The Sept Fire

This was WAYY Crazy. On Sunday recently, our home teachers came over and we opened the door and saw lots of smoke in the air and a weird orange light outside. Then they said something about a fire over the mountain. We thought, "oh, that's strange" let them in and continued our day afterwards. Later on, the fire came up and over the mountain making the hugest problem for the people below. Eventually 1500 homes had to be evacuated, and they expected by the morning that anywhere from 25-100 homes would be burned down, and the fire would continue to be out of the control of firefighters...That night I watched (somehow everyone else could sleep :)) while it came down the mountain and right up to the houses. The scariest time was 1am. By 3am, the winds finally subsided a little (they had been 50-60 miles per hour which caused most of the problem), and it looked like they'd finally be able to contain the fire. We heard that only 3 homes had been destroyed by the fire, and one severely damaged. That was such a MIRACLE compared to what we had feared. There were many homes where the fire came right up to the back door of the homes and the firefighters were able to get it to turn. In many cases the fire went past homes with green grass, and a majoy help was a gentleman who worked at the dump with NO firefighting training, who thought he could help by bringing his bulldozer to the scene where they were only able to get firefighters up to because it was beyond the roads, and he attached a hose to his truck and fought right along side the firefighters, making trenches along the way that the fire couldn't get through as well. WHAT A BRAVE CITIZEN! Here are some VERY amateur pics that don't even begin to describe what happened.

Trisha's Wedding

We had so much fun during the "festival" of Trisha's Wedding week. Sophy loved seeing Trisha get married to her "prince" and even danced with and tried to kiss her dad JUST like Trisha and Jared were. My sister was an AMAZING help and drove down from ID just to watch Sophy and cuz Malakai while we were all in the temple, then she stayed around a little bit and drove back to school because she had a class the next morning. She managed to talk to many cute old ladies while she was here and they all asked where she was when she didn't show up for the luncheon or reception. They had a Luau theme for the reception, complete with Tongan dances and Fire-breathers! Sophy will NOT forget this for long! We love you Trisha and are happy for you and Jared!

Deck Pics

Well, one thing I asked for my bday that was just finished was a deck. Mostly only so we could go out our back door to the park with kids instead of having to walk all the way around..but it doesn't hurt that it turned out GREAT! Troy designed it himself, got all the pieces from Lowes and Home Depot, worked on it with a few nieghbors, his dad, and brother...THANKS TO ALL! There's a piece we put in where we want to have a slide, but don't have money for it/haven't figured out which one to get yet, so instead of leaving it open for kids to be drawn to (as I'm sure they would), he came up with this slot-railing idea where it looks exactly like the rest of the deck's railing, but it can be pulled up and out at anytime, and then we can even have it in when we do have a slide incase there's a baby crawling around. For now, Sophy loves to use it like a dog. In the morning she says she needs to go out on the deck (we put a baby gate up by the stairs so she can't get out), wants her food out there, and I shut the door, she eats, runs around and "barks" or knocks on the door when she wants to come in. It's great and her cousin Malakai loves it too.

My Bday 29 :)

Here are some pics (now that Sept is almost over) of my bday. Troy made this one a year to remember, after my mom called to wish me "Happy 30th!" and was sure I was turning 30. :) LOVE YOU MOM! First on my bday, he made me a BOSTON CREAM PIE FROM SCRATCH! The same exact recipe the Omni Parker House hotel used in creating the first ever (and they still make it-we had some when in Boston last year) Boston Cream Pie. Only my sweet techy-good at everything hubby! Then he suprised me and told me to not make any plans for a Thurs and Friday, got a babysitter for Sophy overnight and took me (without knowing ) on a road trip to St. George to see a George Gershwin musical called "Crazy For You!" Everything I loved was there, old people music, singing and dancing and acting all by the same people, and especially Troy. We stayed overnight at a Marriott and ate LOTS of food while we were gone. Then did some sight seeing and hiking before coming back to civilization. :) THANKS SO MUCH TROY! I LOVE YOU!