Happy 4th of July!

Happy Fourth of July! We have a very happy 4th of July because we still have Rebecca! Last night after the Bills' fireworks show ended, Teancum started to run off and I yelled to him to stay with us. He came back, but then I turned around and Rebecca was gone. I told the boys to stay together while I went to look for her. I saw James holding Elizabeth by the barn so I told him to head down the hill to find Rebecca. Sydra gathered many people to help search for her. Cameron & I went down to the sound table and asked them to announce it over the sound system that a 4 year old blonde in a pink dress named Rebecca Whiting was missing (so now all of Lander knows that we lost our Rebecca!). We thought she might have headed down the hill with the hundreds of people who were migrating to their cars, so we all started moving towards the barn when Becky Larsen came headed around the barn carrying Rebecca. I grabbed her and held her, completely relieved. She'd probably been "missing" about 20 minutes, but she didn't even know she was "missing." She was just as happy as could be and said she'd talked to some of her friends and some "nice people that tried to help her." She had just been standing by the barn visiting with people and she didn't even realize anything was wrong until we met James coming back up the hill, very upset, and he bent down and in a stern yet gentle voice said, "Rebecca, never run off again!" and then she started to cry. She was very oblivious to the potential danger she was in (Lander is a safe place, but lots of people come from lots of places to see the Bills' fireworks show). A couple hours later James said he still had adrenalyn running through him and I still felt sick to my stomach. What a scary thought! It still makes me nervous to think about it. I guess we'll need to keep a rope tied around her waist whenever we go in public now because she is very friendly and very trusting -- and not very obedient some of the time! Thank goodness for good friends who are willing to help look for her in the pitch dark. Thank goodness for boys who stayed in one place while we looked for her. Thank goodness for her guardian brother Teancum, who told her twice, "Rebecca! I was worried sick about you!" and Jamey, who said, "yeah, I was about to cry." Yes, it is a great 4th of July around here!