Day one -having to much fun

 Poor Jason is suffering from a case of "fun uncle"  The kids love to play on him, around him, with him, especially on him. He was sitting on this chair with Tyler on one shoulder and Ali propped on the other shoulder. Carter was sitting on the couch across from him shooting his face with nerf bullets. Now tell me who would stand for such treatment? Jason is such a great uncle and far to fun to have around.

 Laura was so excited to see Hollie and love on baby number two that is growing away in there. So fun to see the Szamosfalvi's and their cute growing crew.

Sadie was so sweet and gentle with the newest Pollan member, Shadow. She really is just right there are Laura's feet all the time. Shadow tolerated us all fairly well. She definitely prefers a female to a male in any situation. Shadow won all of our approval though as she was always sweet to the grandchildren.

Thanksgiving Break- TX style

 Welcome to Dallas in November. Seriously it wasn't warm in the water but it was warm enough they wanted to give it a try. Mondays swimming did not go so well. They were in and out in a matter of seconds. We decided to try again for Wednesday that was supposed to be the hottest day of our trip.

Nanny was helping wrap Carter up and dry out his ears for him. It was a chilly and speedy swim in the pool.

Puppies from Jodi

We are so lucky to live across the street from Jodi. She is a kind hearted woman who helps a rescue group called CAWS with unwanted dogs. She usually fosters small dogs but this time she was brave enough or crazy enough to take on a Germany Shorthaired Pointer. This is the kind of dog we have. Well this mama named Mia had 9 puppies. Our tough duty in the whole business is to go over and socialize the dogs and get them acquainted with kids. Our kids had a ball playing with these sweet little puppies. They were about 5 days old in this photo. Tough life getting to play with litters of puppies.

My first baby heads off on a mission

So Amanda is my niece but she really was my first child. I have loved her like my own daughter. I was heartbroken when they moved away for med school when I was a wee teenager. She is such a beautiful lady and I am proud to know her. This is a photo after she was set apart as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. If you can believe it she got called to the New York, New York South mission speaking Spanish. Thankfully I know and dearly love her mission president and his wife, Pres. and Sister Calderwood. He was our bishop when we moved to Reston, VA. She will be well taken care of when she gets there. I am so proud of her and so happy for the experiences she will be having. She packed extra work jeans as she will probably be spending more of her mission in clean-up efforts than in regular tracting. The people of New York will love her happy personality and her go-getter attitude. She is practically a (add your best New York accent here)  New Yorker already.

Worst Vacation Ever

 Poor Byron...we were supposed to head off for Moab on Friday for some fun family time. Instead he landed home in bed for nearly an entire week. He did go to work on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday but by Thursday that wasn't an option. We cancelled our vacation and he has been trying to recover. Last night he was finally able to move for the first time in a while and what does he want to do? Go shopping. He has had his eye on this gun for a while now and he just needed it so we headed to his favorite store, Sportsmans Warehouse and he spoiled himself a little. He said he felt lots better after his big purchase. I have felt so bad for him this week he could have bought two or three new toys and I wouldn't have said a thing. The good news is he seems to be perking up a big. These photos are from this afternoon, he is just like a kid playing with his new toys. He even ordered a dueling tree on-line so we can go out next weekend (hopefully) and try out his two 22's. He is excited. We are all just glad he is feeling a bit better.

Restaurant manners

 There is a popular pinterest blog right now about the 5 manners your children should know before they turn ten, or something to that effect. I just thought in retribution I would post a photo of our Tyler the last time we took the kids out for dinner. He handcrafted tinfoil earrings for anyone who would wear one. We all ended up with multiple loops in our ears and a few with nose loops. I doubt this will make the top five list of restaurant manners but we did have a good time.

 Ali is the only Pollan child who wanted to play soccer this season. Here she is with her team. She scores at nearly every game, sometimes more than once. The boys are happy to come and cheer for their little sis since her scoring means they get slurpees. You will also see the boys up the closest tree during a game. Ali is our little soccer star and she loves it more than dance I am sad to admit. Byron has finally found his athlete. 

How much do I love those dirty knees poking up at me while we were eating lunch at Jimmy Johns? Another restaurant trait that I doubt will make the manners list.

