The sad day came today when we really truly lost Teddy.  It happened this morning when we were at the Heart Walk for the American Heart Association.  Stuart and I had registered and donated to do the 3k walk which was being held at Vasona Park this year.  We did this event a few years ago, but this year would be the first for Logan and Connor.  We parked at a hospital parking structure and were shuttled to the event by a big bus.  Both boys were fascinated by being in the bus, especially Logan. This photo was one of the last we saw of Teddy.  We got to the event just in time for the company group photos.  There were probably 200+ Kaiser employees participating today.  The photo was taken earlier than the time promised online, so my teammates had not even shown up yet.  We waited around and finally met up with some of our teammates, and we took a few photos on our own.  After that, we parted with them to check out the booths and picked up a few freebies.  There was a stage with some ongoing activities and a kid zone.  But the kid zone was not too exciting and it was located right next to the stage with loud speakers.  I did manage to wait in line to get a balloon sword and a balloon ghost for the boys’ entertainment while we walked.  The walk finally started after a warm up exercise with all the participants which was quite impressive since there must have been over 1000 people there. 

     We did not enjoy the walk at all.  The trails at the park were too narrow for all the people.  We were so packed and moving so slow that the boys were getting antsy in the strollers at times.  The trails were not designed well for many parts of the routes.  The leading runners had to run in the opposite direction of the main crowd, trying to squeeze in between all the walkers to find their way back to the finish line.  The entire 3k was supposed to be 2 laps, but after one lap, Stuart and I decided to call it quits.  We took a quick bite of the little sandwiches that were given to us, and walked around the festivity area a little more before heading back to the shuttle.  The boys enjoyed the bus ride again and had a fun balloon sword fight since we were sitting facing each other this time.  At that point, we realized we were missing Teddy.  Teddy must have bounced out of the stroller during the rough walk.

     Logan did ask for Teddy a few times the rest of today.  Stuart and I just told him that Teddy has gone somewhere far, and then tried to distract him with his little brother (the new bear that we got last week).  Logan did not seem to be as stubborn today as in some mornings when we forgot to bring Teddy.  He did say once at bedtime tonight that “I can’t fall asleep without my baby bear”.  Teddy had been a great pal to Logan for over a year and we hope he found himself a happy place at the park.