Now THIS was a great field trip!I thought the home school group was just going to another fire station, like the 3 the big kids have been to before. SO I had Collin stay home and take his algebra class and the rest of us went without him. If I had known it was going to be so great, I would have brought him along.We went to the Mississippi Fire Academy in Pearl, Mississippi. There are only 18 federally accredited training facilities like this in the USA and this year alone, 17 - 20,000 students will come here from all over the world. They live on campus for up to months at a time.Below is a training tower. They repel off of it and also practice helicopter rescue on TOP of it!
This is where they set the train cars on fire and simulate a massive train wreck and explosion. They were not burning the train today though...today they were...
EXPLODING AN AIRPLANE!!!
we were so close and the heat was so intense I could not imagine being those students wearing 75 pounds of gear and being that close to that fire.
IMPRESSIVE!!!! This sure wasn't like any other fire station tour we had been on!
There are 5,000 feet of underground training tunnels in this area. Ranging from 6 feet in diameter down to 18 inches in diameter, with many escape hatches if needed.
This was a 2.8 million dollar training building. Every aspect of a fire and smoke can be controlled on every floor, wall and ceiling.
A tour through the HAZMAT tent.
The group on the fire truck!
This memorial had names on it all the way to 1886. They had to add 5 new names last month.
Kaebrie and her sweet little friend, Ellie.
Kaitlynn with her friend, Rosalind.
This was a training house for US! They would take 5 kids in at a time inside this fully furnished house, and fill it with (theater) smoke until the smoke alarm went off. The kids got to experience what it was like to not be able to see, and to drop to the ground and crawl out of an exit. A GREAT experience that I hope never happens in real life.
Then we went to the park and had lunch while the mommies talked under the gazebo and all the kids played out in the rain. I know we were getting some weird looks from all the traffic driving by, wondering 1. why all those kids were not in school and 2. why they were out playing in the rain. It just made us smile! :)
Every OTHER October, we have official family pictures taken. We have done that since Collin was 10 months old. As this is an odd numbered year, it was time once again to get them done. We had a good friend from Louisville, Kevin, come down and do them for us. I usually start in August thinking about what to wear, then spend September hunting and looking and by the end of September have everyone put together. Except Sam. He is the hardest. He ALWAYS gives me a hard time, but he feels like he has to. But deep down I know he really enjoys it. This year we did them at home. With the dog. Sam commented that we finally got all the kids old enough to cooperate and the dog was out of control. We ended up getting rid of her for the last half. She was just to excited and crazy. I can't wait for her to get older and calm down. This puppy stage is like having another child!!! 
Collin - age 12 1/2 
Kaebrie - age 5 
Kaitlynn - age 10 1/2 
Christopher - age 7 
With our Idaho mountain rock that we love and are SOOO glad we bought the week before our move!! 
And again, withOUT Yazzi. 
Walking up our driveway..... 
One of my favorites....my man....my kids...... 
We are a goofy family! :) 
Her eyes seem to be turning green after being blue for 5 years and they look so much like her Daddy's now. 
Such a big little guy... 
I LOVE this one!! How big those big two are getting..... 
17 years later...still happy and in love...... 
I am so glad we do this. And even after the kids grow up and move away and have families of their own, they WILL be home all together for at least an hour every other October, NO EXCUSES!! :)
