Fire and smoke...

Sunday night, as we opened our bedroom window for some fresh air, I could smell a little smoke in the air.  I thought a neighbor was having a fire.  At about 3 o'clock in the morning I woke to a burning throat and our room smelling like the house might be on fire.  I got up quickly and checked around the house.  All was well and it was clear the smell was coming from outside.  Thankfully, our bedroom windows were the only ones opened that night.  When I was assured our house was not on fire, nor was our neighbors houses I went back to bed.  As I dozed off I could hear the wind whipping around and knew we'd be in for tree branches down all over the place in the morning but nothing major.

The next morning I heard the news.  All of the northern counties were on fire, Napa and Santa Rosa being hit particularly hard.  Several fires had started and the wild winds (gusting up to 60 miles an hour) quickly carried the sparks and spread the fires.  Some of the fires merged into each other and residents were fleeing.  It was shocking and scary.  We could smell the smoke down here (about 40 miles away).

Lorien and I stopped in to see Pat Travis who lives up in Santa Rosa, she is the Grandmother of the triplets Lorien is such good friends with and is here watching the kids while their parents are in Spain.  Pat said her husband had just back home Sunday night for a work meeting Monday when he got the call to evacuate.  Thankfully, Pat had settled their emergency kids a few weeks earlier over General Conference weekend.  

As we watched and listened to the news the story got worse and worse.  The fire spread too quickly and most people did not have enough warning to get out of the way.  Many fled to safety without being able to gather anything from a home that was soon burnt to the ground.  

The smoke in the air down here has been awful.  We are not close to the fires and I cannot imagine what it is like up in the northern counties.  Terrifying.

We stayed home from school today and just had a day in.  The air was better but I made the call late last night when the winds were expected to pick up again, sending more smoky air our way.

I made the kids help clean the house and we watched a few movies.  Then we all needed to get out of the house for a bit.  We drove down to the mall and had a little session at Color Me Mine.  

I feel lucky to be safe and still have my family and stuff.  We are donating school supplies and blankets to help people up north.  

Scary stuff.

Class awards...

Colter's Kindergarten teacher gives out these little stuffed animals for good behavior.  When you earn a stuffed animal you get to bring it home for the day and bring it back to class the next day so someone else can have a turn.  

Colter earned all five animals quickly.  He is a good guy.

Busy Bee goes home with you if you help clean up without being asked.

Friendly Fox comes home when you've been a good friend.

Helpful Horse comes home if you have been particularly helpful during the day.

Dependable Dog comes home when you do what you are asked the first time.  Mrs. Erickson can depend on you doing what's right.

And Listening Ladybug comes home when you've listened and followed instructions correctly. 

Colter was happy and proud every time he earned a stuffed animal.  He is excited to earn one again.

Sin City...

Will has a work conference in Las Vegas every other year or so.  I've managed to tag along three times now.  We have so much fun just being together.  We eat a lot of yummy food (gaining 20 pounds or so over a few days) and see a couple of shows.  It is relaxing and fun.  The conference has lined up with my birthday for the last two years so it has been a fun birthday for me.

With no kids, we take a lot of pictures of ourselves. 

We saw the show La Reve.  It was really good!  It was an acrobatic show like Cirque du Sole but it was in a pool with moving stage parts.  It was very entertaining.

Will has to work for a lot of this trip.  He works for most of the day time and I just wander Las Vegas and do what I want.  We get to meet up for dinner and a show in the evening when Will is done with work. 

I love having the time to myself and deciding what I want to do.  As a mom, I spend most of my time doing stuff for other people.  It is hard to stop the requests for help and just do what I want.  When I am kid free, I get to call the shots.  It is a lovely birthday present to myself. 

I also do a lot of walking in Vegas.  It is easy to get around if you stay on the strip and there is plenty to see.  I walked, and walked, and walked.  It helped offset some of the 50 thousand calories I ate every day.

Fairyland...

As part of their Nursery Rhyme Unit, the Kindergarten kids take a field trip to Fairyland in Oakland.  It is a little amusement park with slides and little activities based on nursery rhymes and fairy tales.  I've never been.  This year I got to go with Colter as a chaperone.  There were so many parents who signed up to help I ended up only chaperoning Colter for the day.  We had a blast.  

Additionally, Clare and Adell are back at making fairy houses around our yard.  They got a cool piece of bark from Grandma Claudia and have been making houses and play areas for the fairies all summer long.  Their latest creation has been under the trampoline...that should be safe.

Back at the best camping place ever...

It was time for a return to our glorious campsite up north in the redwoods.  It was 110 degrees...even in the redwoods.  It was crazy.  We all sat around and tried not to sweat on each other.  We also went camping over Labor day weekend, which made traffic terrible and the campsite pretty crowded.  

It was still a lot of fun...although I don't think Labor day weekend will become a tradition. 

The swing and sport field were a hit.  The talent show was a success.

Colter explored all over the place with his friends.  We lots him and Harry on Sunday morning...nothing serious...just two boys playing in the woods, ignoring the calls of their parents.

Lorien brought Isabel (who is moving to Alaska in a matter of days) and spent every second with her.  It hurt Wyatt's feelings that she wouldn't hang out with him or anyone else. 

With all the rain we got in the winter the creek/river was fuller.  Temperatures were over a hundred degrees so everyone got in the water.

We only stayed one night, Isabel needed to be home to get packed up.  We were ok with leaving, camping in the heat is as much fun as camping in the cold.  We lost Wyatt for about an hour right as we were trying to leave.  Again, nothing serious, just a couple of boys off exploring in the woods.

