If All Your Friends Jumped Off a Bridge...

As I mentioned in my last post, we were able to go canoeing while in Utah. Uncle Craig and I took out Big Boy #1 and his cousin Jake - who is just a couple years older. While we were out, the boys noticed a group of teenage boys jumping from this bridge.

I asked "Wanna do it?"
They both were totally on board with the idea - until they were actually standing on the bridge.

At that point Uncle Tyler joined the boys on the bridge and jumped. That seemed enough to convince Jake. And once Jake did it, of course BB1 had to follow suit. (OK, this is were I have to insert that they were wearing life-jackets. And Uncle Tyler was treading water close by. And, well, those teenagers seemed to be fine.)

Then Big Boy #2 came over. He's barely seven years old and was too little to even scramble up to the jumping off spot. However, those afore mentioned teenage boys were more than willing to lift him up to the top of the bridge. (Who says teenage boys aren't helpful?) Without a moments hesitation, BB#2 was jumping off the bridge. He belly-flopped and came up screaming.

That's when the police drove up.

Apparently there is a $100 fine for bridge jumping in Utah.

Luckily, the cop let us off with a warning. I'm just glad he didn't haul BB2 off into Children's Protective Services. I mean really, what kind of mother lets her seven year old boy jump of a bridge?!?

Would this help to explain things?

Me bungee-jumping (age 19)Diamond cliff-jumping (age 19)

We just thought we had another 10-12 years for that gene to kick in!

This is NOT a good sign for the future...

Utah, We Love Thee?

We made our annual migration to Utah this past week.

The Smith clan at the park

The boys kept busy by playing with water at the Children's Musuem...

touring the sites of Salt Lake...

launching rockets with an air compressor at Ganelle's aunt's house...

playing ball with cousins...

They even went canoeing...

It was a fun, active, busy five days.
Go figure that every time we got in the car to go from one place to the next...

More Pictures of Our Trip

Everyone's a Critic

I have never been much of a singer. In sixth grade the school's choir director concluded that I was an alto and made me sit by the boys. Yuck! It wasn't that I minded being near the boys, I just took it as a personal affront to my budding femininity. I finished out the season and have refused to be part of any choir since.

The humiliation didn't stop there. I never really got the hang of singing alto, so at church I would sing the soprano line of the hymns an octave lower. Go figure my sister would reprimand me by saying "You're throwing me off!" I'm sure she was right.

By the time I was in high school, I just mouthed the words.

But then I had children. They were lovely. They were little. They were tone-deaf. My desire to be a good mom was stronger than years of programmed embarrassment. So I sang my children lullabies. They never criticized my singing.

Until last night.

We are on day three of our summer vacation and the Caboose has been having a hard time falling asleep each night. So last night, at 10:30 I was trying to lull him to sleep. I was singing. He was crying. I didn't take it personally until...

"No! No sing!"
"You want me to stop singing?"
"Yes!"
"OK..."

Two minutes later he was asleep.

When, exactly, did my two year old turn into Simon Cowell?