Some new pictures

The smoke over the west side of town has been horrible since Tuesday.  We dropped Nate off with Rachael on Wednesday and the smoke was even horrible clear out there, but it finally started to lift Wednesday afternoon and pictures have started to come out. We felt reasonably sure our home would be okay, but feel good to know that pictures of the area have reassured us that is the case.

These are some of the pictures that have struck me in the last day:

This is maybe half a mile to a mile north of us.  The home in the lower right corner is our home teacher's house.  

Panorama of the city the night it came down into our area:

This is what it looked like as we evacuated with the thick smoke:

As scary as these pictures look, the ones that are truly amazing came out as the smoked cleared:

The neighborhood straight west of us across Centennial the night of the fire as the fire started to come down the hill:

That same area now:

The fire came over the ridge driven by 65 mph winds.  The fact that none of these homes burned is absolutely amazing to me and a real testimony to our firefighters.  Officials are telling us almost nothing about what was actually lost, but we do know the Flying W Ranch was completely burned to the ground and there are probably at least 200-300 homes that were lost, but the fact that they were able to save so many is truly amazing.  In the top picture, you can see our church steeple and then our neighborhood right behind it. You can see that there are scorched areas all the way to the street across from our church.  As an aside, our church had to have the foundation fixed last month and every bit of vegetation that was around it was removed down to bare dirt. 

We are hoping we may be able to go home by the weekend.

Evacuated

So we have been watching the fire since it started.  We have progressed over the last few days through a lot of stuff to watch:

Saturday:

Sunday:

Monday:

Tuesday:
By Tuesday, we were feeling pretty confident.  The firemen had held the line on the south side of Garden of the Gods to keep it out of the residences there that have had fire licking at them since day one.  They had also held it at I-24 and managed to keep it from going across.  They evacuated all the homes west of us the first day and were letting them come back in for a short time Tuesday to check on their homes.  They were supposed to be able to do that all day.  At 11 o'clock, the wind came up and things started to change very rapidly.  They told all those people to get out and they wouldn't be allowed up in their homes anymore.  About noon, they issued pre-evacuation orders for all the homes north of the original group.  I had been watching the smoke all day from the window.  It was extremely thick over the house and we weren't able to have windows open or anything. About 3:30. it looked like this:

And then I left to go to an appointment at 4:30 and it looked like this:

I came around the corner of our street and saw this:

We started packing up not long after that and got the call to evacuate about 6 o'clock.  It is kind of surreal to be packing your car and have the police come down the street with the bullhorns telling you to leave.  The fire trucks were pulling in as we left.  This has affected most of our ward and the pictures of the hill on fire were taken from our church parking lot. 

Wednesday:
We are safe with my parents.  The news this morning is that there are roughly 32,000 evacuees and the entire west side of the city has been evacuated all the way up to the Air Force Academy. The fire grew from roughly 5500 acres to 16,000 acres.  The fire came into Queens Canyon north of Glen Eyrie and Garden of the Gods and has been running north of those areas, so that is good at least.  We do not know how far down the hill the fire came toward us, but they did say that it did not jump Centennial, which is 2 blocks west of us.  We also don't know when we might be allowed back in our home.  All that can be seen of that side of the city is a huge cloud of smoke and the fire is still actively burning.  

Waldo Canyon Fire

So this is the view out of our front window today:

If you are familiar with Colorado Springs, this started in Waldo Canyon and is moving toward Queens Canyon (this canyon comes down into Garden of the Gods and Glen Eyrie), Highway 24, and Manitou.  Manitou has been completely evacuated and the evacuation line on the west side of town ends at Centennial (2 block west of us).  A large portion of our ward has been evacuated.  The last number was 2800 homes evacuated.  We don't think it is likely that it will jump Centennial and get to us, but it is something to watch.  We are also at 100 degrees and on our way to possibly being the hottest day ever in Colorado Springs.

On a related note to my last post, Justin is spending the day with the Fire Explorers at the fire rehab center helping to prepare food and areas to rest for working firefighters.

Fire Academy

Justin joined the local Fire Explorers program in January.  In June, they had their week-long academy.  The kids spend a week, 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., doing classwork, hands on, and physical fitness.  At the end of the week, they have practicals and then written exams.  If they pass, then they can ride along with the fire department.  The last day, they had a BBQ and a chance for the parents to come and see what they had been doing. 

Catching Up

So far behind. 

N turned 10 in March.

He played his final orchestra concert in May.  He has decided he wants to try band next year instead.

Raced in the pine wood derby, though didn't do so well this year.  He also earned his Wolf and started Bears.

J started Fire Explorers in January.  They work with the fire department and once they pass the summer academy can ride along with the local departments.  He is really excited about this program.  He also got accepted into a program with the local community college that will allow him to take his first semester of fire sciences courses during his senior year of high school. The picture below was in the paper after the St. Patrick's Day parade.  Justin is the one in the dark blue shirt on the far left. 

He also turned 17. 

C finished up his first year of college and is working full time.  He has also been mentoring his old robotics team, which made it to nationals again by taking 1st place in the Denver regional!!  He is also starting up his own little business selling parts on eBay for his girlfriend's dad.  He pretty much just wants exposure for his company (they sell electronics of some kind) and wants someone to run an eBay shop for him.  All C has to do is set it up and run it.  The company will drop ship the parts and C gets to keep any money he makes (they are giving him the parts for free to sell).  No pictures of C because we don't ever see him. 


Kurt is still busy with Search and Rescue.  This is the picture the local newspaper took of them bringing down a kid who fell on the Manitou Incline a couple weeks ago.  They pick up an awful lot of people who can't seem to figure out that you climb up the Incline, but you come down Barr Trail, not back down the Incline. 

And if I can get out from in front of my computer, I've been working in the yard.  Most of it just got planted, but my clematis and bleeding hearts came in with a vengeance this spring.  And the roses aren't doing too bad either. Now if I can just get all the stuff that needs to be done now done before all this needs to be trimmed back. 

Halloween

We actually had all 3 kids dress up for Halloween. I don't think Chris has dressed up since he was in elementary school, but he had a party this year, so here he wearing Kurt original from way back in the 1990s (the mask and cape were bought, but everything else Kurt fixed up).


Next, we have Justin wearing a 2011 Kurt & Justin original. He and Justin spent all day working on this and got it done just before we left for Trunk or Treating at the church. They were going to make a ghost, too, but ran out of time.
And Nate wearing what could only be bought at a store.
Nate had a great time trunk or treating and then going out with the neighbor kids for Halloween. We let him carve his own pumpkin this year, too, and so he had a pretty good Halloween.

Why I can't have any pretty plants in my yard

Here is our picture of our neighbors learning the hard way why you can't plant nice plants in your front yard.