Fire

So the next week, the week of June 11th, we were packing and getting ready for our trip to visit my family back east.  PC was working nights and we were going to leave on Wednesday, the 12th.  On the 11th, PC left for work and I flipped on the TV to watch something while I nursed Baby Girl.  There were breaking news alerts on all the local channels about a fire in the forest near our home.  They were telling everyone to be aware and to know if you were on evacuation or pre-evacuation orders. I didn't know how to find out, so called my MIL to see if she knew. She said not to worry, that they were far enough away that we would be fine.  Well, we could see the smoke and smell it from our house and the kids were starting to worry.  PC called from work and said he would be watching the news as well, but we would be fine.  I am scrambling to pack our van for our trip, get all the food ready for our trip (I made pepperoni rolls, banana bread, and egg salad, so I was busy!), and watching the news at the same time.  The kids start to worry and Bucko starts packing all of his stuff in his bags, including all his stuffed animals, his piggy bank, and every DS game he owns.  I took him to violin lessons and on the way home, we drove out a little farther to see it better. (In the collage, it is the top right picture.)  Around the time the kids went to bed, the moved the evacuation line to about a half-mile from our house and we were one pre-evacuation orders.  PC wasn't getting home until after midnight, so I just kept checking all the updates on Facebook to see if we changed to evac, especially since the area close to us had gone from pre-evac to evac in a half an hour.  The winds had been blowing our way and the sheriff had warned us to really be ready to go if needed.  Luckily, we never did get to evacuation orders, but we really didn't get much sleep that night either. We woke up early and headed east.  We kept checking the news while we were gone as well. It really was a devastating fire--the worst for home damages in the state, with over 500 homes completely lost. 
After we got home, we drove through and saw the devastation. Some places were just all black, bare trunks of trees.  Homes with nothing left but the chimney. I got a couple pictures, but was in such awe of all the destruction that I didn't get ones that showed the worst of it. 
One story that came out of all this was one of our church's ward buildings that was right in the heart of it all.  The week before the fire started, they had been inspired to have a clean-up day where they cleared 15 truckloads of dead pine needles and debris.  The building sustained some smoke damage, but that was all.  It truly was a testament to following the promptings of the Holy Ghost.  (The bottom right picture shows the edge of the church property.)

Summer Fun

Cousins were able to come down and visit after the camping trip.  We had lots of fun.  One day we made a 4th of July craft. Another day we went swimming.  And one day we went to the park for a picnic and playing.  PC had the day off, so he was able to go with us.  He took some of the kids (all the boys and a couple girls) for a short hike.  This is one of our favorite parks, and I am so glad we were able to go before the fire started--more on that later.

Camping

The first weekend in June, we went camping with two of PC's brothers and their families, along with Nana and Johnny, up in the mountains at the Golden Gate Canyon State Park.  Boy was it cold!!  It was a beautiful drive up there.  One of PC's brothers was already there and setting up camp by the time we got there.  I saw his wife and kids all bundled up and thought, "Is it really that cold out there?"  Yes, yes it was.  It was so windy, probably up to 50 mph winds, and they were cold winds!  When PC's other brother and his family arrived, however, most of them were in shorts and t-shirts.  And they didn't have jackets.  Luckily, I had made all of us pack 2 hoodies/jackets, so we could share with them.  I had wanted them to have 2 in case it was cold and they needed to double them up.  It was cold and they sure could have used both, but their cousins would have been frozen.  So we used blankets to huddle in and tried to stay warm around the campfire.  We worried about Baby Girl staying warm, of course, but I'm sure she was the warmest.  She had a full body coat we had received at the baby shower, and it was put to good use that weekend.  She slept with me at night inside my sleeping bag and was my heater!  The kids stayed in the vehicles to play and in the tents.  The wind was just too cold. We did go on a short hike.  On that side of the mountain, the trees blocked the wind a lot more, so it was warmer.  The aspens were all blooming then, and they were so pretty. 

The whole crew

hiking

We did hot dogs and all the sides for dinner, with s'mores for dessert.  Nana did a nice devotional for us around the fire.  She talked about Amalakiah in the book of Alma and how Satan uses the same tactics on us.  He promises one thing and gets us to move just a little bit in our conviction, and then a little more until we meet our downfall. 

Yes, Minnie fell asleep in that chair!

In the morning, we made pancakes, scrambled eggs, hot chocolate, and sausage. We also had strawberries and juice.  It was all so yummy.  I love camping!  Before we left, we stopped over by the panoramic overview.  It was really pretty and we got some good pictures.

