Needing a Smoke Break

(I didn't take this picture and this is not where I am but this is the fire)

The wind must have taken a change in direction for the last couple of days on the forest fire I had posted about. The smoke has drifted and hovered over my moms house and I wake up in the middle of the night smelling smoke and can see it drifting in the air. I took some pictures but haven't uploaded them yet.

The fire has burnt more than 12,000 acres and the firefighters are getting more control over it. No homes have been destroyed or injuries which is great news. I hope this is out quick.

The news reports it was started from lightning. It originally started only a few miles from where my grandparents lived when I was little. They had a huge 2 story log home with a balcony all the way around - everytime I go by it doesn't seem that long ago that I would play "hairstylist" and "fix" my grandpas hair even though he was practically bald.

Yesterday we went here. We stayed about 7 hours and we were pretty beat up by the time we got back. I have never seen more tattoos and piercings in my life. There was a time in my life I would have rather not gone running around in public in my swimsuit, but I think I have reached the age where I really don't care anymore.

I wasn't brave enough to ride most of them. Landon & I spent most of our time stuck going in circles on our rafts while trying to just get down this. Landon had a ball and thought it was pretty funny. We probably rode this around and around about 12 times - you can go around as many times as you want. This was probably the most exciting ride I went on the entire day. It was dark the whole way and of course I was going down backward. Jessica rode about everything they had - she is fearless. She did faint for just a second when we first got there - everyone was saying it was because of the altitude. She's never done that before so it scared her & I both.

I kindof felt bad about not letting Landon go down the real big ones but I knew I would have to go too and frankly, I was too scared. The other reason is that he can swim but not well enough to save his life and most of them wouldn't allow him to wear his lifejacket. He loved doing what we did get to do though and I'm sure we will be hearing about going for a long time and being drilled on when we will be going back.

Today we spent most of the day just driving around town looking at the houses I lived in when I was growing up and the schools I went to. Jessica has been begging me to stay - everytime she sees a house for sale she'll let me know. It has crossed my mind the longer we stay but I'm pretty sure I'd have to literally drag my husband out of Texas so that will probably never happen. I'm sure she & I are just bored from living so far out in the middle of nowhere that civilization has really spoiled us this past week.

We're not sure what we'll be doing tomorrow. I know we are to go camping again someplace where the fish always bite (I'm not the fisherman but my mom and son are) and the garage sale is still on our to-do list. I can really tell that my mom is so glad to have us here - I think she's missed us as much as we've missed her.