Video

The Southern Baptist North American Mission board sent a crew out with Gunnar the other day. They filmed this clip for churches to show what Southern Baptist's have been doing to help. I think it captures Gunnar's last couple days pretty well.

Blessed

I am so blessed. I really am. I know a lot of times I don't sit around thinking about how blessed I am but the facts don't lie: I am one blessed girl.

First of all, we are finally home. That we have a home, and that we can live it in alone are two huge blessings that I can't overlook.We were let into our house yesterday, Grace, Guapo and I got home a bit after 9:30 and Gunnar got home sometime after that. We were more or less out of groceries so my parents came up today and brought me a bunch of groceries, again, another HUGE blessing as I am exhausted and going to the grocery store with Grace was the last thing I really felt like doing.

As I was driving home last night from Oceanside I started thinking about how blessed I am. I have often thought a lot about how wonderful a family I have and how I would never have to worry because even if something were to happen to Gunnar and I needed help I would have so many layers of people that I know would help me out. My parents, my siblings, my grandparents and cousins, my Chapel church family.....

Well, Tuesday morning for the first time in my life I had to evacuate my home. The 15 south was closed, so getting down to my family would be difficult. Besides that, Gunnar wanted to go back to Valley Center and wanted Grace and I close by. So we went to our friend in Oceanside's home. She had offered the day before, when it was looking like an evacuation was possible. She cooked delicious meals for us every day, let Grace tear around her house, and even let Guapo come over to stay. She was so sweet and gracious. I think the thing that struck me is that I don't know her that well. I have known her casually for a long time, but not like one of those friends who I have been super close to. I felt like she went over and above the call of duty and to make our time as nice and relaxing as possible. I think God showed me that my original "people to call in emergency" list was far to short. God has overwhelmingly put wonderful people in my life that I think in a lot of ways I have taken for granted.

I also know that a lot of people were praying for us, and again, I can't ignore the fact that prayer works. I don't know exactly how but I know it does.

So thank you all, friends and loved ones. I am blessed to call you my family and friends. Grace is blessed to have you in her network of extended "family".

Here are some pictures from the weird fire weather and of the kids playing together while we were evacuated. The little boy where we were staying and Grace got along so well, they had a blast!

Hanging out in Oceanside

I think anyone that would read this blog probably already got an email. We evacuated our house this morning. I am in Oceanside with our friends Teri and Will. Grace and Will are having a blast. Gunnar got to drive a Sheriffs cruiser to go get the Sheriffs some sandwiches.

I am not too worried, just sitting here watching the news, over and over and over and over again.

We are okay

Just in case anyone is watching the news, we are okay. Our area isn't being evacuated. It is really windy, but the fire is blowing away from us. We aren't even getting any smoke or ash.

Life

In a effort to familiarize myself with my new camera, I have been taking a lot of random pictures around the house.
I thought I would share what life around here looks like. Day in and day out. This is it.

Maria taught her how to "look cute".

Grace is absolutely madly in love with her Tia Maria. She talks about her constantly. She has her own picture of Maria that she enjoys kissing, when she doesn't have a chance to see Maria in person.

This is pretty much standard Grace silliness. We all agree she doesn't get her sense of humor from her mother.

She looks so angelic when she is sleeping.

Grace loves to have books read to her so she tries to get anyone who comes over to read to her. Our good friend David was her victim that day.

Sunday morning all ready for church

Living in the country means we spend LOTS of time in the car. She isn't normally this happy about it.

It's a jungle out there

We went to the Wild Animal Park this morning to go for a walk. Even though we have spent a lot of time at the zoo, we never have really gotten too familiar with the Wild Animal Park.

We decided to try out the Kilimanjaro Safari Walk to see what it was like. If the goal had been to see a lot of animals, it would have been very disappointing.

Since our goal was to get some fresh air

and spend some time together as a family, we had a great time.

We loaded Grace up in the stroller and took off. Being the good parents we are, we of course made sure she had plenty of provisions for along the way.

We did stop momentarily to allow her to sit on the back of a wild creature.

My favorite part of the walk was the botanical gardens. It reminded me of the woods and was shady and cool, which was a nice break from the walk in the sun. Since I am still in the "honeymoon stage" with my new camera, of course I took a bunch of pictures.

San Clemente

Monday morning we decided to head to the beach for a little family time. It also gave me a great opportunity to try out my new camera. I still have a lot to learn but with Grace around, I have lots of opportunities to practice.

It was really overcast and cool. The ocean and the sky were a beautiful grey color. We walked up and down the pier and then took Grace on the swings.

Here are some pictures from our day.