What a fun day we had on the Friday before Easter! Everyone was in town because we had Julia's Birthday party lined up for the next day. It was a GORGEOUS day so we decided to head to the Arboretum, along with everyone else in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex.
No kidding-- it was PACKED. We had to park off-site and take a shuttle to the garden... it was NUTS trying to ride the shuttle with three kiddos and their strollers, but the "shuttles" were chartered, air-conditioned buses, and they had their act together so it wasn't too bad. Once inside the gates, it didn't seem crowded at all. Amazing how many people those grounds can hold.
The entire day was pure fun, except for about 3.5 minutes at the beginning when Avery decided to wander off in a huge crowd during the childrens' concert at the amphitheater. One down-side to having 6 adults watching 3 kids is that everyone assumes that "someone" is watching the kids at all times. Well... we have a sneaky one, and she moves FAST. I'm not going to downplay it... it was the most traumatic, terrorizing 200 seconds of my life while she was missing. Truly. Terrorizing. And EVERYWHERE I looked there were kids her size, so she did not stand out at all. Collin and Julia were headed up to the stage for something, and were completely unaware that there was a crisis. When we realized she was missing and did our quick, head-spinning glance in all directions and still didn't see her, we scattered to search for her. The HERO of the day was her Uncle Andrew who (after handing Drew off to Jen) dashed around on a mission to find his niece... and he did. He found her clear across the amphitheater, marching along and not even looking back. Ugh... that precious child... she loves to explore.
I tear-up just to type this because for me and Collin, there's nothing more endearing than to watch someone else love and protect your child as their own. I will forever be thankful for Andrew and his initiative in that event. The blood-chilling lesson learned was how stinkin' FAST it can happen. It only takes a second and POOF! She was gone. Thank you, Lord, that she was found quickly! And by Uncle Andrew instead of a stranger who would have called Child Protective Services on all 6 of us! :/
So, after that adrenaline rush of losing her, finding her, scolding her for walking away from us while in the same breath telling her how much I love her and wouldn't know what to do if I lost her, hugging her (probably too tightly) and weeping like a crazy lady... we spent the rest of the day completely carefree! We celebrated Spring and a little bit of Easter (2 days early) with our own little family Easter egg hunt. :) All is well that ends well, I suppose...
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