It was a fun trip.  We like camping and this is one of the easiest camping trips out there...it is just really far away.

End of August, End of Summer...

For fun, Colter and I babysit baby Lily every other Wednesday afternoon.  It gives us some baby time and gives Aunt Angela some baby free time.  Colter is so cute with Lily, he loves to make her smile.  One Wednesday we also watched a new friend's baby.  They had just moved in and we wanted to give her some time to get the house unpacked.  It was baby land at our house.  On the drive home with all of these babies Colter said "There are two babies and two humans in the car!" 

Colter and Will fixed the dryer.  While we were in Idaho the heating element broke.  After a lot of internet research and an order from amazon Will was able to fix it. 

Colter and Adell want to walk to school every day.  We have to leave a lot earlier if we want to walk and get to school on time.  Soooo, it doesn't happen very often. 

A bunch of police were at the elementary school one day to have recess with the big kids.  It kind of scared the crap out of me when I pulled up to the school and saw five police cars, a police SUV and a police motorcycle out front.  Thankfully, it was just for community relationships.  Colter got a sticker and to pose in front of the motorcycle.  Big day.

Our very dear friends, the Wrights, are moving to Alaska.  Lorien has been best friends with their daughters for years.  She did her homeschool year with them and we moved right down the street from them when we moved.  The news of their moving has been sad.  For the last four weeks or so every activity has been "the last before the Wrights move".  Lorien has soaked up every minute she can with them.  Her friend group is sad but they are having a lot of fun.

Getting High with Will Anderson

This is my husband's dream vacation.  Not a vacation.  He didn't go to relax or connect with nature.  He went to do a very hard thing, to push his body to its limits and see if he could survive.  This is Will Anderson's idea of fun.  Maybe not "fun" he just likes a challenge and would rather be challenging himself than relaxing.  

So off he and Alan went for a three day two night hike in the wild, rugged Montana mountains.  They left Idaho later than they wanted to.  By the time they needed a place for the night they couldn't find one.  Every where was booked.  So...they called Uncle Kenny back in Idaho and got his parent's phone number.  His parents live in Livingston, after a few minutes on the phone Will and Alan were crashing at Kenny's childhood home.  

They got up early the next morning and drove to the trail head.  I think they were in the Bear Tooth or Absarokee mountains?  I sure hope Will takes it upon himself to write down an accurate description of this trip...

In the mean time, here are a bunch of pictures.  Will and Alan did a very hard thing and it didn't kill them.

Winning:

Will met us at the Salt Lake airport.  First thing, before we drove back to California was to get Will a gigantic hamburger at Wendy's.  He deserved every calorie.

A few days with the Davises

After our day at Bear World we packed up and drove down to Pocatello to visit with my brother, Caleb, and his family.  Caleb, Shelley and their three children moved out to Idaho from Maine right before we moved out to California with our family.  It was a mini westward migration for the Davis family.  Both of our families moved west for school and both loved it out here and decided to stay.  We both added to our families as we lived in the west over the years.  We don't get to see each other very often.  But it sure it fun when we do get together! 

The kids had a great time running around with the boy cousins.  They shot nerf guns and played legos.  They climbed in the back yard and talked about video games they all like.  It was great!

We slept in Uncle Caleb's family room, all of us piled in on couches and air mattresses.  It was perfect!  The next morning was a school/work morning for Uncle Caleb's family.  We got up and visited while they got ready for the day. 

Once the Davises were off for work and school we rounded up our stuff and headed for Centerville, Utah to visit Uncle Chris and Aunt Annette.  Aunt Jenn and cousin Clara recently moved to Utah and we got to see them too!

Uncle Chris got a new dog between the last time we saw him and now.  The dog is named "Moose" and is a pretty good dog.  However, Colter has become deathly afraid of dogs.  He cannot be around them under any circumstances. 

When I was a kid, I was also so afraid of dogs!  I was terrified.  If a dog came around me I would try to climb to the top of the head of whatever family member was nearest me.  I would cry and feel sick if I knew we were going to a place where they had a dog.  It was awful.  Thankfully, I out grew the fear and can behave myself around dogs these days...but it took a long time.  Now I am paying for that with Colter.  He is just as scared of dogs as I was.  He asks if so and so has a dog every time we pull up to a house.  Poor kid.  He has a long road of dealing with dogs.

We spent the last three days of our trip with Uncle Chris and his family.  We went to the rec center pool one day.  Their community has an impressive indoor and out door rec facility.  Clare, Adell and Clara went on their own on the first day we were in Utah.  We all went together on the second day.  It was fun, but they use a lot chlorine to keep the pool clean with all of those bodies in the water.  After an hour some of us (Adell and myself) could feel our eyes and nose stinging.  After a second hour, Adell was in tears and we had to get out of there.  The kids had so much fun playing in the water.  They had a lazy river you floated around in and a big water slide to go down.  It was a fun afternoon activity.

The next day was Saturday and time to hit the road.  Will made his way down to us in Utah and we loaded up the van for the drive home. Wyatt had heard of Swig cookies and their mixed sodas another Utah food fad.  We found one close to Uncle Chris's house and bought some cookies and soda for everyone to enjoy.  We picked Will up at the airport (he had taken a shuttle from Idaho Falls down to the airport) and hit the road!

It was a crazy trip (per our usual) but a lot of fun.  We saw as many family members as we could and spent hours on end in the car...yep, sounds like a typical Anderson Family Vacation.  Someday we might just sit on a beach and relax for a vacation but I doubt it.