Why do I always feel like Hali's activities are always illegal.

Because they are. 

As we drove up to this "activity," I kind of had this gut wrenching fear.  I don't let this be known very often, but I am a stickler for following the rules.  Always have.  When I'm older, I'll be the old lady that sits behind you in church, shushing the little people.  Oh, wait, I already do that.  

I should have said, "let's go" after seeing the "Private Property Sign."  We all saw it, but we all went anyway.  Hali's friends had just been there, I mean JUST barely been there, jumping naked (something I definitely wouldn't do) so it was okay right?

I should have said, "let's go" after tripping on a railroad track (some-freaking-how) with my baby boy strapped to my stomach.  Don't worry, I tucked in and somehow landed on my left side with all the bruises and cuts to show it. He didn't even seem to care.  

I should have said "it's too far" as we were trucking baby girl and little brother.  Little sister Hali said it was a short walk, who is definitely as wild as a recent returned missionary can get. Truly.  Also, her descriptions are always so appealing, yet so inaccurate in pretty much everything. 

Like the length of the walk and the height of the bridge.  "It's not that high."  she says.

YOLO right?

Don't worry, we set a prime example for little Aiko, who just squealed with delight while watching them jump.

Looks fun right?

Which is why I climbed right over that fence...and this is where I stayed.  You see, I'm not afraid of heights, really, I'm not.  It's not even the jumping part, it's the jumping into water.  I kind of hate water activities.  I hate swimming.  I'm more of a floater/bobber. So I didn't jump.  Which is weird, because I succumbed to peer pressure already to get there, but once it came to the jumping, I really didn't want too.  (Plus, I was still shaking from tripping, I mean it's one thing to trip, while it's another to trip with my little man's life.) Also, there was this weird sail boat on in the river...which Hali said they were filming them the last time she came.  Weirded me out. The Kona would have been there to save me even or the husband.  I literally walked away from it.  I kind of regret it now too.  

(Head bowed down in shame.)

As we were packing up to leave, Hali says "Oh, shoot."  Then she won't answer our questions and there is a super awkward silence.

That's because there is one lone man walking the long walk on the tracks towards us.  He's waving.  

Crap.

So we begin the long journey back towards what? A happy cop? An angry owner?  We don't really know.  As we get closer, it's apparent he's some kind of cop.  I'm not really sure what he thinks of our motley crew.  The husband's carrying Aiko in his new Father's Day gift, Hali's carrying little brother, I've got the Kona, Hannah's carrying a diaper bag, Aiko's just chatting it up and pointing at all the birds.  One happy family right?  

He was actually quite nice and perhaps it was because we didn't talk much on the way back.  We knew we were in the wrong.  Once again, I was hanging my head in shame.  Double shame.  You see, halfway back another guy shows up, this one is a Sheriff.  Cop A works for the Union Pacific Railroad Police.  (Which he said there was only 4 in the whole state.  The odds people!) Sheriff works for good old Cache county.  While they are chatting it up like old buddies, we walk the walk of shame towards our truck.  While eavesdropping, I find out he's from Cedar City.  Great.  Which, if you grew up in Cedar, you know everyone, including the husband and his family. This day is getting to be awesome.

Finally, we get back to the car and he asks for our IDs.  Which, out of the four of us, only Hannah somehow brought one.  

Awkward.  

As we are waiting for whatever to happen, we realize that not only are we trespassing, but we drove out in the truck, which doesn't have enough seats!!  So while sisters and I sit outside the truck, the husband is inside the truck (with the air and babies) looking up if it's legal to have somehow sit in the back of the truck.  We wouldn't want to get caught doing too many things wrong that day right? 


(taken before trouble.)

We sat there forever.  I mean it really was a good while.  We literally were running out of water and my babies were getting hungry.  Cop A got out of his truck and said we could sit in our truck out of the hot air if we wanted...Sheriff was sitting in his car doing who knows what.  I started worrying that maybe he was going to give us a second ticket.  I mean, I did hear whilst eavesdropping that Cop A has second jurisdiction while Sheriff has first.  

Could this be two separate infractions against the law?!  

Finally, Sheriff drives away and some time later Cop A got out of his car, carrying papers.  He proceeds to tell us that Union Pacific has a "no tolerance" for trespassers, especially when it comes to bridges.  So he's going to give a ticket, which is a misdemeanor and we'll have to appear before a judge.  It kind of appeared that he didn't really want to give us a ticket.  He tells us to spread the word.  He hands us our golden tickets and sends us on our way.

We did what anyone would do, we started Googling the process and how much our tickets were going to be. We found that it's a Class B with a fine of up to $1,000.  We worried in a quiet silence.  We even texted our mom who was in California with our uncle who is a lawyer.  I mean, we worried.  Finally, we talked to our mom and uncle.  He said it wasn't a big deal, maybe a couple hundred.  We finally laughed.  

Awkwardly.  

We still speculated away.  If only this...if only that.  I suddenly realized that I was going to have to pay for that unjumped-jump. I didn't even freaking jump.  We still don't know how much it's going to be, so we decided it was okay to laugh, until we find out how much we have to pay.  Hannah said "Well, boring people never have awesome stories to tell."  Which, while that is true, boring people don't have to pay for tickets because of bridge jumping (or not jumping.)

You only live once right?