Safety First!

Thanks to a little help from our friends, The Funks, we were able to reward our children for their good behavior and hard work for the past 6 months with a trip to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo, CA!  Our girls had both completed a reading incentive program at school last year - if you read for 360 minutes with in a months time, you would receive one free admission to Six Flags!  So, both Emily and Lindsey accomplished that goal - which was somewhat difficult (and almost "painful") for Emily but easy for Lindsey since she enjoys reading so much.  So, off we went as a family!

Now, you may be wondering why this entry is entitled, "Safety First".  Almost two years ago, before we went on a family trip to Disneyland, Jared and I were discussing how we could get some sort of ID bracelet for our family to wear while at this amusement park just in case, heaven forbid, one of our children got lost or separated from us.  We've all thought about it - and lets face it, if you have more than 2 children, there are only two of you - and there just never seems to be enough parental hands or eyes to keep all of your children as "safe" as we would like.  

We have all seen the groups of people or families dressed in matching T-Shirts, or hats, or lanyards, etc.  Well, I decided to try and find a company online where I could order a custom made rubber/silicone bracelet - they have been really popular the last several years - I think it really gained in popularity with Lance Armstrong and his yellow "Live Strong" bracelets.

http://www.wristbandsnow.com/

Anyway - I found a website and ordered them for our family.  I had our family name put on it "Jared and Anna Watts" and Jared's cell phone number.  The kids were instructed that if they were to ever find themselves lost - that they should go to the nearest employee or a Mom with kids and to ask for help.  You don't need to tell them your name, just show them your bracelet and have them call Daddy's cell phone number and we would come find you.  We came and went to Disneyland and were comfortable in the knowledge that these bracelets were a great idea, even if we didn't have the occasion to "test them out" on our Disneyland trip.

The morning of our Six Flags trip dawned and we pulled the bracelets out of my jewlery box.  The kids put them on - excited to wear them again.  We went to the park, hit a ride, saw some penguins and petted some sting rays!

See the green bracelet on Lindsey and Tanner's wrists?

After that, we went and saw the Sea Lion show.  As we left the arena after the show was over, I noticed that Tanner was missing.  I had just had him right next to me as we walked from the bleachers, but by the time I reached the stroller just outside the arena, I couldn't see him anywhere with so many people around!  About 2 minutes after I had realized he was missing, Jared's cell phone rang.  It was an unknown area code, but Jared just "knew" it was someone calling about Tanner.  Sure enough, Tanner was with 3 older ladies not 20 feet away from us!  We could not see him with all of the people milling about.  As we walked up to them, they expressed to us how great of an idea that the bracelet was!  We thanked them and told them about how they could make ones of their own.  Tanner told us later that he had gotten really scared when he could not see us and that he went up to these older ladies and said, "I'm lost.  Can you help me?" He stuck his arm out and asked them to call his Daddy.  They work!  The bracelet and having a cell phone, gave us the ability to be contacted almost immediately!     

We are so grateful!  We are blessed to have the spirit be our guide - I know it is through the inspiration of the Holy Ghost that we were able to come up with the idea of these bracelets and that Tanner knew what to do.