Love Where You Live

I have really loved living in Layton.  We are so close to everything, great schools and friends.  This summer the city had a program called Go Tags which exposed us to many of the simple pleasures and programs in Layton.  For every 6 tags you earned your name was put in a raffle for prizes.  I think we completed 18 activities before leaving for Georgia but were not lucky enough to win any prizes but we still had fun exploring.  One day we went to the library and got books and then went to the Heritage Museum and learned about the history of Layton and then off to feed the ducks at Layton Park.  It was so heart warming to see how much the kids enjoyed the feeding the ducks.  I guess it has been quite some time since we last did it.  Conner begged for us to go at least once a week.  He was just so happy.  I had to pull the kids away.  Oh the simple joys of life.

Another of the programs in the Go Tag program was RadKids.  It was a week long class about personal safety taught by policemen.  On the last day one of the policemen dressed up in a ton of red pads and body gear (kind of looked like a transformer) and role played abductions with the kids.  The parents were asked to come watch their children in action.  The kids were taught how to defend themselves from perpetrators with techniques of how to scream, kick and hit where it counts.  As a parent, it was hard for me to watch these little kids screaming their hearts out and trying to get away.   They had to fight so hard.   I know it was just pretend but it made me so sad to think that this is the kind of world we live in today and our kids need to know how to defend themselves from.  I had to leave for awhile to compose myself.  I can still hear this little high pitched No, No, No in my head from the first girl.  I am glad for this program, however, and feel that my boys have been empowered and pray they never have to use these skills but am so thankful they have learned the techniques that could possible save their lives one day if needed.