If you recall from the "Make A Wish Trip - Day One" post, we had a fantastic and memorable escort to and through O'Hare Airport by the by the Chicago O'Hare Fire Department on our trip to Orlando.
As if that day wasn't enough, they were kind enough to invite Paige back for another visit and we arranged to see them again in late August. When we arrived we were met with a huge lunch spread and ate with all the firefighters at the fire station.
We spent a few hours with these fantastic men and women at the Chicago O'Hare Fire Department who rolled out the red carpet for Paige (and us).
Here is Paige trying on a Chicago FD helmet for size.
It was a beautiful day, and Paige was invited to check out Tower Ladder 63 with Jim and a few of the firefighters.
And then Paige and Jim got to see how high the tower ladder goes.
As you can see it goes pretty high. That's Jim and Paige in the bucket, at the top of the ladder. Luckily she has no fear of heights.
And here they are back down on ground level.
Next we got to check out one of their 'crash trucks' which are fire trucks specially equipped for airports.
Paige got to ride shotgun in the crash truck for a little spin around the airport.
Can't ride in the firetruck without talking to everyone on the radio.
Not sure what was going on here but you can see she was pretty impressed with something.
Next we got to check out the Haz Mat truck with Lieutenant Jesse.
And back to the crash truck with Lieutenant Greg.
Paige and Lieutenant Greg.
After getting home from the Chicago O'Hare Fire Department we didn't think the summer could get any better. Little did we know. About a week later we went to the Make A Wish Yacht Blast For Kids, a wonderful event organized by the Make A Wish organization in conjunction with the generous members of the Milwaukee Yacht Club where members of the yacht club host Make A Wish families for several hours on their boats.
Shortly after we arrived at the marina we were introduced to Dick and Marla, who were kind enough to invite the three of us onto their beautiful yacht for several hours on Lake Michigan. Paige is sitting here with Dick who is looking pretty relaxed given he has given the wheel of this beautiful vessel to a 6 year old.
Those of you that know me well are aware my computer skills are awful (my computer trouble shooting skills including pushing hard on the 'return' button, shutting the computer off and swearing, not necessarily in that order). With that in mind I'm proud to announce I've finally figured out how to link videos from You Tube onto the blog. Here is a video of Paige driving of this beautiful boat.
Here are Jim and Paige sunning themselves on the front of the boat. What a great way to spend the afternoon.
Dick then took us up the Milwaukee River where we got to cruise through downtown Milwaukee and watch several of the bridges raise up to let us pass through.
Thank you Dick and Marla for a wonderful afternoon!
I still have more photos to upload for the past few months, but I did want to bring you all up to date on Paige and how she's been doing health-wise. I'm glad to report she recently saw her cardiologist for her bi-annual visit and her echocardiogram (and everything else) looked good. She has grown by several centimeters in the past few months and continues to have a fantastic energy level.
In January 2012 we will be meeting with the orthopedic surgeon and an interventional radiologist to take another look at Paige's legs to confirm what changes, if any, there have been to her leg length discrepancy.
