Visiting the Fire Station

Last Sunday for Casey's reward, we took him to the Oceanside Fire Station. As it happens, Casey's Aunt Tiffany (Jason's sister) is dating one of the fire fighters stationed there, and he offered to give Casey a personal tour. So we took him up on it. Now, it's a little tricky to schedule a personal tour, as you might imagine, because the fire fighters are actually working. That means they might be called out at any time.

So we go there on Sunday morning, after they'd returned to the station from an early morning call.

Now, Casey is enamored of fire trucks and ambulances. But he's only seen them out in the open-- never parked in their cramped space in the garage. So when we entered the fire station, he was a little intimidated. In fact, I think he's exact words were, "I want to go home now." Nice, huh? Here Bobby goes to all this trouble to show us the fire station, and Casey wants to go home.

Of course we didn't. We let the kids climb on the truck. Sit inside the driver seat. Stand on the back of the ambulance. Touch the pole which (theoretically) the fire fighters could slide down. We checked out the kitchen and the TV room and the locker room area.

Then Bobby took us back down to the fire truck, where he let Casey try on his uniform! This was the best part.

As we were leaving, the guys were sent out on a call, so we waved good-bye from our car to the roaring sirens as they passed.

Of course, Casey has been talking about the fire truck since our visit. He wants to know when we can go back. He likes to tell us how he got to see the big fire truck. Far cry from the kid who wanted to turn around an go home right away!

So, here are some photos from our visit:

Marcie, Casey and me on the front of the fire truck.

Casey and Marcie's Aunt Tiffany, modeling the fire fighter gear to show Casey it's really okay to try it on.
Casey's turn to put on the fire fighting gear. Jason helps with the boots and pants.

Bobby helps Casey with the jacket. It's Bobby's uniform.

All dressed up and ready to fight fires!

After removing the fire fighting gear, you can see Casey still has his fire fighter badge and his fire hat.

Marcie insists Aunt Tiffany let her hang onto the shiny pole. . .