Weekend Post #1--Firefighters Convention

Friday afternoon we dropped the girls off with Bobby's sister, armed with water balloons and ready to have a good time (thank you Carmen and Kelly for watching them!) and then Bobby and I headed to Branson for the state firefighters convention. The chief was paying for our hotel and food, so our only expense was gas (which was bad enough!). We had a great time--we were with a fun group of people. There were over 400 firefighters and their spouses/significant others from the state of Missouri. Some of them acted like overgrown frat boys. Apparently some people never grow up.

Saturday was the annual fireman muster, or competition. I've blogged about it before. Kearney's team did okay, taking 3rd and 4th in the barrel fight, but not placing other than that. Some teams take it VERY seriously, practicing all year around. West Plains is one--Dad will be proud!! Kearney threw together a team that had never practiced before, so they did well considering.

This is the bucket brigade. The key is to get a rhythm, and they never really did, which hurt them. I have no desire to ever do a bucket brigade; your arms hurt so bad afterwards. I will not be joining a woman's team to participate.

This is the barrel fight. The two Kearney teams were just plowing over the competition, and we thought it would be them in the finals together. But then they had to switch sides, and both ended up losing and playing in the consolation bracket. They settled for 3rd and 4th. As soon as they switched sides, we knew they were in trouble. Can't mess with what was working! Bobby is the last one, holding the hose.

Here's a closer picture of him. Still hard to see his face because of the equipment.

I like this picture because you can see how close we were to Table Rock Lake.

I took a bunch of "artistic" photos, and am thinking of making some sort of collage out of them. This is his helmet and coat.

Here's the whole crew who competed. None of them had ever done this together, so it was an interesting experience.


Saturday night they had a banquet, and you could tell who had been at the competition: every last one had bright red faces! Probably 200 people with matching burnt noses and cheeks, some worse than others. I wore a v-neck t-shirt, and now have a bright red triangle on the middle of my chest.

The highlight of the evening was the keynote speaker--Yakov Smirnoff!!! I've never heard him before, and he was absolutely hilarious, mixed with the right amount of sentimental firefighter laying down their lives angle. He received an instant standing ovation. Brought along his mother and kids, which was cool. He recently received a master's in psychology, and is teaching some classes at Drury and Missouri State. It was worth the whole weekend to see him.

After the banquet a bunch of us went go-karting. One of the junior firefighters--age 14--got kicked off the track before the first lap was complete for bumping others. He will never live that down!

We left Branson at 6 to come home for the girls dance recital. I will put pictures of that up tomorrow--even with wireless high-speed, my laptop is being slow. So look for pictures tomorrow of my divas!!