Scared Straight

The Wilmette Police Department held an open house last Sunday. We had planned to go after church then Rick had to leave for three days for work (same trip he made last week I might add). I wasn't going to try to take all four by myself but my sister Elizabeth came over with Anna and we decided to go ahead with the plan. It's about six blocks away so I put Katie and Ceci in the stroller and the big girls walked. The stroller was impossible to push and we realized halfway there that one wheel was completely flat. I was sweating (not shocking) after pushing 60 lbs of two year olds with a flat tire and we decided to abandon the stroller and forge ahead instead of turning around. I figured Elizabeth and I could each hold a twin hand. This was somewhat successful.

The police station tour was fun for the girls. Here are some pictures:

Outside of the jail:

As I was taking this photo inside a jail cell Elizabeth started yelling "NO!!! KATIE!!!" as if she was holding a vial of the swine flu virus to her lips. Katie was lying down on the bed with her head on the jail blanket. I thought it was cute and was snapping pictures while her horrified aunt was yelling to sit up and get out. The officer said "We did sanitize everything" but I realized this was a situation where I should not have been so encouraging. I'm sure she thought Elizabeth was their mom and I just went with it to be safe.


Here are Katie and Ceci inside the police car. Hopefully we won't repeat this photo in 15 years:

And here they are on the Coast Guard jet ski:


The officer in the jail asked them to look around for a comfy pillow, warm blanket or Wii game. They all looked and couldn't find any of those. She let them know that in jail you have no privacy and none of the comforts of home. Last week Sophia had some poopy issues and said to me that she was "DEFINITELY" glad she wasn't in jail because there is "ZERO privacy in jail". I realized that that visit really had hit home for her. Now when she sticks her hand out of the car window I tell her we both might get arrested if a police officer sees us and she pulls it right back into the car. I'm sure that threat of getting arrested is going to work well for me going forward.

Thanks Wilmette PD!