Promise Kept

 Lagoon....how I hate thee, let me count the ways.  So Carter's school has an end of the year party where they take the whole school to Lagoon. Actually it gets worse. It's high school day at Lagoon and any high school that wants can give their kids discounted rates and head up to Lagoon for the day. Well Carter is only in 6th grade but happens to go to a school that is 6-12 so all the kids were allowed to go. I am not a big fan of Lagoon day but really not a big fan of my sixth grader heading out with a bunch of high schoolers. So I was the mean Mom and told him I didn't want him to go but....we could go later as a family. We usually do anyway so no big deal.

 We managed to put it off as long as possible. We finally made it to Lagoon after school had already started again for his seventh grade year. I am no good for any of the amusement park activities. Spinning makes me want to puke. Actually I have thrown up before after riding roller coasters, I don't even have to actually spin. So what do you do? Find my brave face...put it on.
We did have a fun day of spinning, swirling, turning, you name it we did it. Thankfully the day was broken up a bit with trips for ice cream, and a giant hail storm with marble size hail. It gave me a few chances to re-cooperate between rides. We also rode the train, my suggestion, not too much crazy motion on the train ride. Surprising how they had an awesome collection of animals on their train ride. Some that the Hogle Zoo doesn't even have. I think they have inherited Siegfried and Roy's white tigers because they have their fair share of white tigers.

Yummy ice cream stop! So good. I love the sunlight on Ali in this photo, picture perfect.

The kids had fun running in and out of this hail storm. Whenever they were out they were shouting in pain and anguish over the hail pelting at them. But of course they would continue to go out into it. Strange summer storm.

Ropes Course-Snowbird

 We have a yearly tradition of heading up to Snowbird for Labor Day and playing at Octoberfest. Strange tradition for a non-drinking family but the brats are good. Byron usually heads up early and meets an old work friend of his for a hike up to the top of the tram. The kids and I rode up and met them at the top.  We hiked around and went through the semi-new tunnel in the mountain. It connects Alta and Snowbird together. After hiking around we took a chair-lift down to play at the bottom of the hill.

 We ate delicious brats on pretzel bread, yumm, and enjoyed the awesome German Oktoberfest musik and dancing. The kids played musical chairs and almost won. Then we headed out to pick our activity. They had a new ropes course so the kids gave it a try. Ali got nervous at the last minute so Byron headed up to help her out.

 They look like circus performers up there dangling from their rope harnesses.

 When we were in Lake Tahoe this summer they had a very elaborate ropes course, too elaborate we decided. That did end up being our one regret from our trip was that we didn't do that crazy ropes course. This was a good warm up course so next time we are driving through Tahoe we are definitely going to stop and try the mega-course.  The kids all had a great time balancing and dangling from great heights.

Ali's world

 So I didn't realize it as I was loading these photos but they are all about Ali so we will just go with it. Our boys, Ali and my boys like to go backpacking in the woods. You never know when it is gong to happen it's not planned weeks in advance or scheduled onto the calendar it just happens. Byron will call on Friday and say I'm taking whoever wants to go backpacking this weekend. The boys always want to go! So off they go. Ali and I sort of love it when this happens, I hate to admit it but then we get to have girls night!!! This last time the boys headed out for a backpacking trip Ali and I decided to sew a skirt for her. Ali designed it and drew up her sketch she is holding. Then we went and bought fabric and wah-lah.... her first Ali brand design skirt. She is wearing it in the photo above. It turned out darling and she loves it. Plus we had lots of fun sewing it together and getting just the right colors.

 This is Ali and her pride and joy...her corn. I added a new planter box this year for more garden space. It is of course on my neighbors property because mine is all filled up already, luckily they don't mind. Ali decided with a few squares of my garden she was going to grow some corn. Now she is mostly proud because her corn grew way better than my corn did two years ago when I tried. Mine wasn't getting consistent water and only made it about two inches out of the ground. Hers grew to be taller than her and she was so very pleased with her corn the entire summer long. It was fun to watch her excitement as her corn stalks kept getting bigger and bigger. She did a find job.

 For one of our ladies nights Ali invited her friend Gabby and I invited my sister Sonja and we went out for dinner and some light shopping. Claire's boutique holds hours of fun for all of us girls, but especially these two. They had a ball dressing up in all sort of different outfits. Love those two little ladies. They are so fun and energetic.

