A Fiery 4th....

4th of July? Yep. I know it's the end of July. I'm behind. What's new.

We had a fantastic trip to Black Butte Ranch for the 4th weekend. Our family got a house over there for 4 days and we had a great time together. Rode in the Independence Day bike parade, watched a firework show up close, rode bikes all over, swam all over and got to watch the BB II forest fire unfold right over our heads. Cool stuff.

Decorated & ready to go.

~~FIREWORKS~~

Fun show off of Powell Butte in Bend....we were right under it.

Mikey & the kids swimming while the helicopters load up water on Phalarope Lake right behind them.

Lovin' the pool. Emma is a fish and spends more time under water than above it. And Jake, who before this summer thought the water was going to burn his eyes off and render him totally blind should he let it come in contact with him, now loves to swim as much as his sis.

Getting to feed our baby cousins was also a big treat on this vacation.

Emma takes her role of big cousin very seriously. She informed me that she really wants to be a mom next week. Oh boy.

And here are the shots of the BB II fire. It was on the NE side of the butte.

Checking out the fire action with Nana. Jake called these his space binoculars.

The helicopter leaving the fire after a water drop. By the 2nd day of the fire, they flew in two large air tankers to drop the red Phos-Chek. The pictures below don't do it justice, but it was pretty cool to see it in person. We were amazed at the guts & precision of the pilots flying so low to do the drop.

They continued with the large chopper while they used the two tankers.

Then they brought in a 2nd chopper that didn't have a bucket, but rather a short hose sticking out of the bottom and the it had to hover RIGHT above the water to fill up. Jake called this the firetruck helicopter, because it did look like a firetruck transformed into a chopper.

It was super interesting and exciting to see all the fire action. At times, it felt like we were at war or something because the air traffic was constant and felt so urgent. Cool stuff. Cool trip.