Yesterday, I had to attend the driver training for our department.  It is much like the old class (EVAP-Emergency Vehicle Accident Prevention), but now is called EVIP -Emergency Vehicle Incident Prevention.  It also has some of the changes that the state has made. 

One change is we can now run code with just lights and only use the siren when we're in traffic.  This is a welcome change.  Our little town is 20 miles from the closest town and we have very few people who live between us and the closest hopital (about 30 miles). 

In the afternoon, we had the driving portion.  They closed down the airport for the afternoon and set up on the runway.  We had to drive through different cone marked paths.  I always dread them mostly because I hate backing up.  I survived though.  Then, when everyone had finished, my husband and his friend, fellow officer (both in the department and in the Sheriffs office) took their patrol cars through the course.  They had fun with it and even chased each other through one round.  

The best part was we were able to leave the kids home for a couple of hours alone.  We did check up on them by calling, but with us both needing to be at the airport (less than 1/2 mile from the house) for awhile.  It was nice not to line up a babysitter.  Sam didn't need to take the class because the driving class he takes with the Sheriff's office is more involved and much more advanced than what we do for the fire department.  He did however need to help with course set up and watching everyone go through. 

The kids did fine,  they mostly followed the instructions we gave them and didn't make a mess of the house.  I'm glad, but it's a scary step and don't plan on using it very often just yet.