Old Flames - from July 11, 2007

The subject heading is quite misleading for this post. I just wanted to post some pictures of the fire we drove past on our way home. The flames in the pictures are not there anymore - hence the subject title - Old Flames. This was the fire by Cove Fort in Utah. My mom had told me I-15 was closed due to a fire. I blew it off, but then I did check the news, and saw that indeed it had been closed. On the road my mother in law called to tell us they were closing I-15 again due to a controlled back burn. Luckily for us, it was delayed or never took place or something. We drove right by. I snapped some pictures in my half sleepy state. It was pretty close. The flames were just right there. That was the excitement of the drive home (unless you count the World's Tallest Outdoor Thermometer in Baker - or the casino we stayed at in Primm Nevada). Fire is really awe inspiring. But it does smell pretty awful. I was much more sensitive to this fire smell, being pregnant and all. When they had terrible wild fires in San Diego 4 or 5 years ago I was almost immune to the smell for a few days. It was pretty funny - Eric and I were hanging out in our aparment the day the fires started, and then we got a call 20 minutes before church telling us church was cancelled due to the fires. "Fires? What fires?" We were convinced the smell was just our neighbors smoking again - and hey - why not just another overcast day? We finally looked out our window and saw that it was a bit worse than that. Fire was raging less than 5 miles from our home. I can now say I've had the opportunity to grab my most important possessions because a fire was coming. We did load up the car with our valuables - and then we never left. It never got any closer to us. It really did make us think about what was important and what wasn't. We also got a MUCh better 72 hour kit over the next few days. Its sad you have to be scared into emergency preparedness compliance sometimes. We had a fantastic time in Idaho! We didn't want to leave. I REALLY didn't want to leave. 16 hours in the car just isn't very much fun when you're pregnant. Go figure. I can never listen to the Imperial March (Darth Vader's Theme) again. I will go mad - that is - if I haven't gone made from it already! We saw all 7 of hubby's brothers and sisters, and 3 of my 4 brother and sisters. We had a great time. It made us really rethink wether we want to wait a year to move or not. We had been saying the whole trip - we don't want to move before the baby is born....but the night we got home we realized how nice it is to see family and to play games. It was a truly enjoyable week.