Fires in California

You may have heard that our great state of California is in a state of emergency due to several fires in various areas fueled by Santa Ana wind conditions-hot winds coming from the east rather than the usual breeze coming from the ocean on the west. Here is a picture courtesy of NASA. (Marea, I pulled this from your blog.)



We had a fire in Irvine, too, about 3 miles from our house.



Here is a view from our neighborhood on Sunday evening.


We smelled fire outside during dinner around 6pm. Then Ben noticed that Kate and I were wearing matching outfits -isn't it weird how that happens without any planning- and we had to go take a picture outside. It was darker than usual and we were shocked to see a huge plume of smoke nearby.




No homes were burned in our city, but it has been very smoky. The air is horrible and the health department has advised everyone to stay inside. Some Irvine schools are closed but Ian's school has remained open, although they have had indoor recess and lunch so far this week.



We have stayed inside with the exception of school and preschool and a necessary Costco run today. While I was dragging the gigantic haul inside, Kate made quick work of these bagels. Don't know how she took those three bites so fast. Hope that plastic was good!