 Ali was reading Luke her cousin a bedtime story. Luke got to spend the night with us while his parents went on a work retreat. He was a little champ and very brave sleeping away from his usual house. Of course it does help when you have three cousins doting over you. They had a great time. Some of my favorite quotes from Luke were, "You are not my parent." Followed shortly thereafter by "I love you Erin." Also in the mix was "I hate you Erin" only if he wasn't getting exactly what he wanted. He also told me to go get in my car and pick up his parents from Park City. He is a sweet boy who never leaves you wondering what he is feeling. He did even eventually go to sleep after his snacks of peanuts and popcorn at around ten after he had brushed his teeth. It is fun not being the parent and knowing you can't really ruin his teeth in one night.

How much do I love this photo?!? These dance concerts are a common occurrence in our living room. The kids bop CD lives in the CD player next to the TV and whenever Ali catches the mood there is much dancing and singing to be done. She lulls you into watching her concert and then drags you up to join her in her performance. Who can resist her charms? Definitely not her Dad. You will frequently catch them dancing and spinning together in the TV room with a baseball game being ignored in the background. We are lucky ladies!

 Carter was so pleased with himself when he made the cross country team at his junior high school. He made a lot of improvement this year and is running a much quicker 2 mile race.  His last race was a bit over 2 miles and he came in at 17 min and 24 seconds. Over the month he was racing he dropped 5 minutes from his time. Way to stick with it Carter. He is looking forward to doing cross country again next year. 

 Last weekend we had a little  moving crew head up to Idaho to help Cynthia my sister move into her new house. They moved about a block down the road from their old place. Their new home is marvelous. Very pretty. We sure worked hard and still didn't get enough done. Thankfully we ran out of time and had to head home. We were all exhausted after our three days of hauling boxes.  Rachel is in the photo above showing off the entry-way and in the photo below we packing up the car getting ready to head out of town. It was fun to go up and spend time with Cynth, Sonja, my Mom and my fun nieces and nephews. They rock!

 This weekend we headed to Wheeler Farm for hay-rides, mazes and cousin time. I kidnapped Deborah's kids and we had a fun time playing at the farm. The kids were all really nice to each other. Chandler bought candy for all the kids from the country store and they had a good time racing through the maze to see who could beat their last time. They got pretty fast. Everyone picked out a pumpkin at the end. They have put in a really cool park across the parking lot from Wheeler Farm which was a nice addition to our outing. It has a super high slide that even the bigger kids had fun on.

Temple Square in the Fall

 As one must who lives in Utah I got online to enter the lottery for the Christmas Concert tickets. They are highly coveted come December and honestly hard to come by. While on the web-site I noticed all these other awesome events to attend. One of which is the Joseph Smith movie at the Legacy Theater. I am ashamed to admit that we hadn't even seen it yet. It has been out long enough that you don't need to bother with getting tickets anymore so on Saturday I hauled the kids down to temple square to watch the Joseph Smith movie. 

We were supposed to be in Moab this weekend but had to cancel our trip due to Byron being on the D.L. list. Last week I had the worst cold of my life, the week before that Ali was puking up her guts and now Byron is having a turn. Watch out boys...they have been warned. So we are doing our best to have some fun on our Utah Fall holiday, UEA weekend. The kids had half day Wednesday and no school Thursday and Friday. So Moab would have been awesome but alas it was not to be. 

The  movie....it was good. I cried an in appropriate amount, like is normal for me. Carter was enraptured by the movie. His eyes were glued, his face was appropriately forlorn and concerned and you could see his brain processing all of the new information. Tyler was slightly less engrossed in the film but also right there with the storyline. Ali was asking me when it was going to be over. Annoying but she is six. 

This week I had been reading a book called The Expected One by Kathleen McGowen I believe. Very good book. Interesting read.  This book definitely stretches your mind and makes you wonder about what you believe. I have not adopted the book as doctrine by any means but it was an interesting read and I have been rethinking what we know and how we know it, which is what I believe the author intended to do. History in general and at large is called into question.

It was interesting to watch this movie on Joseph Smith's life right on the heels of this "rethink what you think you know" book. This should be the point where I put in my big mind blowing conclusion but I don't really have one. I am thinking though and as I listen to things I have heard all my life it is good to re-think and re-commit and assess exactly where you are and what level you are living at. 

Joseph Smith was an amazing teenager. He was born into an environment that allowed him to find truth at his own speed and question what he was learning. I hope we are able to allow our kids to do the same. He endured much in restoring the gospel of Christ back to the earth. I always like to believe there is a possibility of more knowledge that God may someday send us. I am excited about new doctrine and progress in the church. Sometimes it challenges or faith to wait for it. Maybe the reason for the church seeming slow in it's release of doctrine is the Lord allows his children to find answers on their own and then he confirms what they have learned with revelation from the leaders. This has been an interesting week for me of thinking and re-assessing what it is I really believe. Joseph Smith was the prophet of the restoration and I am so grateful that my kids are able to learn more about him and understand a little more about the early days of the church.

