Bringing Up Bates "Stop, Drop and Wash"
- The Bates still look back on their November 2016 house fire as one of the most frightening ordeals their family has walked through. The fire department comes over to give the kids fire safety lessons and help Gil and Kelly place their new smoke detectors.
- To give back to the community and help fund the volunteer fire department, the Bates are planning a benefit car wash.
- The day before the car wash, Zach, who has plenty of practice washing his police car, comes over to show the family how to wash a car. “We’ve never washed our cars at our house,” says Josie. “We let the rain wash them.”
- “My goal was to come over and get everybody assigned a specific dob,” says Zach. “In real life, everybody doing their own thing all on the same car, I felt like we were never going to get finished.”
- It doesn’t take long before chaos breaks loose. Gil asks for water, and Zach gives it to him…with a hose…all over his clothes.
- “When everybody starts getting wet, I thought, You know what, I’ll jump in my parents’ car because Dad will surely tell them, ‘Don’t get the inside of my car wet,’” says Zach. “Then I forget, oh wait, it’s my family’s car. They don’t care!”
- Zach’s next idea t is to grab the water hose, thinking it will give him an advantage, but when the little kids purposely put a kink in it, he is left with no way to defend himself.
- Meanwhile, Erin and Chad are searching for a permanent home for their little family. When they moved into their rental cottage, they knew it would only be temporary.
- They are looking for an old fixer-upper with land and charm. “We are open to the option of buying something very soon or waiting even several years,” says Chad. He and Erin drive by two beautiful country homes that they both really like.
- On the day of the car wash, it’s pouring. “God’s wetting all the cars!” says Gil. The family is bummed, but Jeb suggests they pray. Before long, the rain stops!
- In the middle of the car wash, Carlin’s boyfriend, Evan Stewart, shows up, and Carlin is ecstatic.
- The car wash is a huge success. Even some of the volunteer firefighters come out to help. “I’m amazed that as the car wash rolled on, I think we really got the hang of it,” says Gil. Even little Bradley gets in on the action!