Staycation at the Hyatt

Dave and Tyler aren't the only ones doing something fun this weekend. Since they were going to be gone, and since it's the last weekend before school starts, I decided to book a staycation for me and Ava. To make it more fun for her, because let's be honest--she'll definitely have more fun with a friend, I told her should could invite someone to join us. She knew she wanted to invite Jodi, but we know her family doesn't do sleepovers, so we weren't sure if she would be allowed. Ava asked her, and I also asked her mom. When her mom said she could go, Jodi texted back in all caps screaming that she could go, and that she couldn't believe she said yes! Her mom told me that they don't usually allow sleepovers, but since I would be in the room with them, it was ok. The girls were so excited!

I booked one night at the Hyatt Gainey Ranch in Scottsdale. I've always wanted to stay here, mostly because of their amazing pools. Dave and I have been here several times over the years for date nights, for dinner with Joyce and Marv and other special occasions. I've always said I'd be back one day to stay and enjoy the pools. I guess I figured I'd go with Dave, but going with Ava was pretty fun too!

We headed straight to the pool after we checked in to our room. The girls ditched me shortly after we arrived, but that was to be expected. I enjoyed my time just relaxing and taking in the view. 

That's a water slide in the background, which the girls would go on several times (I did a few times too). 

We had pretty nice weather while we were there as well, not too hot, which is a treat at the end of July. I didn't order too many drinks at the pool, even though I would have liked to try everything on the menu. At $18 per drink though, I had to make the ones I had last awhile. 

These photos don't really show the scale of this pool. There are several pools connected, with the waterslide, a beach, volleyball nets, and waterfalls. There were servers walking around serving drinks and food, and the pool was just the right temperature. It was really lovely! I can see how this would be quite the treat to someone from the midwest coming to Arizona in the winter for a vacation. It's a little hint of paradise, at least, it would be if I was vacationing from North Dakota in February. 

There are several restaurants on site, so when we were done with the pool, we all got cleaned up and ready for dinner. The amount of time it takes two 13 year old girls to get ready is pretty shocking. I'm glad I brought a couple beverages from home so I could chill in the room while they spent 30 minutes curling their hair! I get it though, I was once a teenager. Hell, I'd probably still do that during a girls trip with my friends. Speaking of that, we really need to plan another girls trip.....

I picked the restaurant that seemed the least fancy, and then I remembered what a picky eater Miss Jodi is. Seriously. This girl literally eats 3 different things. She doesn't like fruit, she hates most vegetables....I seriously have no idea how she's grown to be 5'10" eating like this. Luckily, there was a kids pizza on the menu, so they both settled for that. 

After a pretty lackluster dinner, I hung out and watched the girls trying to take pictures. When I saw them using a cactus as a tripod, I decided I should probably go over and serve the role of photographer for their photoshoot. I'll give them points for creativity though!

Ava humored me by allowing me to get in on the photo fun here and there. 

The rest of this post is just going to be photos from our evening. The sunset was lovely, and this place has no shortage of beautiful photo opportunities. We took as many as we could before losing the light. Enjoy these photos of these two lovely ladies (and me!). 

I sat and listened to some live music while enjoying a beverage or two. The girls wandered around the hotel grounds without me for awhile, enjoying their independence. We eventually headed back up to our room where some shenanigans continued before I finally crashed. I'm sure they stayed up for awhile longer and pretended I wasn't there. 

The next morning, we packed up our room and brought our bags out to the car. Check out was at 11, but we could continue to use the pool as long as we wanted, as long as we didn't leave since our room key would be deactivated once we checked out. The girls made up a little synchro routine, which you can see in this video. They also tried to teach me some moves--and let me tell you, it's harder than it looks! 

