Evacuated

I've often wondered what I would grab if I only had a few minutes to get out of my house. Last week we got to find out. Around 5:30 pm we were driving home from the lake where we had just held Jonah's birthday party. As we pulled into town we saw a huge cloud of smoke that got bigger and bigger by the moment. We couldn't resist driving around trying to find where the fire was located. We drove to a neighborhood about 20 blocks north of us and watched flames leap from tree to tree right behind homes. We returned home feeling confident that although the fire was close to us we were in no danger. No sooner had we decided this than a fireman was on our doorstep telling us they recommended that we evacuate. We decided to follow his advice and quickly grabbed what we wanted. We took our computer, an oil painting of our kids, our pictures, both cars and our boat. The kids each brought their treasures too--stuffed animals, the Wii, Emma's report card, piggy banks and wallets and clothes. Luckily Jason's parents were spending the week at the lake so we had their house to go to. We naively thought we could wake up the next morning and go home but it was not to be. We were shut out of our neighborhood until 4:45 Friday afternoon. The cops blocking the road to our house. They wouldn't even let me return home to grab Eli and Jason's Sunday clothes. They were going on a youth temple trip that night.

It was the longest day trying to find things to do and we were so happy when we were finally able to return home. The fire ended up burning 1500 acres and 13 homes.