Fleet of 8 to 10 lights, 3 at a time appearing, then disappearing.

My wife and I were standing outside, smoking. I looked out to the Western night sky of California and noticed two rather dim lights, one following the other going Northeast. At first I thought one was a satellite but then when I saw the second one I thought maybe they were planes flying behind each other as I've seen many other times.  Suddenly I noticed three more far behind it and you can see the distance between them, they seemed as though they were in Earth as I can see the distance between them and their formation. The first two lights suddenly would disappear after a certain distance, then the next three lights in the fleet wood fly on their path and disappear where the other two had also disappeared. Then two more fleets of these three lights what fly along their path and disappear where they all would eventually disappear. They seemed very distant and they did not have blinking lights as planes and helicopters do. I could also not hear any sound of an! engine, and they were also very dim. My wife and I were very confused by this as it seemed very unusual and no reason to believe they were planes or helicopters I stay completely disappeared after a certain point in their path not to mention this was a fleet of about 8 to 10 of these lights.
We live and the northern Central Valley of California and spotted it is towards the west of California possibly out towards the coast.