A Week Before Christmas

After having 8 out of the last 11 days of school off, they finally went back today!!  They have school today, tomorrow and then a half day on Thursday which starts their Christmas break.  To say that it's been a crazy couple of weeks would be an understatement.  

We had friends from church stay with us for 6 nights because their house smells like smoke.  

This is what it has been like since the fires started.  

 Saturday morning we headed to our friends' house to help them clean a bit.  We wiped down the walls with vinegar water and made make-shift air purifiers out of fans and air filters.  The fire came up right behind their house and even burned a handful in their neighborhood.  When we left our house that day (about 25 minutes away), we could begin to smell the smoke.  When we got there, we could not be without our masks.  The outside air was terrible and their house smelled like someone's been smoking in there for 50 years.  I think it's going to take multiple cleanings in order for it to get better.

Here's Amelia modeling the N95 masks we are supposed to wear.  They fit completely over her face!

Friday night, they built a for to play in....with every blanket they could pull out of the closet.

 They asked if they could sleep in it and I said sure.  They were so excited!  The slept in it 2 nights in a row.

 Saturday night we headed to another friends' house who lives on Oxnard's Christmas Tree Lane.  We started with snacks and drinks there, then headed out to walk and see all of the Christmas lights.  I noticed that there weren't as many as last year and she told me that the fires affected a lot of people and they just didn't do it.

 Photo prop in a yard!

We are preparing to head to IN this Saturday and we are all excited about the possibility of SNOW!!!

Week 2 At Home

The kids went to school Monday and Tuesday and we got the call Tuesday night that due to poor air quality, school was cancelled for the rest of the week.  Our school is an open air school, which means all hallways, cubbies and coat hooks are outside.  There is no air conditioning and the temperatures this week are in the 80's, so they can't close all of the windows and doors in order to keep the smoke out because the kids would roast.  

So, we've been running errands, playing inside and going to the movies.  Although the kids love not having school, they are going out of their minds having to stay indoors.  The air quality seems ok (breezeometer app) in the mornings, but by the afternoons, it's bad again.  

This is from another flare up in Fillmore this morning.  Don't let the smoke fool you, we are safe.  It looks terrible, but it's fairly far from us (fairly meaning, about 21 miles drive time....as the crow flies, maybe only 10 miles).  It's over the hill there and across a highway.  

This morning Caleb wrote this book for our elf.  I think Amelia is going to draw pictures in it later.....but I ok'd them to go out and play for 30 minutes and they were gone like lightning!  

We are thinking of making cookies for our neighbors tomorrow as our act of kindness (Caleb is learning about that in school right now:o).  

The Thomas Fire

News broke Monday night that there was a wildfire between Santa Paula and Ventura.  They were forecasting Santa Ana winds and anytime those are forecasted fire danger is high.  After putting the kids to bed, I thought to look out the window. 

That glowing red is Santa Paula.   

 From that point on, we were glued to the news.  Around 10pm we lost power and it didn't come on until 4am.  The next morning, I received the call that school was cancelled (after I was already ready for work).  They weren't sure where it was going and our school could possibly become an evacuation center.  We could see Ventura burning, but had no idea just how bad it was going to get.  We know many people that were evacuated and even one family that lost their home.  

Some kids our kids had just recently started playing with had moved from around the corner to Ventura just last week.  They honestly probably had only unloaded their U-Haul a day or two before the fires hit.  They lost everything.

 We got word on Wednesday that school would be cancelled for the rest of the week.  So, while our kids were bored because the news was saying to try to stay indoors as much as possible (even if you couldn't smell the smoke, air quality was poor),  the city we live most of our lives in, was burning down.

 Over the next few nights, we began to see actual flames in the hills towards Santa Paula and today were hit with the smoke.  

As of now, it has burned 132,000+ acres, destroyed at least 485 structures and forced 200,000 people to evacuate.  I have also read that the Ventura fire is larger than the entire city of Denver, CO, with smoke surpassing 1,000 miles over the ocean.  If the winds were blowing the opposite direction, that would mean the smoke from Ventura would be passing Amarillo, TX.  

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving day we had temperatures in the 80's, no air conditioning and lots of food to cook.  

We had a great meal and spending it with family and friends made it that much better.  We always love sharing our home (wherever that may be) with all of you!

Happy Thanksgiving from sunny California!

Beach Days & Griffith Observatory

Early in the week, the IN Capps' were able to enjoy a day at the Santa Monica Pier and Ventura Harbor beaches.

 Since I was not with them (and these are Holly's pictures), I do not know where this photo was taken....Venice Beach/Santa Monica area?

 Our favorite kid beach.

 Caleb and Amelia getting buried in the sand.

 The day before Thanksgiving, they took a trip to LA to see the Griffith Observatory.

 You can see in their cheeks just how hot it was that day.