Galveston

Last Thursday the kids and I packed our bags and headed to the beach with Brian's parents. Thankfully the weather was pretty good- it was overcast and a bit on the windy side, but it still made for a great trip and the kids had a blast!

They played in the water and ran around for a few hours- collected seashells, built sandcastles, and had a picnic lunch. We packed it up early afternoon and thought we'd see if we could take them by to see Jarod, Brian's cousin, who is a firefighter for Galveston.

We were in luck! He happened to be working that day and he gave the kids an awesome experience! They got the VIP tour of Jarod's fire station and they LOVED every minute of it. I'm not sure if they liked the beach or the fire station better!

You should've seen their faces when Jarod came around the corner driving the fire truck! He backed it in and then let them climb inside...

 He let them sit in his seat, right behind the wheel-and push ALL the buttons. (thank you Jarod for temporarily making us me deaf) Good grief, they had a blast...and that siren is LOUD when you're standing right next to it. ( Ryann slept right through all the noise).

 so next they climbed back and sat in the cab

 where he let them try and his gas mask and helmet- they thought this was super fun! It cracks me up how huge his hat was on them but I love that it was his and he let them play with it...

 I can just see the smiles behind the mask!

 and then he showed them how the ladder raises and they pretended to ride on the back of the truck!

He gave us an inside tour of their "bunk quarters" where he explained what happens when the sirens go off and showed the kids the fire pole...and he got his hands on Ryann too! ( sorry for the "surprised" expression, I think I caught him mid sentence. Ha ha.)

Thank you Jarod for making their day- I think we ALL thought it was very cool to get "VIP access"!