The best of 2012

The Asay Family – The Best of 2012

     Last year we started a new tradition where we share our “best” moments or exciting events from the previous year from the previous year. Looking back, we all had a very busy and eventful year. Here are some of our favorite things from 2012…

§  Started the year off by speaking in church as a family on January 1st

§  Spring break trip to Florida, visiting Disneyland, Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure, the beach, and meeting Winter the Dolphin from the movie “Dolphin’s Tale”

§  Went on our first family camping trip

§  We were evacuated from our home and survived the Waldo Canyon Fire

§  Making cookies for the police and military guarding our neighborhood and making posters and cookies and cheering for the firefighters as they changed shifts in the evenings

§  Our biggest crop of cucumbers and yellow squash EVER!

§  Attending many many many baseball games, gymnastics meets and dance classes

§  Picking apples

§  Taking all the kids to several presidential rallies for Mitt Romney

§  Getting the smoke damaged fixed and updating many things in our house including the wood floors.

 

The Best of Brig

§  Hiked Mt. Fuji in Japan with his dad and brother

§  Ran the America Discovery trail marathon

§  Hiked Mt Elbert

§  Family trip to Florida

§  Coached baseball

§  Ran his first Ragnar

§  Built a retaining wall in the front yard

§  Published 3 articles

§  Training session came in at 1^st place in both U.S. and Asia

§  Went to mainland China via the subway from Hong Kong

§  Went to Mini-world in Shenzhen

§  Went on trips to: Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Netherlands, New York, California, Idaho, Oregon, Nevada, Toronto, Florida, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Arizona, New Mexico, Georgia and Connecticut

 The Best of Kim

§  Organized and implemented speech and language screening at the 4 Montessori preschools in Colorado Springs

§  Went to Las Vegas with Holly – Phantom of the Opera, shopping, pedicures, and VIP seating for the Frankie Moreno concert

§  Went to North Carolina - Natalie’s wedding, beach with the siblings and cousins, talking all night with Cindy and Misty

§  Attempted to water ski for the 1^st time

§  Anniversary trip to San Francisco and had 2^nd row seats for Les Miserables, Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco Giants, and sour dough bread and chowder at Fisherman’s Wharf.

§  Took Zach to his first NFL game to watch the Broncos and Peyton Manning play at Sports Authority field.

§  RAGNAR – trained all summer and was runner #11 on Team DNR in the first Colorado Ragnar- Breckenridge to Aspen!

§  Started Zumba - love it!

§  Learned to can pickles, applesauce and green beans

§  Fulfilled lifelong dream of seeing Lord of the Dance

§  Frontier Days – Parade and Reba concert

§  Trip to Boise – our first time back after moving from there 7 years ago

§  Packing up everything that I could think of that was important to Brig and I and our children and leaving our home. – Definitely not a “best of” moment but one that we will never forget…

 

Best of Zachary

§  Played on the High School Baseball team - pitcher, catcher, 2nd base

§  1^st season over 500 on the little league team

§  Florida trip

§  Sand Dunes and Alligator farm – held an alligator

§  Student of the month- third year in a row in Middle school

§  Running Club

§  Started 8^th grade

§  Flew to Idaho by himself to go scout camp with his friend Jack

§  Took Hunter’s safety and got his hunting license and went on his first hunting trip

§  Went water skiing 2 times!

§  First youth Conference

§  Deacon’s quorum president

§  Achieved First and Second class in Boy Scouts

§  Polar Express

§  Paint balling and first air soft gun

§  First NFL game with mom – go Broncos!

§  Opening day for the Rockies with Dad ( it was a sad loss)

§  Started Geometry as an 8^th grader

§  Spoke to mom in Scooby Doo voice for almost an entire week

 

Best of Madeline

§  Went to State Gymnastics and placed in all 3 events

§  Moved up to the traveling team in Gymnastics

§  Went to High Trails

§  Piano recital

§  Trip to the sand dunes and alligator farm

§  Survived the Waldo Canyon fire

§  Turned 11

§  Graduated from elementary school and started Middle school

§  First Locker

§  Student of the month in Middle School

§  Got contacts

§  First time water skiing and stood right up!

§  Rockies game with dad

§  Trip to Florida

§  Started 8^th grade math as a 6^th grader and moved up to Pre AP classes

§  Raspberry picking in Woodland park

 

Best of Natalie Mae

§  Went on the Moon Rocket roller coaster

§  Started artistic gymnastics  and got her front splits

§  1^st dance recital

§  Got a Nintendo 3ds

§  Graduated from Kindergarten

§  Learned to make caramel corn

§  Best 6 year old birthday party

§  First trip to Disney!