 We spent a little time being tourists in our own city. We walked through the visitors center and looked around. We watched a few fun Mormon Ads they had playing inside the south visitors center. The kids peered into a diorama of the Salt Lake temple where you can see what the rooms inside look like. 

As we were leaving we decided to take a carriage ride around town. You should have seen how excited Ty was when the driver let him hold the horse whip. His smile was from ear to ear. That boy has an affinity for weapons.  It was a fun afternoon and I hope it will be a memorable one for them.

Carter's Sacrament Talk

Today Carter gave the talk during sacrament meeting at church. He wrote it entirely by himself. I did proof it for spelling errors but he wrote it himself. I was so very impressed at his presentation. It really came to life as he spoke the words. I was not the only person with a little tear at the end of his talk. I am so grateful to have a son who can teach us all about families and the importance thereof. The amazing thing was he said he wasn't very nervous and it was easier than baring his testimony which he does nearly every month. He is a great kid! Here is his talk. The Nana's in the world will want to read it.   

 My Sacrament Talk

                                                            By: Me…C-Dog

This is my first talk and I am very exited. My theme is based on something I have a testimony on. I chose the importance of families because it is one of the main things that I have a testimony of, well time to get down to business. The importance of families; families are important because they are one of the many key points in God’s plan for redemption. Personally, I couldn’t have made it this far without my family. Families are very important to help you chose the right. A family helps you go above and beyond the normal standards.

            The proclamation of the family states Quote “the family is ordained of god” end quote. God put families on the earth for you and me to gain moral standards. Families are meant to help and to uplift you to righteousness. Think about it when you were a kid did your mom always try her best to get you ready for life? Could you always depend on her? Do you remember a time when they stepped in and saved you at the very last moment?

            Families are important to help you chose the right. They (especially your mom) let you lean on there testimony while you gain your own. The proclamation of the family states quote “Husband and wife have a solemn responsibility to love and care for each other and for their children.” Without their support it would be 20 times harder to make it through life. Who would support you in life and make you go to school?

A family is suppose to help you on your way into the world, but once you go to college you don’t just not have a mom and a dad anymore. Families are meant to be eternal and will help and uplift you for eternity. The family a proclamation to the world states quote “Sacred ordinances and covenants make it possible for individuals to return to the presence of God and for families to be united eternally.” end quote. I have a strong testimony of families I know that my mom and dad will always be there by my side and that even if I am on a mission they will be rooting for me the whole time.

I love my family because they help me with my school work and they push me to be the best I could be. Even if that means that they have to go to my track meets and spend an hour or two there. I love my family because they are always there for me.

I’d like to bear my testimony…

 These are a few quick photos of the boys backpacking trip.

 They headed up to Rudy's Flat and spent the night. It was a 2.5 mile hike in and 2.5 out. Byron was most pleased with the boys performance. He has declared them ready for adventure. They are yes very excited that their Dad has declared them as such.

 The big excitement of the night was the moose that tromped through camp. It didn't step on anyone which was good. They enjoyed their cup-o-noodle soup for dinner and their packets of oatmeal for breakfast. That's some good Dad cooking for you!

Ali and I enjoyed ourselves by heading out for dinner and a little shopping at the mall. Ali bought a new make-up set and gave me a makeover the next morning. The photo is us after our make-overs. She did a pretty good job. Or should I say she could have done much worse.

As far as my mid-life crisis goes...still going. I have chatted with the U about a speech and language pathology masters and it isn't going to work out. They need a two year full time commitment and I just can't do that and still be a Mom. The Masters of Special Ed I was considering is also going to be extremely inconvenient and probably not worth it as well. They only offer evening classes which is our busiest time of day around here. I don't know....I am still looking for an on-line program I can do in the mornings. Seriously going to go nuts trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up. I have been looking into a radiologist tech degree and that is still a possibility. I think it would be cool to be an ultrasound technician. I need to make a few more phone calls on that one. It would be nice to just have someone tell me what to do, all this deciding is difficult. In the mean-time I have been studying like crazy for the GRE which I may now not even need to take. Great! I love wasting time.  More on my indecision later. Got to run the kiddos to gymnastics. 

