Five k race, Festival, Fear, Fun, Family, Fireworks. Which one doesn't belong?

This 4th of July was the best and the worst I’ve experienced.

The best…
This year I wanted to start a new tradition of running the Freedom Festival 5k. I had never run a race before and have always wanted to, so I decided to sign up Danielle and me to start our new tradition together. Danielle was my excuse in case I needed to walk, but we both did great and ran most of the way. It was a great experience for me; I’ve always wanted to feel the accomplishment of finishing a big race. Eventually, I want to get up to running a marathon, but I needed to start small and see if I had it in me.

Duane only had time to take 1 picture, so my eyes are closed in this one.



The worst…
After the race, we met up with my family and had breakfast, then headed over to the parade. We got through ¾ of the parade when we noticed Kaman was missing. We frantically split up and went searching for him. I walked up and down the parade route thinking how far he could have gone, since he’s only two. But, I knew in the back of my mind, I had to find him quick before the parade let out. While searching for Kaman, Duane and I both went up to the first policeman we saw and described him and where he was last seen. They immediately got on their radio and found out another policeman was holding a boy that matched our description. Apparently, Kaman had started following the BYU semi truck and ended up 2 blocks away, when a lady noticed he was by himself and took him to a police man. Losing a child in that big of a crowd is one of the most terrifying experiences I hope I never have to go through again.

Ironically, we only got pictures of Kaman waving to the police cars during the parade.

We ended the day at our house, had dinner with the Thompson family, played games and watched the P.G. fireworks from our balcony.


The day started out great and turned very scary, very fast, but thankfully ended on a happy note.