§  Trip to Sand Dunes and Alligator farm – held and alligator

§  First time water tubing

§  Learned how to read

§  Learned how to ride a 2-wheel bike

§  Shook Mitt Romney’s hand

§  Went horseback riding in Estes park

§  Rockies game with dad

§  Seeing Santa on the Polar Express

§  Lost 4 more teeth and the front big tooth finally grew in!

 

Best of Benjamin

§  Learned how to walk then proceeded to learn to run

§  Grew lots of teeth

§  First haircut – so sad but his pretty curls were getting so long

§  Learned his animal sounds, car and train sounds

§  Learned to identify and say – nose, head, eyes, ears, tummy and toes,

§  Started talking and using his favorite phrases such as: all right, oh no, NO, doggie, NO, baby, No, bubble, No, balloon, No, milk, No, Bapple for Apple, NO, mote for remote, NO, doggie, NO, Daddy, NO, Mommy, NO, pancake, NO, truck, choo choo, No, thank you, peaz for please, NO, HELP, shoes, NO, Papa, Mimi, NO and night night  which means his blanket. Oh, and he can say NO!

§  Decided that he liked swimming at the end of the summer at Madeline’s birthday party

§  Loves his doggie blanket, cars and trains!

§  Was amazing the entire trip to Florida

§  Went on lots of trips to Cheyenne and Denver to see all his grandparents, Cousins, Aunts and Uncles

§  Started going to Nursery at Church

Molly Dog

§  Turned 5

§  Almost got a deer in Ute Valley

§  Trained for a marathon

§  Treed a squirrel

§  Moved her kennel to the basement to Zach’s room

§  Was taunted relentlessly by a neighborhood cat

Pictures

On Sunday afternoon, we got the kids read, and went for a little hike behind our house in Ute Valley. Brig had a spot that he calls "hole in the rock" and thought it would be the perfect place to take pictures of the kids. We are so thankful that Ute Valley did not burn. Apparently, baby Ben did not like the location or he just was not feeling like taking picutres. Either way, it was not any easy task!!! We ended up with a few that we liked for a Christmas card and the others just pictures make me laugh. We conviced Ben that there was an airplane in the sky to make him stop crying or the older kids were being silly to make him laugh. Natalie has some of the best facial expressions EVER and Zach and Madeline both look so grown up in the picutures. But seriously, how many pictures must one take before I can get all 4 kids to look and smile? The answer is 97! This is the one we decided was a keeper. 

One of these 4 is not like the others

We love Ute Valley



Happy Little Natalie

Brown water & Flood Insurance

I did not take a picture of the brown bathtub water but I should have. It is just one of the many complications after the fire.  A couple weeks ago while Brig was in Hong Kong, I ran bath water for Ben and noticed that water had a brown tint to it so I called the water company and they just didn't seem to concerned.  So after I noticed that the water coming out of all the faucets had the brown tint I called again and I called the line for life threatening emergencies.  At the time, I felt like it was life threatening since we had all drank the water that morning.  I was told how to flush out the pipes and told to clean the water heater and that a main line had broke in the burn area and they were cleaning out all the fire hydrants and that the water was still okay.  So I believed them.  Well the water was brown today and this time my friend gave me the phone number to call the lab at the water company.  I was told the same thing about the fire hydrants and that debris is loosened when the fire hydrants are used and cleaned in the burn area but that the water is still safe to drink but that i just looks bad.  The lady apologized for us having to be concerned for one more thing but she tried to assure me that the water is okay.  The water is BROWN it is not okay.  I was at the post office and people in line were talking about the water as we waited for our turn.  It was nice to know that I was not the only one concerned but alarming to hear how many people had the same brown water.  I tried to flush out the pipes again and it seems a little better tonight.

Flood is another post fire worry.  Our house backs up to a canal. Our house is now in a flood zone since the burned area is not able to absorb water.  We purchased our flood insurance a couple days after we returned home even before the fire was out.  Now it turns out that the flood insurance does not cover everything that we thought it covered like THE BASEMENT!  That is the part of the house that I am worried about. I guess the structure of the basement is covered but none of the contents are covered. It is so frustrating.

It rained several nights last week and Tuesday we got reverse 911 calls on the house phone and cell phones and an email and a text warning us of a flash flood.  I do not like 911 calling the house twice in a month. I made me feel all the panic all over again.  We got our Christmas and Easter boxes out of the crawlspace and other stuff that I did not think could be replaced. We brought the scrapbooks up again and had Zach move clothes, shoes and his desk drawers so they would not be ruined.  This is the email that we got.

flashfloodpreevac

‏7/31/12

To ksasay@msn.com

From:	911notify@elpasoteller911.org
Sent:	Tue 7/31/12 1:43 AM
To:	ksasay@msn.com

THIS IS THE COLORADO SPRINGS POLICE DEPARTMENT WITH AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE.  A FLASH FLOOD WARNING HAS BEEN ISSUED FOR YOUR AREA.  
IF FLASH FLOODING IS OBSERVED, ACT QUICKLY. MOVE UP TO HIGHER GROUND TO ESCAPE FLOOD WATERS. THIS COULD BE A SECOND STORY IN YOUR HOME.  BE ESPECIALLY CAUTIOUS AT NIGHT WHEN IT IS HARDER TO RECOGNIZE THE DANGERS OF FLOODING.
 
