We recently made a trip to Battle Creek to visit Uncle Todd at the fire station. I'll start with a picture of Drew because I didn't get many of him on this trip. He was all over the place! The last time we visited Battle Creek Kate was sick and had to stay home, so this time I got lots of pictures of her around the fire engine.
After some initial reluctance to sit in the fire engine, Kate began to warm up and we were able to coax a smile from her. It either wasn't the day for it or Drew is getting older, as he didn't want to wear a fire helmet for the visit. Kate, on the other hand, proudly wore her fire helmet the whole time. It was kinda adorable (in my opinion).
We were thrilled that Shannon and her sons Joe and Ryan were able to join us at the fire station. I was realizing as I started this post that I probably haven't put news of Todd and Shannon's engagement on the blog yet. This is old news, but Congratulations! They are getting married this summer. Our whole family is involved in the wedding (Mark=best man, Jana=matron of honor, Drew=ring bearer, Kate=flower girl) and we're looking forward to it. In the picture below, Shannon and Kate are lying on top of the fire engine.
At times Shannon had to work to get a smile out of Kate, but she had some giggles in her.
On the way home I always ask Drew and Kate what their favorite part of the fire station was. You may recall that the last time Drew and I went to Battle Creek, the favorite part for Drew was the workout room at the fire station. This time, it was unanimous for Drew and Kate: seeing Ryan and Joe was their favorite part of the trip. Drew and Kate are very excited about having cousins!
Todd will be glad that I cropped him out of the picture below. He was making the water noise while Kate directed the nozzle. It's heavy!
At first Kate was shy around the fire station and the fire engine. By the end of our visit she was having a great time and particularly enjoyed this seat in the back of the fire engine.
The obligatory shot of the children in front of the fire engine is below. It was made a little more difficult by the sun, so Shannon and Todd held something up to provide shade. This is the best one out of the ones I took. I think I need a new camera so I can take more rapid pictures! Getting everyone to "smile" and be looking anywhere near the camera required a minor miracle.
We rolled down the window in the back of the fire engine and the kids had a great time clambering in and out of the fire engine and saying hello to the adults out the window.
In a dramatic change from her first picture, Kate asked to sit in the front seat again and to wear a headset. Uncle Todd couldn't deny that request, so with the lights on (in the background) Kate talked for a bit over the headset. Everyone got in on the act and talked on a headset (there are 4). Kate loved it!
As usual, we had another great visit to station 5. Drew and Kate talked the whole way home about the things they saw and did. Drew kept on exclaiming how amazing it was that Joe and Ryan were there: "Dad, how did they know we would be there? That was so cool!" "Drew, I told them we would be there." "But Dad, how did they KNOW we would be there?" and so on :)
