Fire Update!

We have had quite an eventful couple of days. Yesterday morning my parents had to evacuate their home- my dad went to work and my mom came over to our condo. Work for me had been canceled because the office is in an evacuation zone. We sat around until 4 o'clock and then went to Carissa's parents. Her mom is in Utah so we sat around there for a few hours and my dad came and met us there. As we watched the news we heard a reporter broadcasting from the street right above my parents house and that it didn't look to good for the homes at the bottom. We got a little worried- whenever you see a local reported so close to your home it makes you a little nervous! After a couple hours of waiting and wondering what was going on, they went back to the same reporter and she was standing on my parents street! This time it was good news that the fire had burned right up next the the house and all the hills in the area but every house had been saved and that a firefighter was standing on every driveway of that particular street. All our worries had been erased, we just wanted to see how close it got to the homes!
About an hour later, we got a reverse 911 call at Carissa's parents that said we needed to evacuate their neighborhood so we went to a stake center downtown and I had the priveledge of sleeping in a tent with the family dog! It turned out the 911 call to the neighborhood was a mistake and we could have stayed at Carissa's parents all night.

So today we were hoping to go and get a look at my parents home. We started the drive over and were met by a road block and this:


Yep- armed guards! We decided to risk our lives and sneak around through a gated community behind our high school and go to the neighborhood. It really is amazing that not one house was burned in their area. The fire came right down the hill across the street from my parents but no homes were touched! I hope you can see the black on the hill and were everything was burned, but to get the real picture you need to see it for yourself! We also went to other neighborhoods where homes were burned to see the damage- it really was amazing to see what damage can be done. There are a few pictures of that as well! Carissa, Carly and I are doing great as are our families. Thanks for all your support and prayers, we really do appreciate and know it had a hand in protecting us!

P.S. if you click on the photo it will make it bigger!

Looking across the street from my parent's house







Two houses that burned in an adjacent neighborhood


video from where the reporter stood the night before and all we saw were flames behind her! My parent's house is to the right down the slope (not visible).