KEEP CHILDREN AND OTHERS AWAY FROM STORM DRAINS AND FAST FLOWING WATER.
 
DO NOT DRIVE YOUR VEHICLE INTO AREAS WHERE THE WATER COVERS THE ROADWAY. THE WATER DEPTH MAY BE TOO GREAT TO ALLOW YOUR CAR TO CROSS SAFELY. 
THIS HAS THE POTENTIAL TO BE A DANGEROUS LIFE THREATENING SITUATION

Other parts of the city did flood and highway 24 had 2 mudslides but our little hill was spared. The worst part of the storm hit southeast of us so we didn't have any flooding which I am so 

grateful for.  I get worried every afternoon when I see the storm clouds.  I am grateful for the rain but I will be so relieved in a couple weeks when monsoon

season is over.  Apparently we will be in a flood zone for the next couple years.  

Brig's Version of the Waldo Canyon Fire

Up until the day of the fire the biggest thing that we had to worry about was my upcoming trip to Hong Kong and Tokyo.  It was going to be a long trip and we were pretty nervous about it.  Then on Saturday we were holding baseball practice for the Coronado baseball team and looked at the hill and saw a little bit of smoke in the air.

This wasn't much to see, but something said that this could be a big problem.  I remember thinking that I hoped that someone would put it out pretty fast.  Of course that didn't happen.  We went home and a morbid curiousity took over and Kim and I drove up HWY 24 to the Waldo Canyon trail to see what we could see on the fire.  It was scary how fast the fire was growing.



In just two hours the fire had grown this big.  It was something that I had never seen before and I knew at that point that this one was going to be problematic.  My only hope was that our beautiful city would be ok and that the things that made it so nice, Garden of the Gods, Ute Valley Park, and Pikes Peak would escape the mess unharmed.  After being completely amazed by the size of the plume of smoke, we did get some delicious Taco Bell.  I treated myself to a Grilled Stuffed Burrito, which I don't do very often, but felt that it was ok.  Only a few short hours after this, half of the Mtn. Shadows neighborhood was evauated, ironically very few homes of this evacuation were significantly impacted by the fire. 

That night we drove by the church and invited the Richards to come and stay with us until they could go home, we did leave the caveat that our home was only good until we got evacuated.  We just never thought that it would be possible.  The next day church was canceled, which is very rare and we were supposed to go to John's house for Adalee's baby blessing.  After I went to work to grab a few things, I took a few more pictures and decided not to go.  The chances of us being evacuated were really increasing.  It was still amazing that the fire was growing so fast.  The problem was that we were in the midst of five straight record highs for Colorado Springs, all going over 100 degrees.  Since we had moved to the Springs six years ago, we had never had a day over 100 degrees.  Running had become miserable.  We also had basically not had rain in a month, so the conditions were just perfect for the fire.   Here are the images that I took while I was at work.

From the parking lot of work, I have hiked where the plume was many times



Wide view of the plume



I have ran up Queen's Canyon a few times, but for some reason I failed to understand just how close the fire was to the rest of Mtn. Shadows neighborhood.  I thought that there would be no way that it would cross the hill in front which we called the scar.  Regardless, I definitely understood just how big this fire was and that I wasn't going to Ft. Collins.  The smoke literally went miles into the air.  We needed some serious rain before things got out of hand.

For the next two days we just would look at the hills and see the smoke, on Monday night Kim and I drove to Peregrine subdivision and took the following pictures.

Both Kim and I were wondering why Peregrine hadn't been evacuated at this time.  It just seemed liek the fire was very close.  However they weren't evacuated.  So the fact that they weren't evacuated made us feel like everything was going to be ok.  We knew there was a fire, but it was surreal.  Our beautiful city and neighborhood would not be impacted.  We went home and had ice cream.  I was a little annoyed that the smoke was hurting my training for a marathon.  On Tuesday morning, I went running, which was not very smart, since it was already 90 and there was smoke in the air.  My logic was that the smoke really didn't get bad until the afternoon.

Work on Tuesday was pretty much normal.  Everyone was a little bit distracted, but we continued working, there were QREX's that needed to be shipped.  I was in one meeting and we were wondering if we should push out shipments by a week or two due to being short on resources for testing.  That decision was made for us shortly thereafter.   One of my collegues received an evacuation notice during one of our meetings.  We all wished him good luck.  Soon thereafter a few more Agilent people were leaving.  It was just really strange that this was real and that it was going to impact our lives.  About an hour later, I saw on facebook a post from Sister Olsen that said the flames were over the hill and that they were out of there.  This was the first time that I felt that we could lose our house.  Alex Bailes, Joel Woodward, and I walked out to the parking lot and we took the following pictures.

