I picked up the local paper Friday night. Not sure why, since I rarely read the newspaper. This was the Carmel newspaper that gets delivered for free every Thursday. I browsed the headlines…nothing too interesting. I looked through the currents event calendar and found a listing for Family Day at the Clarian hospital in Carmel. Saturday noon to 3pm. Free food, drinks, games, prizes, petting zoo, firetrucks, helicopters, etc. Did I mention free? everything sounded perfect for Eric. Mommy and I discussed it and decided we could go before Eric’s nap on Saturday.
The weather cooperated, and the rain held off until late in the afternoon. We arrived at the hospital just after noon and parked the car. Mommy stopped at the first table to sign up for something. Eric and I walked over to the Dunking Donuts characters that were walking around. Eric waved and said “Hi!” to the glass of milk. Then he gave him a high five. We found our way back to Mommy just as she finished up at the first table.
We all meandered toward the parking lot where all of the action seemed to be. At the first booth, the ladies sitting at the table offered Eric a toy. He picked one that looked like a lion. The next booth wasa man from the zoo with a big owl perched on his arm. Eric like seeing the owl. We walked around some more and looked at some displays that were set up. Then we came across the llamas! The girl who was tending the llama offered to let us feed the llama. I thought Eric would like this, so I took some of the food in my hand. Before I could offer it to the llama, it was already eating it right from my hand. I got a little more food and put it in Eric’s hand. The llama ate it right away. eric was not quite sure what to think of this. We moved on.
We found another booth that had live bunny rabbits. Since around Easter this year, Eric is fascinated with the bunnies running around in our yard all the time. He calls them “Easter bunny!” We walked up to the table so Eric could pet the bunny rabbit. It was very soft. Mommy was getting hungry, so we walked over to the food area. The entire event was free, but donations were expected. We put some money in the can and ordered three hot dogs, three bags of chips, and three drinks. We sat on a curb and ate our lunch. While we were eating, a dog in a fireman suit came driving by in a go-kart race car. Eric waved at him.
After lunch, we decided to walk over by the fire truck. On the way, we passed the man from the zoo. This time, he had a snake wrapped around his shoulders. We looked as we walked by, but we were focused on the fire truck. On the way, we passed an ambulance. It was open, so we could see inside. I lifted Eric up into the ambulanc, so he could get a closer look. He was very interested. He wanted to touch everything.
After the ambulance, we finally made it to the fire truck. I lifted Eric into the driver’s seat. He sat for a minute looking at everything. I picked him up and put him in the rear of the cab. He could walk around and look at all of the stuff. He really liked it! He would still be in there tonight if I hadn’t taken him out. We climbed on the back of the truck and looked at the controls for the fire hoses.
We passed by a police car with a booth set up. We got some cool free stuff, and the woman at the table gave Eric a Junior Deputy badge to stick on his jacket. He was proud of his badge and showed it to Grandma later that afternoon. As we walked away, we heard a helicopter approaching. We turned back toward the fire truck and saw the helicopter making a slow approach to the far end of the parking lot. Security had the whole area cleared out, and the helicopter landed right in front of us! Very cool!
We were all tired, and Eric was past due for his nap. We headed for the car, but got side tracked by another booth with a spinning prize wheel. Eric took the first spin…he won $20 worth of coupons for Dave and Busters. I took my spin and also won $20. Mommy finally took her turn and won $10. This whole day was getting better all the time! We picked up a fire hat for Eric from another booth and finally made it to the car.
After Eric took his nap, we took him over to grandma’s house for the night. Tyler was already there. Soon, Eric and Tyler were chasing each other all over the hosue and playing. Mommy and I left to go to see a movie and get dinner. On the way to dinner, we stopped at Toys R Us and bought Eric’s birthday present. We bought him a wagon. He gets very excited whenever he sees a wagon, so we thought he would like to have his own. Mommy and I can hardly wait to see the look on his face and to be able to walk around the block with him in his wagon. Eric’s birthday is this coming Thursday.