Holy Smoke!

Just thought everyone not in Arizona might want to see how smokey it's been here lately due to all the forest fires in the surrounding areas. Thankfully none are too close to Benson, although a new one sprang up near Sierra Vista near the Coronado National Monument over the weekend, and many of our friends' houses are nearby. The first official day of monsoon season is June 15, so let's pray we get some rain soon! These pictures were taken 2 days ago from our backyard - it was by far the worst day for smoke that I've seen at our house. We even had ash in our backyard!

Update: The Monument Fire, near Sierra Vista, has already burnt 20,000 acres since I last posted. It's getting closer to the city and half the city is on pre-evacuation orders. Luckily, we are in Benson, a good 40 minutes away, but it's still devastating to hear of your friend's being evacuated from their homes and watching the fire destroy the mountains where we enjoy to hike. To make matters worse, there was also a fire on the Fort Huachuca base on Friday. Jason made it home safely and the fire was put out thanks to our amazing firefighters. Please send prayers our way!

Usually we can clearly see these mountains.



That is the sun, seen through all the smoke!