Small community, big heart

Last week was filled will our usual busy days, along with some out-of-the-ordinary events. The helicopter crash that we heard about on our fire lines Tuesday, turned out to be devastating- 9 of the men on board died in the crash. This story crushed us- the hundreds of firefighters that our still camping out 8 miles away have been honored heros amongst us for almost 2 months. To hear of MORE losses was unthinkable- and such a terrible tragedy. The smoke slowly drifted back in earlier this week, and serves as a constant reminder of the lives lost fighting these never-ending fires in our mountains. Along with the smoke, came the press. Our little town's Veteran's Hall was cleared out by Wednesday morning, as town officials were told to make room for the news stations. CNN was first to arrive, followed by the masses of news vans with their big satellite dishes on top. I heard a reporter from ABC end her piece by asking, "Should we be sending our firefighters out to fight fires in areas where there are no people?" And I thought, "Wait- I'm here, my family is here, my community is here!" We may not be A LOT of people, but we are good people- and we are thankful for all the sacrifices these firefighters have been making all summer for us. The media added a new aspect of "strange" to this summer's events- Weaverville is usually just a quaint, historic little mountain town- full of tourists looking for quiet getaways in the summer. This year it's just been a smokey town with few visitors, tons of firetrucks along the highways, a constant rumble of helicopters flying above, and now media vans. A very different town, but still a great town.

Despite the tragic events, we continued on with our plans to make the most of the last days of summer. We got together with friends and cousins for playdates, and found a great new swimming hole in Junction City- just past where our huge fire camp is located. I even had a friend come over one morning to help manage my little ones, since I was forced to have a 3 hour Glucose Tolerance test after my 28 week glucose screen revealed a very high sugar count. Luckily, I am able to manage my sugar levels with diet and testing my sugar count with a glucometer, and I won't have to manage it with insulin. But, it took me a few days to get over myself having to cut MORE fun things .... sweets, carbs, juices... out of my diet. I keep running through the list of my "pregnancy no-no's" telling myself, "Yes, it's difficult to live without caffine, wine, chocolate, bread, pasta, ice cold lemonade, ice cold beer, lunch meat, soft cheeses, chocolate, and did I mention, CHOCOLATE!- but, my sweet little girl will be worth it in the end." If anyone can offer tips about what else there is in the world to eat in the mean time, I'm all ears. But I digress... back to the good community stuff!

And finally, the weekend proved to be another great example of the strong community that lives in these far-away mountains. Saturday was busy from the start- as our town came out in full force to help Wes and his Dad's crew lay block on our pool project. They have been putting in so many volunteer hours this summer trying to help get our community an awesome new pool, and it was great to see so many town's people come out, eager to pitch in, as well. It was also the last day of our original pool- they will be draining it and filling it in in the coming days. Since I'm a useless preggo lady, when it comes to laying block foundations, I decided to bring the kids and my nephew, Taylor, down for one last swim. We had a great time playing in the pool before heading out to Lewiston for part 2 of our busy weekend. We had a Relay for Life fundraiser BBQ planned, and our team was hosting it. We have an amazing team, who really put so much time into the planning and executing of the BBQ and live auction, and it was an extraordinary success! We are hoping it raised cancer awareness, and that it will promote a great turnout at our community's Relay for Life next month.

That's the week in review... and, of course, here are some pictures.


Swimming with our friends at Canyon Creek


Ian and Kylee jump off the rock


Out with the old pool, in with the new


Jump in


Kylee and Taylor