This fourth of July we had a nice breakfast/lunch with Mom and Dad. Then we went home to rest up before heading out to the West Jordan fireworks. Jason's parents usually opt to not cook and get KFC so we went to the park ahead of them. The kids were excited to see the ponies and wanted to go on the pony ride and jumpy castles, but we didn't bring any money and there was plenty of play equipment there. The kids played before we ate. Calton drank too much pop and threw up. We should have gotten the hint and left then, but he wasn't sick and most of what he threw up went on the grass, so we didn't think anything of it. After dinner, Jason was watching Calton play on the slide and I was reading a story to Spencer. Jason came over and said he couldn't find Calton. He'd taken his eyes off of him for one second to watch Joy's boys run off somewhere. He looked back at the park and couldn't find Calton. I looked at the park and couldn't see him anywhere either.
Spencer went in one direction with Grandpa Sperry and Alena stayed with Grandma Sperry while I took off towards the pony ride. I saw two police officers and managed to tell them about my wandering child without crying. I showed them a picture of Cal on my camera phone and described his clothes. Then I started making rounds searching for him. There were so many people there and a whole lot of little blonde boys with orange and blue shirts, but none of them were my Calton.
Finally, I started to head back to where Karen and Alena were waiting when some people who were sitting near us told me to look behind me. I turned around and there was Calton - screaming his head off - in the arms of a very tall police officer. It was one of those dramitic moments you see on TV. That was when I burst into tears and ran to get him.
He immediately told on the police officers. He wanted to go to the bouncy castle and they took him away! He never left my sight for the rest of the night.
We moved away from the playground to find a good spot to watch the fireworks. (No, the horrors haven't ended yet.) We thought the fireworks were going to start at 10:20, but they were running late. Karen went home early because she had a headache. The kids were having sword fights with their cousins when we discovered that Jonah was missing. Joy though Joel had him. Joel only had the baby.
So, the fireworks finally started while we were searching for Jonah. Jason and I were talking to a police officer (I'd taken pictures of Joy's two little ones after we found Calton just in case) when we found out that Joel had just picked him up at the police command post. The fireworks were half over by the time we got back to our spot. (We'd carried Calton around the park while we searched for Jonah.)
It was midnight when we got home. We had to drop Roger off because Karen had taken the car. We won't be going to any more fireworks for a few years. I miss Bobby's old backyard.
So - whenever you go somewhere with younger kids - take a picture of them in whatever they're wearing so it's easy for police officers to find them when they wander off.
3 comments:
O Janice, I'm sorry you had such a difficult evening. And it's so not like Calton to wander off. I'm glad all worked out well, but next year come watch the fireworks in our yard.
We went to Sugarhouse park where it was the teens or adults who were lost and wandering around with a cell phone saying, "where are you?" Oh, and a dog was lost -poor little thing. (Why people take their pets to a firework show is beyond me.)
I told Brandon that Calton got lost and he said "I got on a bouncy thing at the air show"
Brandon got lost (he didn't know he was lost) at a park with about a couple of hundred kids playing. Woods to one side and a lake on the other. Boy when I found him....sigh. "We just went over to that playground Mom!" grrr.
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