I normally smile, but the homes below the smoke were where friends, co-workers, brothers and sisters, and my family live.  This was not a time to smile.  This was devastation about to happen.  Joel insisted that I get in this picture.

I don't know who this girl is, but that is exactly how I felt when I saw this smoke coming down. 

Denny, one of my collegues at work took this picture.  Literally it looks like the heat from the fire is coming from the inside of the mountain nto from the trees on the outside.  This is what 2500-3000 degrees looks like



This is one more picture of what was a mountainside view



What was ironic about this morning is that we were having our Durango fixed for its A/C, at 2pm, I told the car dealership that I didn't need to pick up the car because we were unaffected by the fire.  The images above were taken at 4pm.  We were being evacuatedf and our car was stuck at the mechanics...  I had to recruit Alex to bring me home.  He did.  He then got to ride with Natalie to Joel's house.  Alex later would say that Natalie never really quit talking the whole trip.  Kim called at this point and I told here I was on my way home. 

Alex then brought me home and everyone, including the Richards who were still staying with us packed up and evacuated.  It ended up that having the Richards with us was really lucky as they had a truck.  We loaded it up.  In the chaos that was happening, I left my winter running gear.  Luckily our home would end up ok, because that would have been sad to lose those.  After about twenty minutes, we locked up the house, it was full of smoke and left.  I did have to tell Kim that we needed to go.  Also a jewelry box fell out of the car and for the first time in Zach's life he heard me curse.  It was only the other word for poop, so I thougth that was pretty good.

As we left all the cars were lined up from our neighborhood.  I knew the fire was coming down Mtn. Shadows, but I was praying that it didn't catch in Ute Valley.  If it caught in Ute Valley Park our house would be stuck between two fires and we were in trouble.

Joel took this picture of Agilent at the exact time we were leaving from our home.



The video shows us leaving the neighborhood.  As we finally turned onto Garden of the Gods, we saw the Forrest Service fire trucks heading into our neighborhood.  Kim says this is what made her know for sure that things were really bad.



The fire trucks were going in



These were some of the real heros.  It was Armageddon in our neighborhood and yet they went right there.  You can't see him, but there was a policeman in the middle of the intersection directing traffic.  He didn't have time to get a mask yet.  That was a true hero as well.  The city would later rally around them.

We arrived at Joel's about an hour later.  Traffic was all going away from Mtn. Shadows.  I drove the Richards truck, it didn't have air conditioning.  It was 100 degrees and no way to roll a window down or smoke would take over the truck.  It was hot.  I actually think that it got so hot the ignition on their truck started to smoke by the time we got to Joel's house.  When we arrived, Joel had ordered pizza.  We greatly appreciated his hospitatility.  We then watched the news and read the Mtn. Shadows facebook page to learn anything that we could possibly learn. 

We spent four hours in front of the tv, but then a crew from news channel five showed the following picture on the television:

You can see the church, our beautiful churc down below.  It was ok.  The fire came as close as Centennial, but never crossed it!  Our neighborhood was ok.  In this image you can actually see our house and all is good.  We were very grateful to the news for showing this picture.  At this point we were worried about smoke damage, but most of our worries were now focused on our friends and churchmembers.  Unfortunately many of them would not be so lucky. 

Here are some more images of the fire,which were in the paper and online.

This was one fo the hardest working men there was.  He rode in the hellicopter all day, trying to do what he could to help.

Just amazing how big this fire was

This was a picture of the helicopter's bucket dropping water on the fire.  It was really just a drop on the fire.

At about ten o'clock at night, it was very clear that Mtn. Shadows would not be ok.  However, I never would have expected that over 350 homes would be destroyed in a matter of five hours.  From our ward, the McCombers and Morgans would lose their homes.  Many of our ward members would be impacted though.

The next day and for the next several days we went to Cheyenne.  I think both Kim and I felt a great sense of loss.  We would just get sad out of the blue.  On Friday we came back to the Springs for Jeff Courtier's funeral.  While it was sad to lose him, seeing all our friends again was a great relief.

On Saturday we came back to the Springs and were allowed back into our homes!  My Mom came with us and we were amazed at how little damage was actually done to our home.  We were so happy.  However we got to see the first remnants of the devastation.  The hill to Centennial was burned completely.  We also saw numerous homes that were once there, were no longer there.

I will write in a different post about telling the firefighters thank you.  I just know that Heavenly Father protected the church and our home.  While many friends lost their homes, the community rallied and we are stronger because of it.  It is strange to have been one of the poeple that is on the news as one of 32,000 evacuees, but it did happen.