this is how we do thursdays 'round these parts

Thursday, with a collective day off ripe for the pickin', Jodi, Mari, Jackie ((and Brinks & Che)) and I piled ourselves and an impressive picnic into a couple cars and headed out to Silver Creek Falls...

Sun shining like there was no tomorrow ((panic not, I am writing this here from that tomorrow and am happy to report the sun is shining brighter even than before)) there was little else to convince ourselves to do than go for a hike with the pups. 

Welcome to Oregon.

And even though the canine components of the group hindered our getting to the falls themselves ((and fellow hikers and park rangers alike keeping us from any kind of rebellion beyond the can of Bud Light Lime Mari all of us were openly sipping from)), the day was a blinding success.

Here, I'll prove it...

"It's looooog, it's looooog, it's big, it's heavy, it's wood!"

As we sat and munched on our post hike treats ((and sipped our post hike wines)) the four of us couldn't quite get over how blessed we are to be able to live in this part of the world we love so much and be with the people we love so much and just... Live.

We've all ended up here through long, long roads and exciting adventures and even circumstances beyond our immediate control... But we're exactly where we're supposed to be. And we're all aware of what a beautiful life it is. Even when it's hard.

Sitting there in the grass, super classy red plastic cups of rose in hand, Mari raised a glass to toast... 

"Here's to the summer of... What? What should we toast to? What's this summer going to be about, what does it stand for?"

We thought. 

"New seasons. Everyone is right there, right one the cusp of something new and scary and exciting."

"To new seasons!"

And so with that I like to think we solidified it, marking our words for the day we four decided to boldly walk into whatever is next.

This is going to be a good summer.

Brinks really wanted to play with Che, but he has NO idea how big a dog he is.
So we settled for letting him smother his new little cousin with kisses. 

"Oh, hi mom, didn't see ya back there."

Family photo fail.

This dog is the biggest little turkey I've ever met. 

And because I'm a blogger I have to take a picture of my feet.
Just to keep my street cred.