Thanksgiving at the Firehouse

More often than not, Paul works on Thanksgiving.  Some years we celebrate on a different day, and some years, like this one, we join him at the fire station for Thanksgiving.

The fire station that Paul is currently assigned to is in a 100 year old building.  With a fire pole.  Which, of course, the children found fascinating.  And by children, I mean teenagers.

Out on the roof, checking out the view.

That tower/dome/spire/whatchamadingle is right next to Mission San Rafael Arcangel.  It's kind of cool to get to drive by and see that on our way to visit Daddy.  Visiting all the missions is on my bucket list.  So far, I've only been to 4 of the 21 in the California chain.

Daddy let the teens go down the fire pole once, to get it out of their system.

Next time, Jack Jack.

The rest of us took the stairs down.  Those were almost as adventurous, really, an old spiral staircase.

"Okay, everybody get in front of the fire engine..."  The older kids have heard this over and over and over for many years now.

Some years we take bunches of fun pictures, and other years not so many.  With the big meal almost ready, we decided to go for a quick ride in the fire engine.

Josiah and Luke sat up front.

Try to keep Luke from kicking anything important while we're driving.

The rest of us sort of piled in.  You can see Katie's feet here; she's on Brianna's lap.

Sam ended up on the floor, and Jack got the seat.

Oh there's Katie!

And there's Daddy, driving.

Hannah was on my lap.

Afterwards, I took a picture of the girls standing on the engine with the wider bumper.

And here's proof that I was there, too.  I'm usually behind the camera.

Brianna ended up at the end of the tables, so I asked her to take a picture.  You can't see Luke at all, between Paul and Josiah, and you can barely see Hannah and Katie between Jack and I, but you get the idea.

Luke ate himself silly and was drifting off in the chair.

Josiah making a face at me.

Daddy taught the boys to play pool.  Katie was cute watching.

All 8 kids on the spiral staircase.  We were going for artistic, but I think the pictures in front of the fire engine turned out better.

I hope you and yours had a Happy Thanksgiving!


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