Lost in Summer Nights

Wow. What a night. We joined Dad, Brenda, brother Brendan and most of his family (missing 'little one' sadly) for Summer Nights at the local botanical gardens. It was fun music, pretty gardens, trains, hoola hoops, glow rings, happy kids.... The children all did so well and it was nice to just be with family.

Sadly Scott was working, but it sounds like his night is still going great at the Student Center. They are hosting a high school night for all the kids who were signed up to go to camp but had cancelations due to fire restrictions.


Trey found a cuddler to hold him. Nana and he had a nice time, I'm thinkin'.



My Toby, goofing off for your benefit.

Enjoying the train display.

He's my only one to really try the hip action with the hoola.

Enjoying the music, clouds and cool breeze. He always knows how to enjoy a good moment, or make it good.

So glad to have these two here!

Wonderful two.

Sharing their cherries! Summer is good!

So, as you can see it was a good night. We did have a very hard point. The boys were doing awesome, staying together for the most part. Looking at trains, Ranne would get ahead. We got that taken care of by a conversation.

When taking the boys to the bathroom, however, on the way back to the picnic/music area, despite encouraging and watching everyone to keep us close to one another, I lost Toby. After just leaning down to talk to Ranne, I realized Toby was nowhere to be seen. I ran a few places and couldn't see him so took the boys back to Brendan. Sarah watched Ranne and Trey while he and I went to find him. I finally spotted him. He made it out of the main gardens and into the courtyard leading to the parking lot. There was a security guard by the gate and I pray he would have stopped Toby if he'd tried to leave, but Toby was definitely headed that direction. He was probably afraid we had left so went to look for the car. There were fences all around the outside of the park as well, but with the crowd and all....

What a terrible, terrible feeling. I grabbed him and hugged him. He seemed afraid, but most likely it stemmed from my reaction and tears. He just said he couldn't find me and told me quietly to stop fussing. Sigh. Please never again. I'm so grateful for Brendan and Sarah's help. I know Papa and Nana knew and were looking too. Thank you! Thank you, Lord, for helping us find him.

I'm tired!