The Fire Part 1

Life has been stressful and wild here the past few days and this was my first chance to blog about it.
Thursday after Lamb 2 and 3 had speech therapy, we headed up to Ram's parents house for a few days vacation after a very busy summer. On the way there we got a text that the Sun Valley concert was canceled because of smoke so we didn't need to hurry up there.
We made the best of it. We couldn't go outside because of the smoke so we ate the picnic food that Ram's mom had prepared inside. We had chicken, fruit kabobs, and veggies with salsa or guacamole. It was delicious and more fun to eat like a picnic.

Picnic INSIDE Grandma and Grandpa's house.

Afterwards we watched the Mozart Concerto No. 21 for piano on YouTube that we were supposed to hear Sun Valley Symphony play. Then because we didn't go to the concert we had ice cream-we wouldn't have had that at the Symphony!

Then we all piled in our van and drove around to see the wildfire. I am from the Midwest and had never seen a firefighter camp or helicopters drop retardant etc. It was fascinating for me. Later they asked on the news to not drive by/take pictures/stop on the side of the road so they could get some work done, but at this point they hadn't asked that yet. Here is a photo that I took on Thursday night. This was probably 1 and 1/2 miles north of Ram's parents house. You may be able to pick out a few hot spots, it is smoky and difficult to see in this photo. Planes kept dropping until sunset, this was about an hour before sunset.

Ram's parents assured us that usually it is smoky in the morning but the smoke starts to clear about noon during wildfires in the area. (They were remembering the Castle Rock Fire of 2007 etc.) So we stayed inside Friday morning and were planning what to do Friday afternoon. About noon Ram's dad announced that we should pack up and go home immediately. We ate lunch and packed up and left town about 2pm. Every business had signs thanking the firefighters like this:

On the way home I called my scrapbook consultant and said I had not planned on going to scrapbooking but since we came home early could I go? She made room for me and I went to scrapbooking. After I was there about 2 hours Ram called me and said his parents were immediately coming to our house. I left scrapbooking to come home to get the guest room ready and bathroom cleaned etc. I didn't get much scrapbooking done that night!

As soon as we left their house Ram's parents started packing. I can't even imagine, how do you choose what is important enough to take with you in case you come home and there is no house any more? Ram's mom drove their car and Ram's dad drove his pickup truck with a trailer attached. They packed what they could and left about 9:30pm. When they got across town they had forgotten something and went back. It is a 3 hour drive from their house in good weather and they were going in the dark with a lot of other cars that were evacuated. They along with their cat arrived at 2am at our house. They were mandatory evacuated so we were glad they were already here.

To be continued... (Don't worry their house and they are safe now.)