On Friday, September 20th, Abigail took the plunge into her first official career when she became Amarillo's Fire Chief for the day!
We started the morning by meeting with the mayor downtown - and the girls were delighted to see that Sparky was there!
Amarillo's actual fire chief presented Abigail with a sign.
She also got a real fire fighter's helmet, signed by many of the local fire fighters, the mayor, and others involved in her special day.
The mayor took time to play with the girls and even took them aside to give them some presents.
Cora continued her adoration of Sparky!
And Seth shoved his face in this pillow stuffed animal repeatedly.
Next, we got to take a tour of a 911 call center, including donuts and interviews with the local media.
Then Captain Joy loaded Eve, Halle, and Abigail in the Incident Command truck and he drove them around for the rest of the day. Andrew, Cora, Seth, and I followed in the minivan.
We went to a fire station and got to explore one of the trucks!
Abigail was in full swing by now and being super adorable and everyone loved it!
Meanwhile, Seth.....
(The corona virus version of me, 8 months later, shudders at this picture.)
Sparky got all geared up next and the girls got to help hoist him up!
Pull harder! Let's take him higher!
Put your back into it, Cora!
Seth wanted to go up high too!
At this point, the festivities were cut short because an actual call came in. We got to stand back and watch the fire fighters respond and book it out of there. So Captain Joy suggested the girls might like to go along, so he loaded them into his car and away they went!
The call came from an assisted living home, but turned out to just be smoke, no real fire. So the girls got to shoot the firehouse off in the field outside.
And pick flowers while waiting for Mom and Dad to catch up to them!
After the nursing home fire that wasn't, it was time for a helicopter ride!
Meeting the pilot:
Abigail got to help push the helicopter out!
Time to load up! For the sake of capturing the most pictures, we decided I would go with the girls (they could take four passengers) while Andrew waited with Cora and Seth; a choice I quickly came to regret.
Abigail got to sit in front with the pilot!
She's ready!
So were we in the back!
We took off from the hospital and got to take a 30-45 minute tour of Amarillo from the air!
First, we flew over our house. I don't know that the girls could pick it out from the sky.
We're fourth from the end on the street with the red pickup truck in the driveway. The one with the three huge trees out front!
On to the girls' school!
We flew over the downtown and I added an arrow pointing to Daddy's work!
And Wonderland!
By this point, I was super motion sick. And I definitely didn't make it. I threw up with maybe 5 minutes left. Thankfully, they did have throw up bags. Should have sent Andrew!
The last thing we did was fly up in the clouds! The pilot let Abigail steer all by herself, then he even opened a window slightly and let her reach out and touch a cloud!
After our helicopter adventure, we had dinner at the Central Fire Station!
Abigail wrote notes on the white board instead of eating.
Well, she ate a little.
Then lo and behold, who should show up but some super heroes!
They asked Abigail to costume-up and join them on a secret mission! She didn't want to go at first but since Eve and Halle were going, she warmed up to it. The busted out of their so fast that Andrew and I couldn't keep up.
By the time we arrived at Cinergy (a movie theater/arcade place in town) the super heroes were already in the escape room, trying to figure out how to capture the bad guy, free his prisoner, and rescue a stolen treasure. We got to watch from the monitors until they did it!
Abigail was really shy at this point and mostly hung back. When they found the bad guy in a closet like place attached to the room, she was too afraid to go in. That's ok!
She did help rescue the stolen diamond!
And Thor even let her keep his hammer! (Hope the costume rental store doesn't get mad about that....)
The girls were super afraid of the 'bad guy' (pictured in black in the middle) until I pointed out that it was a fire fighter we'd eaten dinner with, just dressed up. Then they relaxed and had some fun with it!
Cinergy gave Abigail a big gift bag, which was super nice. Being as it was a busy Friday night, we got lots of attention from everyone there and even saw a few people from our ward!
We love these super heroes who did a super job helping Abigail to feel special!
All of us had a blast!
They left us at that point, with a bunch of credits to use at the arcade. That ended up being a mistake. There were a few games to play, but the girls spent most of the credits trying those stuffed animal grabbing claw games and didn't catch anything. Plus it was getting late so by the time we used up all the credits, they were all basically in tears.
I made them pose for a couple more pictures outside.
At least Wonder Thor could still manage a smile!
And if you thought our fun was over, think again! We dropped Daddy, Cora, and Seth off at home for a good night's sleep, and us for girls headed back downtown for a complimentary stay at the Embassy Suites. It was super fancy!
The girls loved the huge suite we had!
I let them stay up another 30 minutes or so watching TV.
Then in the morning, it was time for a yummy breakfast!
They had a variety of toppings for oatmeal, including mini marshmallows (why?) which Abigail ate a ton of. Just the marshmallows, not the oatmeal.
Then we had time before check out to swim for a couple of hours! We were the only one in the pool and had a blast!
Finally time to check out and head home!
Wow! What an experience for Abigail and our family! We are so grateful and humbled that they chose her for this fun and generous adventure. None of us will ever forget it, that's for sure!
(And did I mention, it was for the best that she was only chief for a day? The power went straight to her head and she spent a lot of the day firing various people. Even now, when she sees a fire fighter, she tries to fire them.)
