Fire...Works

 What a Fourth of July we had this year.

It turned out to be fun but it didn't start out that way.

We had made plans to go camping with my family on the third to the fourth.

Scott and I went to Alpine at about one so I could help my mom set up the camp site.

Mark was going to catch a ride with my dad after they were done with work.

My mom and I went shopping when I got there for last minute supplies.

On our way home I noticed smoke coming from really low on the mountain.

It was just starting and just a dark pillar of smoke.

But it grew...Fast!

They evacuated my parents and our neighbors but I knew we weren't in any real danger.

It was about two or three miles from our house and the wind was blowing away from our house.

About 12 years ago there was a fire and we were in danger then.

We had firetrucks in our back yard and the house was filled with smoke.

That was scary.

This was bad but the firefighters did an amazing job keeping the fire away from homes and other dangerous things.

Still not sure what started the fire but whatever it was, I was and still am ticked about it.

Not only could we not go camping but now there is an ugly dark mountain where it was once beautiful.

I know that new life can come from fires but it's still sad.

The mountain right behind our house is just starting to get trees up top again but you can still see all the dead ones and it's been 12 years.

I feel so bad for all those people who had to go through so much worry, and over a holiday too.

Things like this help remind you what really matters.

Even though we weren't in any real danger one can't help but think about "what if..."

What if our house had burned?

We got all our pictures and other things out but to look around your childhood house and see all the memories we have made there...

It's like a scrapbook building, everywhere I look I see memories of my life.

I'm so grateful that everything worked out fine.

 On the fourth we went with some friends to the Bees game.

We were in the field behind out field where we could lay out our blankets.

It was a lot of fun and Scott got to run around a bit.

 After the game we got to move out onto the field for a fireworks show.

In years past for one reason or another we didn't get around to going to a fire works show on the 4th or the 24th.

That means that this was the first fireworks show Scott has ever seen.

It was hard getting him to behave till the time of the show, way past his bed time.

WOW!

He loved it.

Mark and I loved watching him see it for the first time.

It was a great day celebrating our freedoms.

Family and Friends and Freedom is what it's all about.