So Cal's on fire

Yes, you've heard the news by now. And for many of us, it's getting old and frustrating, but I thought I'd give a quick take on our situation here amongst the firegrounds...Eating dinner Sunday night, we noticed an ominous black cloud out our back window. I commented, looks like rain but that doesn't make sense considering how dry and windy it was that day (thank you, Santa Anas). And then it was really dark and I thought, it's fall, days are getting so short! But then we looked out the front window and it was still light out, blue skies! So at roughly 5:30pm, dusk, I took some pictures of the smoke cloud coming our way. Four days later, we still have orange skies, people have lost homes (no one we know although both our pastors have their cars loaded up prepped for evacuation), and we're all going very, very stir crazy from being locked inside a very hot and stuffy house! It's been in the 80's and we can't open the windows due to poor air quality! I don't want to whine considering what others have lost but it's been a challenging few days. In conclusion, we're not in danger and are doing fine except for cabin fever and sinus headaches. We're just praying for rain to clean the air and for safety for all our brave firefighters. Consider praying with us...we need relief!

Pumpkin Time

Even though it's rather hot this week, it's finally starting to feel like fall! We went to the local pumpkin patch with our cousins running through the fields of rotting pumpkins and watching the pumpkin launcher send pumpkins into the hillside with a bang (a new attraction this year). We then went back to their house to carve them. Jason asked Daddy to carve angry eyes while Braden went for the classic. Gage and Nick both got creative but I have to admit, Caleb's is my favorite (good job, Casey :) Overall, it was an afternoon of creativity at its best (we got to play with mush and use knives, what could be better?) And the results are really impressive.

PS Casey is very pregnant, check out her adorable pumpkin belly! We're eager for baby Long #5 to arrive any day but probably not until early-November. And while we all want to see him and hold him, etc...we all really just want to know his name! They're not sharing until he comes into this world so we're all trying to patiently wait, ugh!

Coming soon...Halloween costumes!

We found Nemo and Beth is tall...

We went to Disneyland recently when Grandma Judy (that's her with Adam in the submarine)came to town and thanks to a quiet mid-week visit, the line was finally short enough for Nemo's submarine ride. We waited less than 30 minutes. The kids loved it. Jason's favorite part was Bruce the shark, Beth loved Nemo and Crush and Adam...he seemed to like all the bubbles best but maybe he'll tell us more in a few years. As for me, I miss the mermaid but Darla was an amusing replacement. Conclusion...we'll ride again (as long as the wait is not hours like it was all summer!)

In other Disneyland news...Beth is officially 40 inches (according to Disneyland anyway). This means that much to mom's chagrin, she's tall enough for Thunder Mountain and Splash Mountain. She loved them both, actually rode Thunder Mountain twice. Mom was super nervous for her on Splash Mountain and just kept telling her the story of Brer Rabbit so she would focus on that and the inevitable Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah ending.

And that is exactly what she did! That's us in the back of the log, mom's red shirt , Jason in front of us and Beth's blonde hair (she's sitting next to mom). Technically, she's even tall enough for Space Mountain but she doesn't need to know that. It's scary enough that Jason's asking to go. I promised he could go when he turns five (that's in January! How did that happen so fast!)