As many of you know, last weekend was our big Pioneer Day Celebration. We had a fun time eating lots of good food and coming away with way too many game booth prizes - you know, the kind that break the first time your kid tries to put it together. I wish they'd all just give candy since a little sugar high is way easier to deal with than all the tears resulting from broken toys. Anyway, we all had a great time, but of course it couldn't be complete without a little excitement. So here's the good part.

We were all sitting around having a good time, waiting for the fireworks show, when I thought I'd take Maggie and Ty to the bathroom before all the park lights turned out for the show. The only option was a portapotty since the bathrooms were undergoing renovation. As I was helping Maggie inside the pitch black stink box, I told Ty to stay right where he was (standing right next to us). It was so cramped in there I had to leave the door ajar with my rear sticking out, so I wasn't too worried about leaving Ty standing there. And besides, he's never had a history of running off.

BEWARE. THERE'S A FIRST TIME FOR EVERYTHING!

Apparently, he got tired of waiting and decided to go find Dad. Huge park, thousands of people, and Ty was going to find his Dad alone...um, no. So I finished up helping Maggie, we turned around, and noticed he wasn't there. He wasn't anywhere. The frantic search began. First I asked the people who were in line for the bathrooms, then went to security and no one seemed to have seen him. I'm lucky that this is the first time I've had to experience the temporary loss one of my kids because it was horrible. I wasn't really ever worried for his safety because after all, we were at Pioneer Days - not too likely to be kidnappers lingering about. Mostly I was sick over the thought of how scared he must be not kowing where anyone was. The man at security told me to stand there and wait while he ran up to the stage to make the announcement. I hated that part because I wanted to be looking. Anyway it felt like forever, but it couldn't have been more than a couple of minutes. As I was standing there, 3 ladies way off in the distance caught my attention because they were running full speed with outstretched arms and you don't see that very often, except on Scooby-Doo maybe. I kept watching, slightly amused when I noticed they were chasing Ty! So Maggie and I took off chasing them, and wow, I never knew how fast Ty could run until that moment. The women had seen him wandering alone and tried to help him. To him, they were STRANGERS, so he bolted. Maybe I need to reevaluate my Don't Talk to Strangers presentation.

So when I finally caught up to him and he turned and saw me, he was sobbing hysterically, mostly because of the scary ladies chasing him rather than the fact that he was lost. It was a little unfortunate it had to end with the wicked women chase because I don't think he learned his lesson about wandering off. Instead, he's probably just learned that he needs to outrun anyone who might try to talk to him. Either way we were very glad to see eachother, and I got some very good 4 year-old boy cuddles for the rest of the night. And next time we pay the portapotty a visit, it's going to be a little more cozy in there.