September 8th

On September 8th at 3:30 the kids and I were on our way to take Avery to dance. As we pulled out of our community and stared at the huge black pillar of smoke coming from the military camp across the main road. We continued to dance and on our way home there were fire trucks, police cars, and evacuation buses everywhere. They were only letting people through the road block who lived up the road. There was another road block at our community where all the news teams had also set up camp to capture the fire. My poor Ave was crying she was so scared that our house was going to burn down. So I reassured her that everything important is in this van right now, nothing else matters. Jared was on call waiting for me to call him if we were going to be evacuated. Luckily his work told him that if we did he could come home and help us get settled and then go back in. I'll take it!! When we got home I packed a small suitcase with clothes, grabbed all of Liam medical supplies and medication, laptop, scrapbooks, external hard drive, and a file with important documents in it. Everything else was just "stuff".  We were all outside as ash began to fall on us and our home, we didn't have any power and nobody had come through to tell us to evacuate so we all just waited. We figured the news crew and police road block was at our entrance and they would know if we had to go. So what do you do when there is a possibility that your house might burn down???? Why go to your neighbors for a BBQ of course!  We did have a great time, but my friend and I decided after the fire was out and we were able to see just how close it was that that might have not been the safest thing to do. We laughed.......a lot!   The next day the kids were released early from school with the chance of high winds and fire flair ups. They couldn't go out to play for two days because of the air quality.

                     These are photo's I got off the internet. This was about 1/2 a mile down the road.

The main street that we drive on is to the left of this fence just down the road a bit.

This picture was taken from the kids school playground!!!

Our neighborhood is just to the left of that white truck!!! 

The kids favorite part was watching the helicopters getting water from the golf course and dumping it on the fire, there were about 3 or 4, as well as the airplane dropping the stuff they drop.

When we finally realized just how close we were to losing everything it puts a lot into perspective. We did a lot of praying as a family and pulling together with neighbors and friends. I pray for those who actually have lost their home in some of these awful fires that have been going on. We are so lucky that not only our home is safe, but the kids school is as well.........much to their dismay ;0)