Let me just start that we are home and safe and sound from all the fires. We came home on October 14. The fire burned alongside the eastern border of Hartland, but never came on to the property. Praise the Lord!!! Now it's time to catch up on some blog posts.
The very beginning of September found us adventuring to the Channel Islands National Park and Ventura, CA with Casey's Mom. We did a day trip to the islands. It was about an hour boat ride out and back. We got to see dolphins both ways. On the way out we passed over the wake from a large container ship and the dolphins were playing in the waves, it was amazing to watch. We hiked about 6 miles around Santa Cruz Island. It's a pretty dry and rugged landscape, we did get to see the Island Fox and Island Scrub Jay.
The boat we rode on to the island
Dolphin next to the boat
Dolphin
More Dolphins!!!
Hiking on the island
An old crane left on the island
We went up and down quite a few hills
Island Scrub Jay
The view of Scorpion Harbor
Island Fox(they are about the size of a house cat)
More Dolphins
We spent some time exploring Ventura. We rode bikes along the ocean and Zane got to play on the beach.
We rented bikes, Zane was a crazy driver in the two person one with Pop
Playing in the water
Driving off the path
Boogie boarding
We had a wonderful visit with Charm and some great adventures. For the next week or so it was pretty quiet around home. The KNP Complex fire was stated by lightning the evening of Sept. 9. We watched the storm from our porch. We did a ton of clearing around our house to be prepared. Casey and I had already decided that Zane and I would leave if we got an evacuation warning. So on Sept. 23 Zane and I packed up one of the cars and headed to my parents in Sun City. One of the main reasons we picked that location is Casey's brother Seth and family were in town for a baseball tournament. So we got to spend time with them and Zane got to hang out with his cousin Austin.
Zane and Austin
Austin playing ball
One day Zane and I got to go Jeeping with Grandpa. It was a beautiful day to explore cactus country.
Checking out a Saguaro with a funny top
Zane running among the Saguaros
Checking out a Jeep trail that Grandpa did the week before, called Terminator!
We did some other fun things while at Nana and Grandpa's House:
Zane hanging out with Gus
Painting one of his rusty Tonkas
Zane spent many an afternoon running through the golf course sprinklers
Playing Mini Golf
Paddle boat ride with Grandpa
I also forgot to mention that in August Zane started First Grade!! He loves math and learning about animals.
Our First Grader building with gears and pulleys
On September 30, the evacuation for the fire became mandatory and Casey had to leave Hartland. Thank you to everyone that gave us generous offers to come and stay during our time of evacuation. Once Casey was evacuated we decided to head to Texas. Those adventures will be in the October blog. I also want to say thank you to all of those who prayed and checked in with us during the fire, it really meant a lot to us.
