Christmas 2008 in Arrowhead

Welcome to a glimpse of the Porter Campbell Strickland McFadden Venick (!) Christmas celebration, wonderfully hosted by Jen and Shane at their home in Lake Arrowhead.


Merry Christmas from our Family to Yours!

One of several highlights this year is that for the first time Zach has a boy cousin, and in fact he has two! Here's Campbell playing ball while celebrating his first Christmas with cousin Zach.

Santa showed up jolly as usual with gifts for the kids...

...Grace was so happy with Santa's gift...

Then Santa had a surprise for us all!

Lake Arrowhead was blessed with over three feet of snow, which made for the perfect wintry Christmas setting, made driving fun and every trip outside an adventure!

Uncle Mike and I agreed to a sledding duel for speed accuracy and distance...guess who won?

Mike has created a record of baby Campbell's first time on the sled.

Thanksgiving 2008

A special thanks to Larry and Linda for hosting a wonderful Thanksgiving Dinner at their home in Lake Arrowhead. We arrived Wednesday evening through dense foggy conditions that shifted to hail and sleet that blanketed the mountain with a white substance that easily passed as snow for the kids. For our families I believe there is nothing more enjoyable than watching Olivia, Zach and Grace come together and play as cousins - reminiscent of the days Jennifer and I would bond with Kristen and Kelly as kids.



Linda can orchestrate a Thanksgiving meal with the best of them; we Porters are so blessed to have merged our Thanksgiving tradition with the Stricklands. This year, Larry and Linda arranged a photographer to take a family portrait - great idea - and Shane got the boys involved in a 9 on 9 flag football game - my ribs are killing me so next time I'm up for golf! Honestly though, V, Grace and I love our time with Jen, Shane, Livvy and Zach, and are already looking forward to Christmas in the mountains!

To all: If you have a favorite moment from the 2008 Thanksgiving holiday, please share it with us as a comment. And be well!

Buena Vista Athletic Club's Annual Trip

We, the Buena Vista Athletic Club, just held our annual poker, fishing, beer-golf smackdown this weekend at KQ Ranch and on Lake Cuyamaca. Our name is in its "beta" stages, but this team has been in place more or less going back well into the Eighties. Now, the "Fishing on Boyd's Birthday" thing has been going on for nearly 10 years, and we've really just settled into Lake Cuyamaca and KQ Ranch outside of Julian over the past 4 years. In Boydo's infinite wisdom, this year we went on my birthday, pushing the trip up from mid December to early November. As you can see from the pics, the weather was awesome - no ice on the docks as we've seen in December - and the lake was holding rich and amenable populations of trout and catfish, as well as bass, blugill and crappie.

So, without any further ado, the results are in:

First Fish (aka The Getting off the Schneid Award) - Boyd
Jackpot - Boyd with his Day 1 Lunker
Beer Golf Day 1 Champ - Molnar
Poker Night 1 - Porter takes 2 out of 3
Beer Golf Day 2 Champ - Anderson (under typical collusionary circumstances)
Poker Night 2 Round 1 Winner - Smalley, who played the remaining hands in a semi-passed out state
Learn To Drive A Boat Award - Jeff Boyd
Hot Hand Award - Molnar with 5 trout, 2 catfish, and his impressive Beer Golf Day 1 Drubbing


Until next year..

Grace, The Halloween Tapes

Click here for Grace, The Halloween Tapes 1 through 4

October Camping at Carlsbad State Beach

I must thank Scott and Tracy Gohl for inviting us to beach camp at Carlsbad State Beach last week. Great time had by all!

Kids like camping

Hi Allegra

Great pics Brittany and Tracy! There will be a next year...

Fourth of July 2008

Portrait of a Labor Day Weekend

Thanks Mark and Tiffany for setting up a fantastic time beach-camping Doheny Labor Day Weekend. What a great bunch of families you're looking at here!

Yellowfin Tuna on the Lukuna

My good friend Kevin O'Neil is really becoming a heck of a fishing captain! We left Newport Harbor on the trusty 45-foot Lukuna at 5am, jetted to Dana Point for bait, and boogied to the 209 spot to find a HUGE pod of dolphin working the seas. Kevin would position the boat in front of the dolphin, Cole and I would chunk bait over the stern of the boat, and then we would fish live sardines in the wake.
Somewhere between the 209 and the line between the 181 and 182 spots (known on the Lukuna as the Porter Run), Ron Fisk hooked up with a sizable Yellowfin Tuna. He had seen Yellowtail break off anxious anglers like his Dad and himself outside of Avalon all summer. This time he had the patience, and after 30 minutes managed to land the fish on a salt-water spinning reel loaded with 20-pound-test line, 25-pound-test leader, and an Owner Size 1 Mutu Circle Hook.

The Yellowfin didn't jump but made several runs after being brought close to the boat, mostly along the surface so we could see his dorsal fin rapidly cut the water 10 to 40 yards off the boat. Great job Ron!

Check out all the pic's from the day's adventure here (click on the link then click"slideshow").

Watching the thousands of dolphin herd bait and up to 12 boats at a time fish alongside the dolphin was a spectacle that we will not soon forget. Thanks Kev!

Later in the day Kevin and Ron jumped into the water to determine whether this kelp paddy held any sizable fish. They found a giant ball of Mackerel but no Dorado or Yellowtail as hoped. Would you have the guts to swim in open water with a chum bucket hanging off the side of the boat?

Our Beloved Grandma Kay

Kyung Hi “Kay” Booth, our beloved mother and grandmother, has passed away after a two and a half year battle with ovarian cancer. Kay was born in Korea, endured many hardships of the Korean war, and met her husband John Booth while working at the military PX. She recently shared with me that she found John to be a gentleman, and a philosophical type, and these traits drew her to him. In 1960 Kay moved with John to the United States and started a family. As a new mother with fledgling English skills living in Manhattan, Kay faced many challenges at this time of her life. But as V puts it, Kay was warm, caring, intelligent, talented, and adventurous, and she soon developed a family and life of which any American woman would be proud. God bless you, Kay, for all you did for your family, as your love and commitment has enabled ours. Your bold and generous spirit will forever live in our hearts.

V has scanned some wonderful pictures of Kay here.

Please find V's information on ovarian cancer here.