Lewiston, Idaho: The City of Lights.

Okay, so no one has ever actually called it that. More often than not, it's called variations of "Ugh, what's that smell?" or "Ewww. It's stinky here", thanks to their paper mill that floods the town with the aroma of sulfur. But they do boast quite a Christmas light display in December. We* ventured to Lewiston to take over a pizza place and look at the lights.

 

*and lately when I say "we" I'm often referring to the entire Richards family - most pictured above. Though the parents and a twin are missing from the photo and we have Manda & Matt and their two boys who were visiting for the holidays. But just to give you an idea of what our group looks like, it's generally 10 adults and 15 children. We get noticed.

It was beautiful. And, quite against the odds, peaceful - up until the moment we lost Teagan. It feels like a rite of passage as a mother to lose a child for a few panic stricken minutes, but perhaps some of you reading this will click your tongue in disapproval and deny that it's ever happened to you. (We can still be friends, despite your judgment. And the fact that you've just patted yourself on the back for having never let it happen to you has just ensured you will experience the terror at a later date.) Regardless, it happened to us. It's actually rather a miracle it hasn't happened sooner, especially with the entourage we run with these days. But it was dark, there were children everywhere, and being bundled up head to toe in winter gear tends to make children difficult to distinguish from one another. She was there one minute - jumping up and down on what can only be described as a Lights Lights Revolution tarp with squares that correspond with lights on a gigantic tree (we were all enthralled) and she was gone the next.

Fortunately, our built-in search party of 29 was able to locate her after a few minutes. Bless Eric's heart, Teagan and his son, Sam, had trotted off toward the train, in the opposite direction of where everyone else was heading and so he followed them (the responsible parents that he and Tara are) but didn't have a way of letting us know that they were with him. So we fanned out, texted back and forth with everyone and eventually discovered her happily wiling away the evening on the train she'd asked about earlier - whether or not it was real. 

Those were the longest few minutes of my life. Partly because I was reviewing all of the times I'd been upset with her and raised my voice (it happens a lot) and partly because I've been watching too much TV and had entirely too many terrible scenarios running through my brain. We live in a scary world! There was also part of my brain reviewing the scene from Cheaper by the Dozen when the Baker family is searching for one of their 12 children and they throw back a line someone had used against them: "12 is a big number." What's bigger than 12? 29. Well, 27 if you exclude the babies who didn't do much in the way of searching, and 25 if you don't count Eric and Sam who were with her, but 25 family members walking up and down the park calling Teagan's name over and over really warmed my heart and made me grateful to be part of such a wonderful family.  I told myself to be calm when we did finally find her (and not the stereotypical wagging of the finger accompanied by a lecture that started with "Don't you EVER do that again, young lady!" - there would be time for that later.) Instead, I gave her the biggest, longest hug of her life and said a silent prayer thanking Heavenly Father for her safety. Let's just say we stuck close together after that. And Mason stayed in his stroller.

After the happy reunion, we recreated a picture from two years ago and lamented how much we'd changed for the wider. Getting fit in 2015, friends!

We had a lovely, but frigid time looking at the lights display and the 45 minutes car ride home was actually one of the most wonderful times we'd had together as a family of 4 yet. Brandon had to meet us there because he works until 6:30 but his mom offered to drive his car home so we could ride together. Inspired. The kids laughed all the way home at my spinning around in the front seat at random times, singing along to a Sesame Street CD. Mason's smile was the biggest I'd seen it and Teagan was a sweetheart the whole way, despite both of them being cold and awake well past bedtime.

It was one of those simple moments that touched my heart and testified to me the importance of families. With the kids being so little and requiring so much, I'd hard pressed to think of too many occasions that I'd describe as "a marvelous time together" (Elder Richard G. Scott has encouraged us to hold Family Home Evening weekly and just have a marvelous time together) but this would be one of those times and I hope I always remember how happy it was, how happy my family makes me and how grateful I am that we can be together for eternity...and not dilly dallying around, just looking at the lights.