The Much Anticipated Fireman Chris!

During the last week of August by boys were treated to a very V.I.P. tour of the Syracuse fire station. My mom's friend & co-worker (Rachel) has a son-in-law that is a firefighter, and had agreed a while ago to take my boys on a tour of his fire station! So, my mom helped coordinate with Rachel and her daughter Kelly to set things up. As was mentioned in a previous post from a playgroup fire station tour in July, Noah is really interested in firemen, fire trucks, and all things fire-related right now. So, this was a highly anticipated excursion for him to meet fireman Chris. It was funny how once we got there Noah was having one of his super-shy moments (you can kind of see it in his expression here), but he got over it after not too long.

We got to do and see a lot of things on this tour that we didn't on the last tour, and the one-on-one time with a real fireman was so much fun for the boys! Here is Lincoln trying on fireman Chris' boots!

Noah's turn to try on the boots...

And Noah even got to try on fireman Chris' hat. Here he is trying to look at it while wearing it.

Next it was time to see the fire engines! The boys were both able to take their time sitting up in the front of the fire engine (no need to hurry since there weren't other kids on the tour)! Noah was quite comfortable sitting up in that front seat. I'm pretty sure that it made him feel pretty important, but it made him look so tiny sitting way up there in that big seat. Fireman Chris let Noah actually sit strapped in on the front seat while he pulled the engine out of the station! Noah thought that was pretty fun!

While fireman Chris drove the engine out of the station, I sat in the back of the engine with Lincoln. I had a hard time getting a picture of Lincoln because I had to hold him most of the time...he wanted to climb over and touch everything back there.

Fireman Chris even turned on the lights and sirens and let Noah honk the horn once they were outside!

And then it was Lincoln's turn to "drive" the engine with lights/sirens and to honk the horn...

I just missed Lincoln honking the horn on this clip, but I still wanted to include this short clip showing how seriously Lincoln was taking this driving business.


Next the boys got to hold the fire hose! I think that I almost thought that was as cool as the boys did!...and I didn't know that fireman Chris was going to even turn the water on and let them spray the hose! At first the boys just stood there holding the hose like they weren't quite sure what was going on, but luckily they both stayed put and Chris was able to explain things to them and let them give it a try!

I loved how attentively they listened to him...

At first the boys were kind of in disbelief about spraying water out of that big hose, but slowly the smiles began creeping across their faces. Here's a quick clip of the first time they turned on the hose:


Noah getting a turn...

Now, I missed the huge grin on Noah's face right after I snapped this picture because I was too busy running away...fireman Chris had just told Noah to spray his mom, and I knew all too well that Noah would if Chris let him!

I love this shot for several reasons...but a couple of them include Noah's cute profile shadow, and Lincoln in the background on his tip-toes trying to get to some of the truck's dials...


Lincoln's turn to spray the hose!


He loved it! Watch his cute little smile in this short clip:


I'm pretty sure that Lincoln could have sprayed that hose all day if we had let him.

Noah, Lincoln & Fireman Chris in front of the engine.

Me with my boys.

Lincoln loved walking back and forth on the front of one of the engines still parked inside the garage.

Noah listening attentively as fireman Chris gave more explanations of different equipment.

Noah trying to hold one of the heavy tools...

I'll admit that I was a wee-bit nervous with Noah holding this one (it's hard to see, but the very end of it comes to a sharp point)...

Lincoln was intrigued with his reflection in the fire engine's shiny wheels...my mom and I were amused by how small those tires made Lincoln look (it's not often that we say Lincoln looks small you know).

Noah by one of the engine's tires too.

Then fireman Chris and his wife Kelly took the boys all the way to the top of the firetruck because they thought the boys would think it would be fun. Noah seemed to like it, but Lincoln got really nervous - he got really whiney, worried, and was calling for mommy. You can see in this zoomed in picture that fireman Chris was trying to show Lincoln where I was to soothe him. Nope. He'd have none of it.


The funny thing that we realized later though was that he wasn't nervous being up there (without me) - he just didn't want this stranger holding/restricting him. He wanted to run around the top of the ladder truck by himself (obviously not an option). When they got him down, he immediately tried to go back up the stairs. When the stairs got pulled up, Lincoln stuck out his lip and mumbled and pouted around for a couple of minutes...

The last hurrah though was fireman Chris going down the fire pole. I wish I'd gotten Lincoln's huge "oh!" face right as Chris came down - he loved it (both boys did). Immediately after Linc realized what fireman Chris had just done, he bolted for the stairs that Chris had gone up to get to the pole (Linc wanted to give things a try himself):


Noah giving fireman Chris a hug to say thank you...

I asked Noah if I could get one last picture before leaving, and he actually stood there and smiled while striking this pose with his hand on his hat! He came up with that pose on his own, and his hand came down and he ran off right after I took the photo...but that was one of the highlights of the visit for me :)

Noah leaving with fireman Chris.

This is what Lincoln thought about being done at the fire station. He threw himself down face first and just screamed and cried...poor kid. I'm glad that he must have had a good time though!

Goodbye Syracuse Fire Department! And thanks again, Fireman Chris!

After our fun time at the fire station we took the boys to McDonald's for dinner and to burn off any remaining energy that they might have. So, after all that fun they were in great need of a good bath. We took them back to my parent's house and gave them a bubble bath in their nice, big bath tub. They loved it!

This clip cracked me up. It's fun to just watch them interact, but Noah's little laugh is just too cute:


Then we realized that it would make for some serious bubble fun to turn on the jets!

They loved it, and it cracked my mom and I up how they just looked like little floating heads!


I suppose I should document this strange stage for Lincoln...he eats bubbles (not to mention lotion, soap, etc). Bubbles in the bath, bubbles that we blow outside, any bubbles. He'll even drink them right out of the bottle if we let him get his hands on an open container. Yuck, kiddo.

I wish that I could remember what Lincoln was doing this for, but I can't. I still had to include the shot though...

A good one to end on.
A huge thanks again to Fireman Chris, Kelly, Rachel, and Grandma Jana for putting together such a fun day time for us! The boys loved had such a great time (and so did I)!