Iowa - Part IV - High Dive

Owen has always been a big fan of jumping into the pool, so when we were driving out to Iowa, I tried to convince him that it would be fun to jump off of the dock. It's a bigger jump than he's tried before, but I thought that with his life jacket on he might be up for it. Well the first day out at the Pond we tried to jump off the dock to get in, but he decided it was a bit too scary, so we waded in at the beach instead. Once he was used to the water though, Owen decided it was time to jump off of the dock. He did it without hesitation, and after a few jumps I had him watch me jump off of the high dive. Well, he certainly thought that was exciting and immediately asked to go off himself. I wasn't sure about that plan, but he was halfway up the ladder before I could try to talk him out of it. I climbed up with him, and he wanted me to pick him up so we could jump off together. After one more chance to back out, we jumped, and Owen came up with the biggest grin on his face.

We jumped a few more times with me holding Owen, and eventually we graduated to jumping off together while holding hands. Then finally after a few days of jumping, we would climb up to the top of the high dive together and do a "one-two jump" where Owen would jump in all by himself, and then I would follow afterward.

With Owen setting the record for the youngest person to go off of the high dive, his grandparents became inspired to express their youthful vigor. Mom mom was first to claim she would jump off of the high dive. Bets were placed, and sure enough on the day of the Sweet Corn Festival, Mom mom made the leap setting the record for the oldest person to do the jump. That record wouldn't last for long though. Once Grandpa Z got wind of it, he decided the record was his for the taking, and the next day he jumped of not once, not twice but three times (to ensure adequate video coverage). Grandpa Fawcett couldn't break the record, but he didn't want to be showed up by Owen's other grandparents, so later in the week he decided it was high time he jumped off of the high dive as well. Owen thought Grandpa Fawcett might be scared, so he insisted on jumping with him, and directed the jump to a successful conclusion. With three grandparents having jumped off the high dive, one might think that Grandma Z would be next, but she claims to have not yet lost her sanity.

We're all quite impressed with Owen's bravery jumping off of the high dive, but Mommy at least is a little afraid of where this will lead. If he's jumping off the high dive at three, what will be doing in a few years? Owen was very impressed with his cousin Andy's backflips off the the high dive, but thankfully he realized he was too young to try one, for now...