Future Firefighters of America!

We have a really great friend who is a firefighter at Williams Gateway Airport. On Saturday he invited all of us to the firehouse to show us the new $1 million Foam Truck the airport just got. Needless to say the kids love big trucks, especially ones that shoot water, so we were there in a flash!

This is the kids with our friend Perry on the "Regular" Fire Truck. Perry has been such a wonderful friend. When Tanner was going through chemo, Perry would have the Gilbert Fire Dept. come to our house and take Tanner for rides in the fire trucks. Tanner would be so excited that it would make him forget about feeling so sick. It was wonderful, and we appreciate Perry so much! He truly is a great friend.

This is the new, super high tech Foam Truck that Williams Gateway airport just purchased for $1 million. It holds 3000 gallons of water that can be emptied in 2 minutes. That is a lot of water! It also has an infa-red sensor that can detect hot spots in a fire and it can also detect people that are trapped in a burning airplane making it easier to rescue them. It can also deflate and inflate its tires at a push of a button for more traction. Oh, and did I forget to mention that it's HUGE! It's so big that it doesn't even fit into the firehouse bays, so they are building a whole new fire house.

Conner was so excited to go for a ride in it!

This is the kids climbing in to go for a ride at the airport. Reagan got a little intimidated so she decided to stay behind. The truck was a little big and too loud for her taste!

Getting buckled up! Fireman like everyone to be super safe.

Driving on the airport Tar Mac (see the planes in the background). This truck goes really fast despite its size.

Getting into position to spray the water. They were right by the runway, see the flight control tower in the background.

The truck has 2 spouts that are controled by joy sticks. They can be moved up and down and all over. They also spray very far. This is the kids emtying all 3000 gallons of water onto the airport. By the time all 3 of them had a turn it was empty, I guess they don't know about the importance of conserving water!


While the other kids were in the foam truck Reagan was busy checking out the other fire trucks. You know, the ones that were quiet because they weren't turned on!

Daddy and Reagan

Mom and Reagan wishing we could jump on a plane and fly off to Hawaii!

After the kids were done emptying the Foam Truck Perry made them fill it back up. This is Rylin hooking the fire hose up to the truck, the other end is hooked up to the fire hydrant.

Turning on the fire hydrant. Conner was taking notes on how to do this, he was thinking he was going to try this with the one on his street!

Perry told them to watch for water to start coming out of the bottom of the truck because that meant it was full.

There it goes. The kids didn't turn off the hydrant fast enough and water was pouring out all over the place.

The tires on the foam truck were way bigger than Conner, so look below to see what he thought would be a good idea to do.



Mom didn't think a Conner pancake would be a good idea though!

After our fun ride Perry and the other firemen had cold drinks, popcicles and fire hats for us to enjoy! What a fun day!!!

It's good to talk about life!

Last night I was at a family friends house, helping her out. We got to talking about everything from the economy, to real estate, family, our anniversary trip to Hawaii, and just life in general. She remembered that our oldest, Tanner, had cancer when he was younger and asked how he was doing. I told her that he had actually had a check up with his oncologist today! The doctor said he looked great! He grew 1 1/4 inches in ten months, all his lymph nodes looked good, his blood test came back normal, and this December he will be 4 years out of treatment. He then told us that he wouldn't need to see him for another year! As I was telling her all that the doctor had said my mind began flooding with so many memories of Tanners young life. The story of how we had overcome one of the biggest hurdles we as a family had ever had to experience. I told her how we knew something was wrong but the doctor just kept on telling us he was fine. How our baby at the time was not growing as she should and that they were concerned and thought that she could possibly have cystic fibrosis. How I was 3 months pregnant and on the day the doctor told me of Tanners diagnosis I miss carried. I told her how hard it was to see my sweet boy being poked like a pin cushion for every kind of test they could perform. And how hard it was to see them hooking him up to a bag of POISON just to keep him alive. I told her about how they made us sign a paper before they would start him on chemo telling us of all the things that could happen to him because of the chemotherapy. How it could make his heart and kidneys fail, how it could make him sterile, how it could cause brain damage, how it could make him develop other types of cancer down the road, just to name a few. As I was telling her about having to teach a 2 year old how to swallow a handful of pills, and the endless amounts of throw up we had to clean up, she said to me, " how did you ever do all that!" My response was "It was our trial that Heavenly Father had given us. Because of everything we had to go through we are stronger because of it. We are more loving toward eachother and so grateful to have each and every person we have in our lives with us. We love life more now, and realize what a wonderful gift it is to be able to see this world and all the beautiful things out there and to be able to meet new people along the way that have made life so much brighter." After I left her house I started to think about how lately life has been very difficult in so many ways, but after telling her our story of what we have already overcome I had a realization. I, no we, can get through anything. No matter what tomorrow brings everthing will be alright, no matter what the outcome is.