Fire!

These pictures show you the view out of our apartment. There are MAJOR fires around us right now, and these "clouds" are acutally smoke from nearby fires. Different cities are being evacuated. Our area hasn't been evacuated yet, but I'm packing a suitcase full of our important papers, photo albums, December's baby book, etc.

The sky above us is orange...this is all smoke from the fires. Our deck is sprinkled with some ash.

You can see the smoke overtaking the pretty blue sky.

I'm kind of scared about it all! Mom's coming in at 11:00am (CA time), but the highways are being closed. One of the seminary couples had to take their sister to the airport, so at this point the plan is for them to pick Mom up while they are there...

This is what December has been doing during all the anxiety! She is doing well.

Boy, what a time for major fires to come! There are enormous fires all around us right now. I was hoping to take Mom to the Wild Animal Park, but the zoo has evacuated all of the animals, and the fire is really close to the park right now. Please pray for everything here, that Mom will make it in okay, that we won't have to evacuate, and for the wind and fires to stop. There is something here called the "Santa Ana Winds," which make the weather really warm. These winds have been REALLY strong, and the firefighters can't keep up or even hope to try to contain these fires. I just heard a weatherman say that firefighters consider 25mph winds bad for fires, and some winds have been getting up to 60mph! Right now we're sitting tight and waiting for Mom to get here...and praying that we don't have to be evacuated before then. But we're all fine right now!