Fire in the hole!

So the Waldo Canyon Fire started about 1:00pm on Saturday afternoon.  Neil and I went out and took some pictures of the smoke around 3pm.  We didn't think it could possibly be very close to town.  So we went in the house and turned on the TV.  The fire is just west of Garden of the Gods park and going strong.  They started issuing some evacuation notices.  At first, they did not mention our neighborhood, but we were close to the evacuation area.  The next thing we know, they are announcing Rockrimmon (where we live) is also on the mandatory evacuation list.  Needless to say, I got a little worked up.  We started gathering things and packing bags.  We kept the news on and thankfully, they corrected themselves and clarified that Rockrimmon did not need to evacuate.  The neighborhood where I taught is on mandatory evacuation so I know lots of families who had to leave their homes.  The fire is moving in a northwest direction (people in Woodland Park are starting to evacuate) so it seems that we should be fine.  We have been told everyone living on the west side of I25 needs to be on alert.  It is pretty smoky, we are keeping the windows closed.  There are 8 fires burning in Colorado and they are giving this one the number one priority. 

This is a view of the fire from the top of Pikes Peak.

This is how Haley passes the time when her parents are too busy watching the news to pay much attention to her