My brother Jade arrived with his boys late last night. We always look forward to their arrival with two exceptions: 1) We get booted from his dark, cool room in the basement for our stuffy. 2) Cousin Jaxson. Don’t get me wrong, we love cousin Jax but he’s a hilarious kid with a quirky, unfiltered personality and has about five things he’ll eat in this world.
My childhood bedroom is the loudest and stuffiest in the house so I heard them when they arrived around midnight.
Then, after a near sleepless night, I heard something that sounded suspiciously like the Wii next to my head. Sure enough, Cousin Jax (on East Coast Time) was up before the crack of dawn playing video games in the family room. So I did what any loving aunt would do: I gave him a hug and punched him in the face. 
The good news of my early wake-up? I went on a killer bike ride.
Fish Creek
Upon my return the whole clan was awake so the kids went on rides in my parent’s golf cart. An hour later, the cops pulled up to our house.
Oh, hell.
I was the only adult in the near vicinity so I had to deal with it. I saw them walk up the door and waited. And waited. A false alarm?
And then the knock came.
“Ma’am?”
“Yes.”
“We’ve had a complaint from a neighbor about a certain golf cart being driven by two boys through the gully.”
“The Gully” Venue of my childhood and now, the cops
They didn’t bother to ask if we had a golf cart; the evidence was parked right in front or our house. The delay at the door was probably due to them checking the engine to see if it was warm.
Truth be told, the cops were really cool about it and said they wouldn’t even be there had the neighbor not called to complain. Talk about a killjoy ruining the kids’ summer fun!
My brother’s observation when I posted our experience on Facebook?
We have been in Canada for 9 hours mostly sleeping and we already brought the cops here for driving the golf kart recklessly.
The coincidence? Just two days ago, I posted this picture on Instagram on Bode’s birthday talking about him narrowly missing running into our car while driving with Grandpa.
Turns out he’ll be needing that Get Out of Jail Free Pass sooner than later.
I'm a Canadian-born mom of two, former Denver Post columnist, family travel writer, editor of MileHighMamas.com and 9News contributor. Expert on all things Utah, Denver, family and travel. Lover of laughter and life. Happily married to a man obsessed with growing The Great Pumpkin. 