Tuesday, April 27, 2010

fire academy family night

matt is finally nearing the end of his fire I & II class that he started this semester. it's been stressful on all of us. matt is keeping incredibly busy with work and school and job applications, i am staying incredibly busy with two busy boys and all that a busy husband implies, and the boys have been eating up every second they have with their dad. those seconds seem few and far between. so what a relief to say that this portion of our journey is almost over! they put together a family night so that we could see what they've been accomplishing. it was a lot of fun for the boys and even for mom! there were oodles of fire trucks and even a helicopter for the boys to check out and then the students put on demonstrations for us as we munched on dinner.

the boys and aunt monica checking out the helicopter. nephew trenton was the only one who actually wanted to sit inside. pretty neat-o.



matt is the second to the left in a red shirt. this was the beginning of the demonstrations. chief wood gave an introduction and then started things off with everyone getting into their turn outs. there is a lot of gear to get on and they each had to do it in under a minute. they were fast!

this is more of the students lined up waiting to gear up. the sun was just starting to set but if you look extra close you can see my brother jamison in there. he's the third to the right from the flag and also in a red shirt. we hung out with his wife and son while all the fun was going down.

this is matt's crew. (matt is in the black helmet.) they were one of the first to demonstrate. apparently they entered a burning building and rescued someone, but thanks to an emergency bathroom run with a three-year-old i didn't get any pictures of it. sorry husband.

the boys thought it was extra cool to watch the ladder lift and the firefighters to climb up to the building. as you can imagine this was heaven for two little boys.

gage and dad waiting for the helicopter to land for an air evac. and then sparky the dog showed up and what would you know, i have the only two children there who are freaked out by humans in animal costumes. poor sparky patted garrett's head to which garrett instantaneously began screaming. all the while gage is ducking with his arms over his head and swarms of children were trying to get their picture with the furry dalmatian. matt who was all the way over at the building heard garrett crying and knew it was him.

note to self:: cancel giant dog for birthday party.

this is my brave little soldier after about forty-five minutes of recovery.

the final demonstration was a propane burn where two crews moved in while hosing the flames so that the chief could reach down and turn off the propane. it maybe doesn't sound that difficult but i was honestly tensed up thinking, man what the heck are they thinking?? that was pretty cool and not to mention, at this point the sun was way down and we were catching a chill so the flame sent out a nice little dose of warmth for us.

this was the end of the demonstrations. chief wood gathered all the students and they gave each other a round of applause. it was a really fun night and it was nice to see what it is that matt's been doing all those nights he's away. we're so proud of you matt and grateful for all of your hard work! we love you!!! xoxo

5 comments:

Fullerton Family said...

No, I have the other two who are freaked out by humans in animal costumes. Seeing Snoopy or any type of animal freaks.them.out. Mallory said it looked like Jaci was having a seizure, it was that bad. So don't worry, I feel your pain (and sometimes embarrassment....)

Mary said...

This is so cool! Way to go, Matt and Jamison, we're so proud of you!

By the way, all 3 of my kids would never go near giant animal costumes either. (And they're fairly well adjusted, so it's okay in the long run.) At Disneyland we'd get pictures of the kids with Disney chracters by having them stand 10 feet away, so the character would be in the background. We moms get to be good at improvising!

Love you guys!

Britney said...

That's a nice ladder truck!!! =-)

Jeremy and Cami said...

the evac company that showed up, Omniflight, is the company Jeremy flies for. It would have been fun if it was Jeremy who flew in:)Congrats for the accomplishments!!!

Brette said...

Ashley. I am a friend of Sha Parry's and I love reading your blog. So I am indeed a blog stalker... Anyway, as I was reading this post and scrolling thru your pictures, I saw a picture of my dad! And thought "hey that's my dad!" Chief Wood is my dad. haha random. Just had to share that with you.