Well, as if a sleepover wasn't enough excitement, we had the opportunity to bring Mike to a serious MVA (motor vehicle accident) this afternoon. The call came in while we were running errands for the jaws of life, so we dropped Mike off at the scene, put the truck in park and watched the action. We were there for nearly an hour, and the kids hardly fidgeted. As a matter of fact, they were riveted. We watched the fire truck hose down something flammable. We watched 4 ambulances and 2 paramedic vehicles pull up. We rolled our windows down and talked to a few cops. I didn't walk them out of the car to watch the jaws of life in action because it was... well... a bad accident. A kid tried to pass someone on a turn going up a hill. Hit a family in a Jeep head on. We talked about how Mommy used to be the person in the ambulance. We talked about some of the gear that came out - gurneys, neck collars, back boards, whomp-whomps (the unofficial EMS term for the foam blocks that velcro on either side of the head "whomp" "whomp"). We talked about the importance of always wearing your seat belt. The fire department was dismissed while the paramedics were stabilizing the patients in the ambulances. We drove 1/4 mile down the road to the high school and parked again to watch the helicopters. We watched Dad get out, shake hands and b.s. for a while with one of the flight paramedics. He knew him from way back when in his Parsippany days. Mike happened to be out of the truck when the birds were taking off. My 8 year old daughter grabbed the camera and took the picture at the top of this post. Not bad for an 8 year old! Hug your families - you never know when you will have an accident. And your mother was right, always wear your seat belts. After being an EMT and working on many MVA's, I never go without mine.
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