What to do now?

SO...it has happened. I had this awesome full time job that I absolutely loved. It has been constant for the last eleven and a half years. All of the sudden out of the blue, (well not so much out of the blue but it feels like it) my hours are cut in half and I have all of this time to myself. Where are the kids, why isn't anyone asking me a endless questions....how come nobody is calling "Mom, Mom, Mom???"

Quiet....I had almost forgotten what it sounds like. Aside from my two crazy dogs and my killer cat Lucy it is just me. So the question is what's next? I thought I had it all figured out and I worked a tutoring job all summer to have students lined up for this school year but as luck would have it things don't always work out according to my plans. So I am still tutoring one of my students during the school day hours. I have no desire to work when my kids are home. After all my favorite job is still watching out for my kids. They are numero uno in my book. Hopefully the tutoring agency I work for can find a few more students for me to tutor during the day.

I did interview for a parateaching position at my kids school but never heard back so I am guessing that is a no-go at this point. So I have been searching KSL and Monster.com looking for the perfect position that will fit my little tiny window of time that I have.  I only have a few requirements. I only want to work from 8:30-12:30, I want summers off and two weeks for Christmas, a week for Thanksgiving, Spring Break off and any other school holiday or sick day my kids have I don't want to work. By the way if my kids forget their lunch or a report or their cross country outfit I will also need to run home and get that for them before I make my way to the "office." Am I ever going to find my perfect job? So far no luck but this morning I had a revelation....well, not so much a revelation more like an idea. I am going to paint again. It has been about three years since I did anything serious with my art and I think it's time. I could even go out and plein-air paint during the day...I have never had this luxury before. Intriguing.

We will see how this goes. I love painting and if I can get a little better at it I have all these ideas for projects I want to work on I just need more experience. I am going to enroll in a few art classes and see if I can't get my skills up to what my brain wants to be doing. So I have a plan. Keep your eyes out for new art. So I will keep tutoring dyslexic students for the Dyslexia Center of Utah and try my hand at being a real artist. Deep breath, here we go.

String Lake Paddle Boards

 Jackson Hole Day 2- String Lake Boating

 This year we headed up to String Lake for a day of fun on the lake. Troy rented us paddle boards and we had a raft to float around on. The kids had a blast trying out their balance on the paddle boards and enjoying the nice warm day. The water was a little chilly but you hardly notice as you fall in after loosing balance on the paddle boards. Refreshing! The twins are Jake and Marie's newest set of twins (Greg and Will)....they roll in multiples.

 Superman Jonathan came up with this awesome idea. It worked....nice superman sunburn lines after our fun day.

 Chortney, Mom and I all brought our paint supplies and did a little plein air painting. It is fun to get out and paint away. Luke my little nephew took a turn painting with my paints. He did a few nice rocks as well. It is fun to have little budding artists. He was very cooperative once we figured out I was going to help him dip into the paints with my paintbrush.

 Paddle boarding with the cousins. We had three boards and it seemed like just enough to give everyone a few turns out on the water. Sometimes you had to paddle around extra cargo...poor Chandler had both my boys attached.

 Troy was trying to help Marie figure out the whole paddle board thing. She was doing great until she got a little help from behind. A friendly shove from Baden send her overboard. Oh the joys of having so many cousins around. She gave him a good dunking afterward. They are still both friends.

 Ali was so proud of her bare handed fish catch. She was going after minnows and doing a spectacular job of hand catching those and then she came up with this big guy and was very pleased with herself. We passed him all around so everyone got a turn holding the slimy little guy. Ali tried hard to keep a little pool of water in her hands so he wouldn't dry out. Luckily he lived through this harrowing experience of being caught by a 6 year old with 18 cousins wanting to hold him.

 Not to be outdone by Ali, Rachael caught herself a cute little frog. The frog got lots of attention as well. Luckily for him he can breathe air. A little boy not with our group convinced his parents that taking the frog home would be a great idea. Poor froggy....don't they know it's illegal to remove anything from a national park?

My kids and I took a little hike around part of Jenny's Lake after our String Lake adventure was through. We enjoyed the scenery and did a little bird watching. Another fun day with the cousins in Jackson Hole.

Snake River Float Trip

 So here we are again....my families yearly reunion to Jackson Hole....

