July 7th

We went up to Paradise this past week to visit everyone, and boy did we pick the wrong week to come. Monday wasn't too bad, I should have taken it as a bad omen when I got 20 minutes out of town and realized I had forgotten my pump. I had to turn around and get it. Two days without pumping would be bad. (Enough said) We went to Oroville first to pick up Grandma, then headed up to Paradise for dinner with Michelle, Dave and Carissa.



I don't know why, but these kids go crazy and have to drag out ALL the toys. This was just the start and by the end of the night it looked like a toy store threw up in Carissas bedroom.



We woke up Tuesday morning to the worst smoke day since the fires had started.




As you can see, the van had so much ash on it that it looked like it had snowed. I was contemplating whether we should stay another night as planned, or leave that evening when she got the precautionary evacuation notice. No more need to contemplate, we left after lunch. Thankfully everything is fine and by now as I am posting this I heard that the fires were 40% contained and the threat to Paradise is low. That's really good news.




After we left my sisters house we headed to Chico to visit Nana and have an early dinner. Gabe had a good time being passed around and the kids had a good time visiting and watching videos.