Mill Creek Beacon - Your Hometown News Source

Mill Creek family one giant step away from winning dream tripSome kids never grow up. And that’s the way David Jolsky, his wife and his kids like it.The creative mind behind a graphic design firm operated out of his home in Mill Creek used ideas from his kids as well as their faces to create an entry that almost won the family a dream vacation to Duns Castle in Scotland.It all began one morning last month when Jolsky’s wife, Laurie, heard about the contest while watching the Today Show. By that evening, 9-year-old Gabriel and 13-year-old Nathaniel recruited their father to utilize his skill with Photoshop to create an entry that recreated a scene from Jack and the Beanstock that featured David looming over a thatched cottage as the bellowing giant.“I’m really not sure how long the Ultimate Photo contest had been going on, but I do know the deadline was the very next day,” Jolosky told The Beacon. “We were all sick with the flu, but somehow we pulled it together to have our entry ready the next morning.”The founder of the design firm Rhymes with Orange was only sorry his kids could not stay up to watch the creation of the official entry.The family received a call from producers of the Today Show to let them know their entry had been accepted as one of 50 that would be submitted for further consideration. The producers called back again later that week to say the Jolsky photo had qualified as one of the final four that would be featured on the program the next morning.“The producers said they were really pulling for us, but not to get our hopes up because the winner would be chosen through votes from viewers,” Jolsky explained.The family kicked into high gear again, contacting neighbors, classmates and members of the PTA at Hilltop Elementary and Alderwood Middle School. Jolsky also reached out to his extensive list of contacts on social media to ask for votes.Although they did not win the dream vacation, Jolsky is determined to take his family to Scotland to visit the countryside and the castles they know only through fairytales.“We did not win the trip, but we had an adventure that none of us will ever forget,” he said.

--by Dan Aznoff