Firefighter Graduate!

We headed up to Camarillo today to watch Martin graduate from the Oxnard College Fire Academy.He has worked so hard to complete this academy and we were thrilled to watch him graduate.
They started the afternoon off doing different demonstrations of what they have had to learn over the past few months. Each group of cadets were responsible for different areas. First they showed us how quickly they had to get their gear on and be ready to take off on the truck...
We saw ladder drills, building repelling, and then they moved on to automobile excavations, using tools to break the windows and the "jaws of life" to pry open different parts of the car...
They put out a car fire...
Martin's group was responsible for a wood fire...



After the demos were done he came over to give Zoe and Cooper some big hugs. They were so happy to see him and very impressed with everything they had just seen!

Along with many of Martin's friends, Uncle Mike and McCabe came to watch. The kids hadn't seen their cousin McCabe in quite some time and couldn't believe that he is now 6'6" tall! They loved checking out this old fire engine, and even got to ride around the block with the Fire Captain after the ceremony.
The official graduation began. After a few speeches from the local officials, Battalion 33 was ready to graduate. They each got called on stage, set down their named fire helmets, and received their certificate from one of their captains.



Cadets receiving their final dismissal...
Proud Dad...
Joe, Martin, Uncle Mike...
The group (Uncle Mike, McCabe, Zoe, Martin, Cooper, me, Joe):
After the graduation and clean-up we went over to a great Italian restaurant with a few of Martin's friends to celebrate.
Time to say goodbye...
It was such a great day of celebration. Martin has worked so hard to get where he is today. He hasn't always made the best choices, but he has really turned things around and made a commitment to be successful and take pride in his achievements. We couldn't be more proud of him and look forward to seeing him continue to work hard and be a success at everything he does!