We celebrating Eli turning 7 today! It was not at all how I expected the party to go, but I’ve learned things seldom go as expected in our family. We showed up at our local fire station at 9:50, for our party at 10. We got there and the station was vacant- all the firemen were gone! We hung out in the dark foyer for about 35 minutes, while frantically calling every possible number, before finally deciding to call is quits and headed to Fuzzy’s to do an impromptu Fireman/TexMex birthday party! Hey, you work with what ya’ got! . As we were driving 1.9 miles away to Fuzzy’s, everyone in our caravan noticed that we passed a local ambulance….could that be our friendly missing firemen?!??? A sweet friend hopped back in her car, drove back to fire station and learned that it was. So, after quickly eating 5 plates of nachos and 5 baskets of sopapillas, everyone loaded back up in the cars and drove to the fire station! We unloaded everything and the firemen started to give us a tour of the station. We made it in the kitchen, the first room on the tour, before we learned how firemen get called out and how they have to leave quickly! (We surprised the captain as he came out of his room still buttoning and tucking in his shirt!). The assured us they would be back soon and promised to give us a great tour when they returned. 20 minutes later, they returned and the captain came in and apologized for coming out half-dressed! he asked if we were ready do the tour now and he had not even finished his sentence when we heard the all too familiar sound-we saw everyone run for the fire truck, yet again! While we never did get that tour, we learned several things today. We learned we have several understanding, gracious, amazing, and flexible friends that put up with all our craziness. It was so sweet- when I was struggling with the idea of asking everyone to load up their cars yet again a friend looked at me and asked, ”Well, what does Eli want to do? This is his special day”. We couldn’t ask for better friends and family.We also learned that firemen work really hard and that they can run really fast, even half-dressed!!! Happy birthday, Eli!!!!! #bdayforthebooks