The Grays

6/26 at 5pm

6/27 at 10am

Baby Deer

We had quite the scare on Tuesday when our house was under a pre-evacuation notice due to the Flagstaff Fire. Around 2pm a thunderstorm rolled through Boulder with a little bit of rain and a lot of lightening. It started a fire at the back of Bear Peak (the tallest peak of the Flatirons in the background of our neighborhood) and by the time it was reported it was bordering out of control. With the driest season in decades, the fire had a lot of fuel and as it reached the top of the peak our neighborhood was alerted to the danger.

The girls didn’t nap that afternoon so I had put them in the car and decided to drive to Little Monkey Business (an indoor play area for kids) in Westminster, 20 minutes away. When I walked outside I could smell the smoke but we get this on occasion from the ongoing fires in Ft. Collins so I didn’t think much of it. When I was pulling out of the neighborhood I could see smoke at the top of Bear Peak and people out on the street taking photos. Nobody was too alarmed so I did a quick check of the news and continued on to Westminster. Bill then texted me at 5pm saying I had to come home “now” because we were in pre-evacuation and it was so scary because I didn’t even know what that meant for us. Driving home to Boulder you could see thick clouds of smoke and occasional flames. People were pulling to the side of the freeway to watch and get photos.

We’ve never experienced anything like this before and packed several bags (photo albums, wedding dress, important documents, best crystal pieces and jewelry, necessities for the girls), made lists and walked through every room in the house to decide what items we would grab and what we would leave behind in the event of a mandatory evacuation. It was a tough night but fortunately the fire died down a bit overnight. There were several hot spots on the front side on Wednesday and concerns throughout the day but good news came at 5pm when we were taken off the pre-evac list. Boulder County Firefighters along with firefighters from surrounding areas and a Type 1 air team were very proactive in containing the fire and we are very thankful for all the work they did. There is still some danger of a fire because conditions are so dry, but we are hopeful. This was the first rolling fire in Boulder County in over 30 years – we need rain!

Meanwhile the Waldo Canyon Fire in CO Springs continues to burn and our thoughts are with our neighbors to the south!

“We have always been fortunate to be surrounded by beautiful ‘things’, but nothing so beautiful as the mountains and community that surround us today.”

**In the midst of all of this ‘excitement’, a mama deer gave birth to a fawn in our neighbor’s backyard! I spotted them Wednesday morning and spent much of the day spying on them with the girls. At one point the fawn came into our backyard and pushed some of Lilly’s toys around, and they spent the night in our yard as well. Just another thing that reminds us of how much we love to live here. So cute!