We all met at their apartment and from there over to the campus and the hordes of relatives on the same mission as we were. We settled in to some semi-comfortable seats and soon in marched the graduates.......among the first Seth and Molly....both graduating with Honors! Speeches were short, but with over 1500 grads, just at their ceremony, reading all those names took forever!! Jim had a book to read and Tess had her IPod....but Granny and I just had each other and soon ran out of exciting gossip!! A little over 2 hours later the last name was read and out they marched! We met outside and these are the photos we snapped.

We quickly headed back to Roseville to Granny's house just in time to greet the guests at the party we'd planned. It was such a fun party, mostly family.......so much laughter..some sentimental tears.......lots of food and champagne!

We were a weary group as we stumbled home.......but had such a memorable day!

Congrats, Molly and Seth....I'm so proud of you!!!!!!

Muffin Day!

Since Jim leaves for his office....he's an environmental scientist for the state......at the very early morning time of 4:45 am.....way before he feels like eating and WAY before I feel like cooking, so I offer homemade muffins and tea which he eats on his hour long commute. I usually bake a large batch of muffins every 2 weeks or so, then freeze them until I pull them out in the morning for his "breakfast". The muffins usually coincide with whatever is ripe in the garden....berries, squash, carrot , apple etc........today's variety are applesauce left from last Fall that I want to use up since it looks like a great crop of apples this year on our trees.

Applesauce Muffins

1 cup butter 2 eggs

4 cups flour 2 cups unsweetened applesauce

3 tsp. cinnamon 2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. sea salt

Cream together sugar and butter. Stir in eggs and applesauce.

add dry ingredients and stir well. Bake in greased muffin pan 350' oven 15

minutes.

MMMMM...they're just out of the oven and smell so good. Now on to dinner fixin's!