National Fire Safety Week

This week was National Fire Safety Week. The culmination of the week was on Saturday - all the firehouses in Evanston were open from 1-3pm for visiting. We decided to delay the boys's naps and head over to our closest firestation - about 3 blocks away.They had firemen on hand to show us the firetruck and ambulance. There were a few goodies for the kids - plastic hats, stickers, pencil case (our new crayon case!), etc. We even got to see a fireman slide down the pole. He said that rarely to they use the pole - most just use the stairs. He said that it's too hard on their backs and knees to land that hard.



Zach w/ fireman ladder truck rear

Wyatt driving the firetruck Zach driving the fire truck

Once all the kids had their fill, even I took a turn sitting in the cab of the fire truck. Very cool! So many controls, and boy is that seat bouncy!

Zach getting eyed up by another 'fireman'

Zachary chatting up the fireman in the ambulance

Looking down the ladder truck

Art and the boys in ambulance cab

One of the firemen was explaining to me the software they use on the computer (to the right of Zachary) in the ambulance and firetruck. Not only does it have GPS directions (probably not the cool British woman saying 'turn left in 100 metahs'), but it also gives a breakdown of the buildings surrounding the problem area. For example, if a fire is in one building, it would be great to know that the bldg behind it uses chemicals XYZ which are highly flamable. They can then be prepared for that and wear the appropriate protective gear for each situation. He said they have saved a number of lives w/ that bit of info.

Mommy & DaU stealing a moment

Shayna, Zachary, Wyatt preparing for a picture to be taken, not realizing that Art was filming the process.

And then the camera battery died. That seemed to be a good time to head home and get the boys into bed.

As a side note, Dexter followed us nearly all the way there. We tried to catch him a few times to take him back home, but he was too wise for that. HOWEVER, he would NOT get closer than 1/2 a block to Chicago (possibly our busiest street), and even meowed at us as we were getting close to it. He is rarely verbal, and his meow sounded so pitiful - like he was begging us not to go to that road - that I wanted to turn around and go back for him. Poor Dexi. He was gone when we came back by. We called him, but he clearly had better things to do. He showed up back at the house about an hour later.