1. Eating out at restaurants.
2. Travel.
3. Visiting relatives.
4. Watching a fire in the evening.
5. Spending time as a family.
6. Going to or watching movies.
7. Lots of packing and unpacking.
8. Stress.
If you said vacation, you just failed. The preceding was a test of the emergency broadcast system. beeeeeeeeppppppppp.
So on Thursday, Lake Mountain caught on fire. With impressive winds and dry conditions, the fire would grow to over 6000 acres, including the hills within a mile of our home. We were given an hour to evacuate (more than some who unfortunately had five minutes).
The steps of our evacuation were this:
1. Maggie panics that the house will burn down. David hopes the house will burn down so it can get rebuilt right (never buy a Centex home). Tim and Ami find this exciting. A friend took this picture.
2. Grab the 72 hour kits, journals, scriptures, photos, hard drives. Realize that took 7 minutes. Send the children after the important things: the blue-rays, rare books, and video games. Melissa grabs the camping gear. David considers if it would be inappropriate to pray that the fire raze the neighborhood. Still more time? Grab the bo-staff and weapons for practice.
3. Neighbors offer to help load the car and truck. Guess we should get going. Thanks friends.
4. Brother Josh offered a break from the smoke. We head for their pad. Children realize it is like a vacation.
5. Invade space of Brother Josh, feel intrusive in spite of their absolute kindness and hospitality. Daydream that home burns down so we can use insurance displacement cash to buy a 5th wheel and get new wardrobes.
6. Psychotic barrage of text messages and Facebook posts begin (ends two days later). Realize unlimited texting was a must.
7. Head out to lunch and to watch the movie Brave (jaw dropping graphics, formulaic story, fluffy hair, kilts). Critics were a bit too harsh on it.
8. Smoke from fire invades entire valley. Go to bed.
9. Wake up. Family bo-staff practice. Amirrah forgets rules
about not "playing" with a weapon and goes down the slide with it in front of her. Smacks head, monster goose-egg. "You'll poke your eye out." Kids do dress-up with costumes.
10. More eating out. Trip to the aquarium, Deseret Industries, & Petsmart. (Why are those little crappers so cute behind bars?)
11. More eating out. Hear that homes probably will have major smoke damage (yet to be assessed).
12. Read. Hang with family. Water fights. Susanna claims the water bazooka. While dressed up in 1970's disco jacket and Daniel Boone hat demonstrating her father's keen fashion sense. (They say jeans go with everything!)
13. Children behave themselves, knowing that they might get to stay up until 10:30 again.
14. They do. Parents crashing.
15. Day three: Everyone crashing. Evac over, children psychotic. Mom tired. Dad trying to do Church calling from 15 miles away. Return home.
16. Children call it a fun "vacation".
Maybe you were not wrong after all, best worst-caused vacation ever?
2 comments:
Those spur of the moment vacations - evacs - are sometimes the best:)
Just have to say how much I love reading your blog. Makes me laugh every time!
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