What would a trip to Jackson be without a run down the snake river. Oh my goodness the kids had so much fun. We had two float trips....the upper snake was for the benefit of the young ones. All of the grandchildren rode down for this portion, even Kate who is four months old took this float trip. I didn't even know they made life jackets that small.  So two boats, stacked full of children floating down the smooth clear waters of the upper snake river.

 Our family has 19 grandbabies now...Five girls and fourteen boys. The odds are slightly in the boys favor but the girls we do have are adorable aren't they!!!

 The second half of the float trip was the 8 and over crowd. You have to be 8 and a strong swimmer to dare conquer the lower portion of the snake river. We rent our own boats and my two brothers guide us down the river. Notice I did not say safely guide us down the river....usually there is a boat flip or some sort of rafting incident. Nobody has died yet so I guess they are doing a good job. This year we got lucky, the water was really low, so no flipping and  no incidents of great importance. Phew!

 Two of the favorite parts of our float are add-ons that we do but the professinal rafting guides don't allow....the families who pay a guide to take them down look on at us with pleading eyes, or maybe they are looking at us like we are crazy but either way, we have more fun.  First stop is the mother of all rapids on the Snake. Big Kahuna! We float down in our boat just like all the other float trips but then my sneaky brothers pull the boats over and the kids (who dare) hike back up the river and jump in to float through again in only their life vests. I know, I know, I know....scary, yes. You should see the looks of terror on their sweet innocent faces right before they are enveloped in the great initial wave of the rapid....terrifying....then they eventually (hopefully) pop back up again and get jostled around a bit more before finally coming out the other end of the beast.  It takes them a good five seconds to realize they have lived, then another five seconds to finish coughing all the water out of their lungs they inhaled while trying to keep their feet heading down stream....then it happens. The smile, the grin of all grins and followed closely behind the, "THAT WAS AWESOME!!!" Hands raised high in the air, fists pumping...I wonder if they are exhilerated by the ride of the fact that they have survived their near death/drowning experience. The crazy thing is they all go back for a second round. Ahh, kids, you have got to love them. So this ranks high on their list of Jackson favorites. 

 The second river rafting add-on that we get to do while the other rafts float peacefully by is cliff jumping. They have found a spot on the side of the river with a big eddy, a very tall cliff and a nice deep pool at the base. I haven't been on the river for a few years now (having babies and taking turns watching said babies, etc....oh and being terrified of the river because I have floated the snake after being overturned before, scary.) So the newest addition is the high dive and low dive as the kids have dubbed them. So, Ty asks me as we are climbing into the boats if he can go off the high dive when we get down there, I said sure if he dared. He assured me he did dare and was all excited. When we got to said "high" dive I was a bit surprised at what "high" really meant. He meant the really high dive. Holy moly kid! He did it, it was high, super high. Since bother my boys got up the guts to jump off this cliff I decided I had to do it as well.  Well, you know how things look taller from the top of them than the bottom...this proved true in this case. My plan was to just rock climb up there and jump right off. My brother spend five minutes dinking around up there goofing off and trying to jump off...I though he was acting but really I think he was trying to get up the courage to actually do it. He swan dove off the thing which is crazy but it did take him a minute to get up the guts. Standing at the top looking down I know understood why it took him so long to get his dive on. The only reason I ended up jumping was because you could literally have not climbed back down the rock ledge we scaled to get up to the high dive. In the end I just sucked it in and jumped, I hate to say I screamed the whole way down but I did. It was such a long drop I actually had time to take a breath and scream a little more before inhaling a mouthful of water on impact....not a good idea to go in screaming. So I sounded like a little pansy girl but I did it. I am terrible at guessing heights but I would say 25 or 30 feet....the high dive at our pool is about 12 feet high and that feels tall to me when I go off that so this was a big leap. The boat floating by really were looking enviously at us while we were cliff jumping. It really is a lot of fun, when you are not terrified.

 The mass chaos that is our Jackson trip was well tamed as we loaded and reloaded the boats. The banana dingy was a big hit. The cousins took turns rowing this little baby down stream. Amanda and Jonathan guided it successfully through the Big Kahuna and didn't even dump....I was impressed. They often rescued random cousins who had floated away from their main boat. That is another fun activity that we can do because we rent our own boats. The cousins jump out at just about any point in the river and float down on their own. They have fun attacking the other boat and pirating whatever loot they can. Fun times were had by all. It is nice to have such multi-talented brothers. Attorney, CPA, and licensed river-guides....who would have thought?

Fun and safe trip was had by all.