Fire Station, Disney, and Swamp House

Several weeks ago, Grady had an eye doctor appointment and had his eyes dilated.  Long story short, there is nothing wrong with his eyes to cause all the funky blinking he was doing.  And that info, combined with our recent allergy results tells us that his rapid eye blinking was a result of strawberries.  He is not allergic to anything, but he is highly sensitive to them, so we have cut them out of his diet and...ta da! The eye blinking stopped!

So. As we returned home from the eye doctor, I thought he would be SO excited to see a fire truck and ambulance parked in front of our neighbors' house!  (Everyone was fine. Just a diabetic scare, but the neighbor is all good :))

So poor Grady's eyes were not doing so well with the bright light, so he didn't LOVE the fire truck as much as I thought he might.

So, we went inside and I got a sweet message from the mother of a former student of mine.  She said her husband is a fire fighter and, after seeing my pics on facebook, she talked to him and he said that we could bring Grady by his station any time to see the trucks.  I was so excited!

So after coordinating some schedules and grabbing Mac to join in the fun, Grady and I drove to the fire station for his very own private tour of a fire truck!

 

One of the funny things about Grady is that, like his Daddy, he sorta bottles up his emotions.  So he might not appear excited or enthusiastic on the outside, but he has these faces of wonder and these sly little smiles that tell people who know him just how happy and thrilled he is on the inside :)

He grabbed Jon's hand and was off to explore!

 

Jon was SOOO good with him! He showed him all the cool stuff and kept him out of the "nasty" ambulance :)

 

He let Grady ring the bell on the front of the truck!  And he turned on the lights and sirens!

 

My mom and I both had tears in our eyes.  What kid gets their own private tour? And gets to wear the fireman boots? and helmet?!

 

LOVE.

 

I told Jon and ALL the firefighters who came out to meet Grady, "If Grady could talk, he would talk about this day for the rest of his life!"

 

Whitney NEVER showed ANY interest in vehicles.  Not the golf cart or trucks.  Not school buses or bulldozers.  She just wasn't that kid.  Grady is ALLLLL boy.  He notices every truck we sit next to at a stoplight.  He can hear a motorcycle or airplane coming ten miles away.  He LOVES trucks.  So this was a whole new experience for me and we had so much fun :)

 

He even got to go up sky-high in the truck's ladder!!

 

We had so much fun and I cant thank Toni and Jon enough for offering this awesome opportunity to our sweet boy! We look at these pictures OFTEN!

 

The next day, we headed to Epcot for some magic :)

 

I just realized that next year I likely wont be able to carry both of them at the same time.  LOVE these moments because they crack each other up! And while they rarely look at the camera, it is so fun to hear them giggle together :)

 

After meeting some characters and riding Nemo, we met up with my parents and their friends who were at Epcot for dinner :) Have I mentioned how much I LOVE living so close to the magic?

 

Kissy face,. Fishy face

 

edited to add real camera pics :)

 

 

And the next morning, Eric and I got up at the crack of dawn.  My parents came over before the sun was up.  And it was time to run!

We ran the Swamp House races.  Eric ran the half marathon and I wimped out and ran the 5k. 

 

I had the best time with these girls!

And a local running group I belong to was giving out the medals at the finish line.  They let me give Eric his medal as he crossed the finish!

 

"THAT'S MY HUSBAND!!!!!"

 

It was a great weekend with beautiful weather!