Family Fire Muster

B and I went to the Family Fire Muster on Saturday. It's hosted every year by our local fire protection district, and it's AWESOME. They bring out every fire truck and piece of rescue equipment they have, and let the kids go in all of them and climb all over it all. They have all sorts of games and activities, all intended to teach kids in a fun way how to be safe around water and on bikes, how to tell apart toys and tools, how to crawl under smoke, and my personal favorite, how to stop, drop and roll.

[Until very recently, B apparently thought it was the "Fire Mustard." How do I know this? Because a couple weeks ago, he asked me if there was a "Fire Ketchup" too.]

This year, we hiked over there from our neighborhood -- just a quick half-hour hike across a little section of our backyard mountain -- and met our friends Rachael and Jody. Here's B hiking over:


First stop, the fire engines, of course:

Actually, B is a little jaded about fire engines. My brother is a firefighter, so B has had a few opportunities to hang out at the firehouse with him. I guess fire engines just aren't so cool after you spend that much time around them. I still think they're pretty cool...

Then there was water safety (will you look at those lashes?!):

Being silly with Rachael:

And Rachael looking pretty:

This is my favorite part of the Fire Muster. The kids dress up in "bunker gear" and then run a few yards, stop-drop-and-roll, and get up and run some more. It's hysterical to watch those little tiny kids all tricked out in that heavy gear, trying to run.


Last stop of the day was shooting the fire hose:

The long walk home, after a full day in the hot sun:

That's my backyard mountain in the background. And B is stopping to get a closer look at a bug, probably a ladybug. There are a bazillion of them up there right now. I kept stopping to get a closer look at these:

They are all over the mountain (in fact, the whole mountain is just covered with wildflowers right now), but I'm not sure what they are because they're not in my field guide to the flowers of Colorado. I'm guessing some sort of wild orchid?

And last but not least, here's B after I told him we needed to start hurrying in order to get home before the daily round of thunderstorms started:

That, my friends, is the face of a tired boy at the end of a long day who does NOT want to be told to hurry.

Tomorrow (assuming I can get my lazy self to do two blog posts in two days): Our big trip to the top of Mount Evans with my friend Nia. There was lots of wildlife, and believe it or not, a snow storm!