Rey fire day 2

Things got a little more wild and crazy today. It really felt like we were in a war zone with all the helicopters and planes flying overhead. We even felt some water drops from the full buckets as they flew over.

The kids did great again, they didn't seem scared or affected by the proximity of the fire at all. (Zachary playing horseshoes with the fire blowing up behind him) I wasn't anticipating it dropping over this side of the ridges, but boy did it ever. It was burning trees and vegetation that I can run to in 20 minutes from the house.

We watched a lot of retardant drops from the big planes... it was pretty awesome.
I'm grateful the winds were in our favor today and we were safe at our house getting to watch it all.

Rey Fire!!

Well, our back yard has been a little exciting the last two days. A fire broke out yesterday afternoon a little after 3pm at White rock day use... it was super windy, and word is that a dead tree fell on power lines over there and started the blaze. 3 years ago a run away bbq fire in the same spot started the White fire, but this time the winds took the Rey fire in a different direction.(Basically onto the ranch we live on, Rancho San Fernando Rey) At lease initially. We were just about to head into town when the fire took off yesterday, so we opted to stick around a little longer and see what it was going to do. Billy has been gone almost the entire month on one fire or another. He is busy in Atascadero helping with the Chimney fire by lake Nacimiento, so he is missing all the local action. This also leaves me solo with 4 small children to fend for myself.  I'm used to it though, so it's okay.
My phone started blowing up with text messages and phone calls to check on me and the kids. We sure have a big "community family" here. :)
My friend Lauren sent up her husband Kevin with his truck in case we wanted to move any of our precious memories... which I did send a few bins with him. Just in case. It was mostly just really nice to have another adult there with me to look at the fire with and calm my nerves.
After about an hour and a half or so, I finally got ahold of Billy. He basically said not to worry and that he felt comfortable our house would be fine. He gave me contact info for a few of the captains and chiefs that were working the fire in case I needed anything or had any questions.

The fire went from around 600 acres last night to almost 3,000 acres this evening. It got windy back here this afternoon and it was hot. The fire spread across more of the ranch and we pretty much listened to helicopters and planes flying by and over our house all day long.  What a show though. That big DC10 really drops a lot of fire retardant!

One nice thing about being married to a fire man is that we are all used to fire and the fire world. The kids weren't scared a bit and enjoyed the air show of helicopters and planes. There only questions for Billy when we got to talk to him were "So dad, what are the medium size planes called?"

It will be interesting to take a drive on the ranch once this fire is out and see the extent of it up close. This may put a damper on our "bear hunting" season coming up.  Bummer.
It feels good to be safe even though it's pretty close and looks pretty bad.

Loving my girl

I couldn't help but take a few pictures of Leila today because she just looked so darn cute in her little Hawaiian dress and girly shoes.  I'm kinda loving having a little girl around :)

Girly shoes are pretty fun :)

And a cute moment a little later today of William and Leila reading together on the coach

Natural History Museum Visit

We met some friends at the natural history museum today and the kids had a great time playing and creating. I thought we would only be there a couple hours and scoot out for lunch... we were there from 10-2! The time just flew by.

We walked through the T rex exhibit and then out to the butterflies alive tent. I love the butterfly exhibit, it is so peaceful in there. William had two different butterflies land on his head, he was the sweet one today I guess :)

After the butterflies we walked over to the "back yard" where the kids had a blast playing in the creek and building a teepee frame out of bamboo poles.  The museum really has it set up so nice for the kids to have creative play out there. Michelle and I sat under the oak trees with the "babies" and chatted away while the other 5 kept busy and entertained. They all play so nice together, it's great.
We walked through a couple rooms in the museum and made our way to the curiosity lab room which is also set up very nicely for creative play.

We ended the trip at the dinosaur dig sand box behind the museum and that's when I realized it was 2pm. We hadn't had lunch! The kids were doing great, I was feeling kinda faint. We were going to find somewhere to eat, but Billy called and said he was leaving on yet another fire. So we drove home quickly to say our goodbyes again. He was stopping on his way out to grab a few things before leaving for Coalinga where the incident is, so we got to give him hugs. Looking at the calendar, he has worked partial or full shift all but one day so far this month! No wonder I feel so tired and have not had time or energy to post anything new.... ahhhh fire season :)