Fire Station Open House

Last week was Fire Prevention Week!  Many of the schools and fire departments in our area had been sponsoring special events so we decided to take the boys up to the Indian Harbour Beach VFD Open House on Saturday.  It’s an annual event that the kids love attending.  This year we rode our bikes over there.  Because it was perfect Florida fall weather and the ride was maybe a mile, we figured that the boys could make the trek without a problem.  They did great!

The garages were all open and many of the fire trucks were parked outside for the children to explore.

I love the old fire engine they had on display.  Modern fire trucks should have open air cabs 🙂

We got to watch the firemen raise the flag on the ladder truck.

Cutie Pie didn’t want to leave the fun of buckling and unbuckling the seat belts and harnesses.  He could have stayed there all day if we let him.

Wildman wanted to shoot the fire hose at a wooden target.  Cutie Pie was content to watch.

Cutie Pie was all about climbing the ladder and going through the window at the top, however!

It was a fun morning spent with the family.  We came home with a bag full of fun giveaways for the boys that included fire truck flip flops and coupons for free Slurpees.

Fall would not be fall without a trip to the fire station.

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One in a Million

As part of Disney’s Give a Day.  Get a Day. volunteer program, I participated in a local beach clean up on Saturday morning while J and the boys were at the t-ball game.  I consider our beaches pretty darn clean at least when compared to the beaches that we frequented when we lived on the TX Gulf coast.  You don’t see abandoned cars, diapers, liquor bottles, etc. polluting environment here.  But that does not mean that we don’t have litter bugs here in FL too.  Now that I’ve done the 2010 Trash Bash and seen how much junk was collected from our shoreline,  I’m looking forward to coming back year after year.

This lady and I were one of the first ones to head north on the beach armed with our black trash bags and latex gloves.  As a result, we found most of the bigger garbage.

The irony of finding a trashcan washed up on the beach was not lost on me.  However, I was not exactly strong enough to unearth the thing and drag it back to the pavilion…  Another strapping volunteer came to the rescue instead.

An army of volunteers headed south.  After I dropped off my northbound trash bag full of junk.  I grabbed another black bag and decided to see what the south had to offer.  I figured that since so many volunteers had already canvased the area that I would not find too much debris.

I was wrong…

This photo does not do justice to the size of the rope that I found lying near the dunes half a mile away from the pavilion.  It was HUGE.

And HEAVY!!!

It weighed at least 50 lbs.  I drug that thing through the sand and seaweed for half a mile taking breaks every couple of hundred feet.  Needless to say, I got a great workout!

The nice lady in the photo with me and my rope coordinated the event.  She’s super sweet and attends my Zumba classes too!

Like I said, I was surprised by the amount of litter that we picked up on Saturday morning.  It makes me want to carry a bag with me every time I go to the beach so I can pick up trash.  I’m definitely going to mark my calendar for this event next year!!!  I think J and the kids would love to do it too.

Now I’m looking forward to joining the other 999,999 registered volunteers in a free day at Disney!

Spring Family Fest

Some local beachside churches in our area got together to host a Spring Family Fest on Saturday evening.  We didn’t have any plans so we decided to head over there when J got back from kiteboarding napping at the beach…  Big Red tagged along since he had his boys this weekend.  We put up with him because of the boys…

The event took place in the parking lot of a semi-abandoned strip mall where one of the host churches resides.  It was not the most picturesque location what with all the heavy equipment, piles of dirt and boulders strewn about but it was fun.  And I certainly can’t complain because it was free as well!

The boys immediately made a beeline for the pony rides.  The same lady from the Spring Festival last weekend was doing the pony rides for this event!  She must be on the church festival circuit 🙂  The older boys rode the horse first.  Big Red completely missed this because he had to run to the bank for dinner money…

The little dudes entertained themselves with the tortoise while they waited for their turn.

They thought the horse ride was pretty fun too:

All four of the boys were thoroughly amused by the pig in the “petting zoo”.  I put that in quotations because it was basically a pig and a goat tied to a Jeep.  There was a table set up with a caged rabbit and a caged iguana in addition to the tortoise in the tub.

There were the usual fair activities like the bounce house, a bean bag toss game and the sno-cone station.

Then there were some more unique things like the foosball table (could not tear the boys away) and the surf video.

After we’d filled our bellies with yummy food from the booths of two local restaurants and finished watching the surf video, we headed over to Starbucks for a special treat.  The boys either had hot chocolate or chocolate milk and the dads had dark chocolate cherry Frappucinos.  I was too full from dinner so I just took pictures 🙂

We had a great evening and ended up seeing lots of people we knew at the festival.  It was nice to catch up with old friends and spend quality time with our children.