What would Father’s Day be without a little adventure? I’m not sure you can have our last name and avoid adventure, actually, and it seems to me that’s part of what drew me to the man behind the name anyway, so…I say, just embrace it when it comes! Hopefully this will bode well for me as Henry grows up, because he’s already cultivating the thrill from his dad and I’d like to stay his “cool” mom for as long as possible (within reason, of course). If this munchkin in utero happens to be a boy as well, then I’d really better buckle up–we’ll all be adventuring all the days of our lives around here if that’s the case 🙂

Tonight, after a lovely family time at the pool in fairly perfect weather, we decided on pizza and tacos at a local/staple pizzeria in town. I laugh, because we absolutely didn’t have plans to go there until about 10 minutes before arriving, and it makes total sense that we’d be dining in the restaurant in town that would fill up with smoke mid-meal. One minute we were having great conversation and enjoying our food, and the next we were grabbing cell phones and matchbox cars from the table and quickly exiting the restaurant with every other guest. At first, it seemed completely surreal that smoke was coming from every vent in the room. I looked at J, and when he quickly got up and grabbed Henry, I figured it wasn’t one of those “we’ll just wait this out to see what happens” moments anymore. I’ve been in a room filled with smoke before (my own kitchen maybe, once or twice, due to oven user error…), but I’ve never really choked on it prior to tonight. There’s a first time for everything.

We knew the place wasn’t on fire, but a belt in a fan unit atop the building had burnt up or fizzled out or…whatever it is that fan belts on restaurant roofs do when they malfunction. Within a few minutes, everyone had filed out of the building and four (FOUR!) firetrucks and a number of other emergency vehicles had surrounded the place. It seemed a little excessive, maybe, but it did make for a really great show (especially for our two year old who loves all things with wheels and lights). And we just so happened to have his fireman hat in the car, so…even better. With one entrance/exit to the parking lot and the town’s largest hook and ladder blocking the way out, we figured we may as well make the most of our staying put and catch all of the action. And after a while, we moseyed over to our favorite (and conveniently close) ice cream spot to kill more time and fill up on the dinner we’d missed eating at the restaurant. Bummer 😉

firetrucks were on the scene…

…and so was fireman henry.

hanging on to dad while hanging out with the entirety of our fire department.

fire truck heaven for our Bug.

and the captain (plus a little ice cream) saves the day!

Probably thirty volunteer fire fighters, all of those trucks, a bump for H (he slipped off the curb while taking it all in), a Jr. police badge, a few ice cream cones, an hour and a half, and (if you can call it that) a free dinner later, the crews all moved on and we made our way home to put H to bed. Hank’s retelling of the story to the dog was pretty cute, but mostly, I just love that we were all together and making the best of things at the tail end of this particular Father’s Day (and weekend time, of course). Undoubtedly, we’ll welcome the new babe into the vigilante fold without haste come late summer, but I’m still relishing these times we have as “three plus a bump.” We’re a magical trio, if I’m entitled to say so. My boys make my heart so warm when they’re adventuring together. On nights like tonight, I have the very best seat in the house!

my fave image from the evening. LOVE our shadows and the bump in tow as we stand by and watch all of the action. totally a coincidence that we got this one.

thirty weeks and my first smoke out down. ten-ish (and preferably no further smoke outs) to go.

mm