catching up

I have one of those few and far between moments right now - when the older three kids are at school and and the younger two and puppy are all asleep. It is so quiet!  I have been wanting to catch up on my blogging so I can print it out to a book and help the kids catch up on theirs too. So here is the first step - catching up on the last half of the year 2011:

This past summer the Huachuca  Mountains in Sierra Vista by Jared's parents burned 

This is where it jumped the highway

That street sign says Miller Canyon Road - That is Jared's parents and Gina and Kameron live.

I wish I had blogged about it when it happened because now I have forgotten a lot of details, but to summarize it - they were forced to evacuate not once but multiple times and had to stay with friends. There were a couple times that they thought the house had burned down and weren't sure what was going to be there but in the end they were blessed and their house didn't burn although the fire came directly across the street from them and other homes were lost. But of course, just as they got settled back in though, the monsoons started and that mountain flooded - the water and mud came into their back yard and got up to about 4 feet on the back wall before the gate gave way - which was lucky that it did. The bottom of the house got away with about a foot of mud on it, No water had gotten in the back door because the back porch mat had flipped up and sealed it. After days of ward members, friends and families working to clear it, they finally got the mud out and are looking to re do the yard this year. We had pictures of it but I cant find them on the computer - I wish I had them though because it is hard to believe.