 







Silly Boys

Tink and I had our eye appointments in May as well.  We decided to try a different eye doctor than the one we took Minnie to last year that made a mess of things with her.  I didn't know that some Target's have eye centers, but one near us does, and we have really liked the eye doctor there.  My boys, however, love the big balls in front of Target.  I don't know why, but Goofy always wants his picture taken on top of the big ball.  So I finally did it, and Bucko had do it as well.  So silly. 
Goodnight and Big Balls.  (Maybe he likes them because of Wipeout, who knows? lol)

End of Busy Boys

Oh, how much fun I have had teaching Goofy and his friends in our Busy Boys Preschool this year.  I have been so impressed with how well four and five-year-old boys play together!  At least these four cute boys did!  It was so neat to see them grow throughout the year. I can understand how proud teachers can be of their students now.  For our final hurrah, we all met at the park.  Funny story about getting there.  I had never been to this particular park, though it is pretty close to us.  My friends had told me what road to turn on and how to get there, so I figured I wouldn't have any problems.  Unfortunately, I was thinking that this particular road was off of a different road than it really was, so I was driving all over this road looking for this other road and could not find it!  So I cross the main road and pull over to the side, out of the way.  (I had just passed a cop, so I made sure I wasn't too close to a fire hydrant or stop sign.)  I get out my GPS and start to plug in the road, when I look in my rearview mirror and see that the cop has turned around and is parked behind me now.  He comes up to me and asks if this is my vehicle.  I confirm that it is and he says that is interesting since they had an incident a few days earlier that involved the exact make, model and color as my vehicle very close to this very area where I had decided to pull over.  I am thinking, "Oh, good grief."  So I explained that I was lost and looking for this park. He hadn't heard of the park, so goes back to see if dispatch knows where it is.  Oh and by the way, can I just see your driver's license.  So I know he went and did a check, which was fine because, obviously, it wasn't me that was involved in whatever this incident was that had taken place!  Anyway, I found the park, and when I was relating the story to my friends, they said they had heard about some teenagers going around and knocking on doors. If someone answered, they would say they lost their dog or cat and ask if they had seen it, but if no one answered, they would break in and steal things.  Apparently, they were driving around in a minivan, so that is probably what was going on.  Anyway, it was definitely an odd experience.
Back to our picnic at the park.  We had a lot of fun and the boys probably could have stayed and played all day.  It was bittersweet, as one family was moving that week.  Goodbyes are always hard, so we always say they are just "See ya laters" because you never know when we will see them again.  And I know we will.

At one point, we look over and see all the boys climbing up the outside of the slide.  Of course, once one of them was brave enough to make it over, they all had to do it. 
I can't believe my "little boy" will start kindergarten soon.  He's just not so little anymore. 

Sky Sox

The night before Mother's Day, I took the girls to a Sky Sox game.  It was Military Appreciation night.  Dan and Shar had picked up tickets for all of us, just like last year.  We got there early and found our seats.  I picked up a pizza from the Domino's booth for us for dinner.  The weather was a bit chilly, but the sun was shining when we got there, so it wasn't too bad.  Over halfway through, though, it started to downpour.  We quickly got our blanket that we were sitting on over top of us.  Dan had an umbrella, but of course we couldn't all get under it.  We were trying to keep the babies dry mostly.  Then Jeff gave us an extra towel they had, so I just put that over me and Baby Girl.  Luckily at this point, she was asleep for the night and slept right through it all.  We stuck it out and it stopped.  Then it started again for just a bit and then cleared up.  We sent Dan with some of the kids to go buy hot chocolate.  That helped warm us up a bit.  It all ended with the fireworks!  Apparently Minnie doesn't like fireworks.  Tink said she had been even more scared last year. I do remember her sitting in PC's lap, but had forgotten until Tink mentioned it.  She did pretty well this year, but her eyes were as big as saucers.  I was glad we got to see fireworks, though, since we probably won't get to see them for the 4th of July.  They just lifted the ban last night for commercial fireworks in town because we have had a lot of rain this past week, but I doubt we will go anywhere to see them.  They cancelled the ones they had planned to do at our neighborhood community celebration. 

Violin Recital

On June 3, Bucko had his violin recital.  He was a bit nervous, but did very well.  I have been proud of him.  We rushed off during intermission to make it back to Papa's retirement party.