Night Out Against Crime

We are such cheapies that we try to take advantage of every free activity that our city--or neighboring city for that matter--has to offer :)  And lucky for us, we live in a pretty great city, there's always something going on.  And the streets are really smooth and shiny (had to throw that one in for my husband the city street destroyer engineer...

It was the annual Night Out Against Crime.  We came for the free frozen yogurt but we stayed to tour the helicopters....and see the crashed car...this was probably the hi-light of the night for Bridger who can never seem to turn his head from the scene of an accident even though he wants to.







Here is Kennedy with the creepy fire dog.  Really,  he wasn't that creepy.  Much better than the smoking easter bunny with the voice of Jack Bauer from back in April...but Bridger still refused to have a picture taken with him.  Kennedy wanted the picture but as soon as he touched her she started to get nervous and wouldn't smile for the camera. 



have I ever mentioned Jeremy's obsession with fire extinguishers?  He has one.  I am thankful.  We are prepared for fire--we even have an extinguisher in our closet.  Do you???   If you ever need a gift idea here it is...along with pocket knife, led flashlight and life size darth vader costume....



Cute baby!!!  She's always in the same position in my pictures--but she's getting chubbier and kissier by the minute!  She's sleeping right now....and now I want to kiss her....Sigh...



Of course we got to watch the awesome k9 demonstrations.  Remind me never to sell drugs...I would not like to be attacked by one of these dogs!



Look at this awesome truck I made for Bridger.  He desperately wanted someone to build it for him...I took the challenge and finished in 3 minutes flat.  Yes, you should be impressed.  Of course after this accomplishment, he could have cared less about it.  But we kept it anyway gosh darn it!



Kennedy with her "princesses"--she was so proud!



Snakes...they give Bridger the heebie-jeebies.  He, once again, couldn't turn away even though he felt like they were "crawling all over him"



And this man was excited--but VERY serious about the dangers of fallen power lines.  I think we all learned a valuable lesson.  I'll share that lesson:  if a power line lands on your car, stay in your car.  And if you're a bystander--don't try to open the car door.  Or, you will die.



Oh!  I want to kiss her again!!!!



And we have the bike rodeo.  Oh, how my children loved the bike rodeo!  Some cute boy scouts were in charge--they provided the kids with sanitary hair nets (which they took home so they could play "doctor" later...) and huge bike helmets--probably not the safest, but we got the idea,  Kennedy stood on the scooter the whole time with Jer pushed her!  And little Charlotte wanted to participate, but I wouldn't let her.  So, she just sat in my arms, smiled and drooled.  It's what she does best.





The Jaws of Life.  How could this not be interesting???



HELLO?????!!!??  Who walks around with a boa draped across their shoulders?  Weird people.  That thing was inches...INCHES  from me!  I'm not super scared of snakes--I have been known to touch them with one finger on occasion, but this was ridiculous.  It scared me.



This is what the world needs more of.  Kittens.  They're so cute!!!!  And yes, I'll be the first to admit my prejudices...



Getting her face painted!  (which came off as soon as she had an itch...)



And let the record show that this was the night Bridger scaled his first rock wall.  We were so proud!



Up, up, up all the way to the top.  He did this 4 or 5 times and was feeling like quite the little man.  My favorite part was watching him fall back down--he looked like a pro :)



So, then Kennedy wanted to give it a try.  She only made it past the first hold when she decided she'd had enough.  Then this thought occurred to the very young national guard soldier that I should strap in so I could help Kennedy--we could hold hands while scaling a 100 foot rock wall.  I was a sucker to peer pressure...plus, part of me kinda wanted to try it--just not in front of an audience.  I did just have a baby after all (at least that's my excuse...and it's a pretty good one!).  So, I strapped on--Kennedy still wouldn't do it but Bridger would.  We went up together.  Have you ever done one before?  They're hard!  The grips were all upside down!  If I can't do a pull-up right now, how do they expect me to pull my body weight up a mountain?!?  I made it 3/4 of the way up until I was too embarrassed (Bridger kept yelling at me to stop shaking the tower...) and dropped down.  Well, I was wanting to drop down but I was too scared to actually let go.  It took some pep talking from the people on the ground until I could gather the courage to let go, lean back and kick off the wall (which produced another lecture from Bridger to stop shaking the whole thing).  As soon as my two feet touched the ground, Jeremy and his parents walk over.  I was feeling proud, thinking they had seen me and were coming to congratulate me.  No.  They didn't see me.  No one took any pictures.  They just wanted to know if I was going to get my blood pressure checked before we left.  So I did.  And then we left.  But not before staying to watch the first 10 minutes of Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief--not realizing how scary it was--and possibly scarring our children for life.  But I'll let them tell that story on their blog some day.....