I don't remember what time we left, but I think we stuck around and swam until sometime after lunch. We stopped for some Eegee's slushies on the way home before dropping Jodi off. I know it was only about 24 hours, but it's things like this that count as a parenting win in my book. I got to provide Ava with a fun experience with her friend, treating them to some of the perks of resort living. They're starting school already this week, so this was one last hurrah before 8th grade. This was a special treat for Ava, and I'm very happy that I could help her create this memory with a good friend. Here's to making memories! 

Dave & Tyler go to Pittsburgh

If Dave was a writer, I'd ask him to do this post for me. Since that's not really his thing, I guess I'll do my best to write about a trip that I did not go on. I'd imagine that if Tyler read this, he'd tell me that I got a lot of the details wrong, but I'll do my best to explain what Dave and Tyler were doing in Pittsburgh.

I've written about the work Tyler has been doing for VRML (VR Master League). He does content creation, motion graphics, as well as cameras for this E-sports organization, and the game Echo Arena. For awhile, he's been talking about going to a LAN for Echo. What is a LAN, you ask? According to the Google, LAN stands for Local Area Network, which is a collection of devices connected together in one physical location such as a building, office or home. In the context of E-sports, it means that instead of playing over the internet from their home, players are in the same room, connected to the same network. Most LAN events are held in arenas or conference centers, and they are livestreamed on platforms such as Twitch or YouTube. This particular LAN isn't being hosted by VRML, but by another organization that runs events for Echo Arena (called the Redshift Contender Series).

Here's an example of some of the work Tyler has done. His company (yes, he and some of the production team started a company that does this work, more on that later), Reverb, created this promotional video for an upcoming LAN happening in Toronto in October. I think Tyler did the bulk of the work on this commercial. Check it out! This was meant to be played throughout the event during "commercial" breaks, as well as in their ad stream on their channel. 

We decided to support his idea to make this trip, and although he wanted to go by himself, Dave joined him. Obviously we're not sending our barely 16 year old on a plane to the other side of the country to meet strangers from the internet, even though he didn't seem to see a problem with that plan. Tyler has done such amazing things with this organization, and he has truly become part of that community. We see all of this work that he's doing as learning experiences, and opportunities to continue to grow his skills in this field. He's making some money doing this work, and he's also making valuable connections. 

This event was happening inside the conference center at a hotel in downtown Pittsburg, Luckily for Dave, it was within walking distance from PNC Park where the Pittsburgh Pirates play, and they had home games this weekend. They arrived on Thursday evening, but the event wasn't starting until Friday afternoon. They had some time to kill, so I think they did a little bit of site seeing in the area. 

Here you can see the ballpark, which was just a short walk across that bridge from the hotel. That would come in very handy when Tyler was busy doing his thing all weekend. It gave Dave something to do in the evenings. 

Once the event started on Friday afternoon, Tyler was busy most of the weekend. He had a few different responsibilities while he was there, although he wasn't really sure what he'd be doing before he left. He brought his camera equipment and his VR so he was prepared. Before he left for the event, he also created a commercial and some additional content that was played throughout the stream during the event. 

This gives you an idea of what this event looked like. There are two teams playing each other at the front of the room--a team of 4 on the left, and the other team of 4 on the right. The big screen shows what it looks like inside the VR headset, and the view that those watching from home via Twitch see. Because they are playing in person, there is also an additional screen on the stream that shows the players "IRL" or in real life. They had real cameras pointed at the teams so you could also see the players in real life, at the same time that you are watching the match in VR. Does that make sense? There's also commentators in the room, and they're calling the play by play throughout the game. Here you see Tyler, aka Wonder-T-Man (his username) taking photo and videos of the event. 

Dave spent some time in the conference center throughout the weekend, meeting some of Tyler's friends and co-workers and watching the show, but there's only so much of that someone can handle when they're not part of the community. Fortunately, the Phillies were in town playing the Pirates this weekend, and it was a perfect weekend for baseball. Dave ended up going to games on Friday and Saturday night. At one point during the weekend he texted me to say how strange it was to essentially be on vacation by himself. He would stop in to check on Tyler and bring him food, but Dave was mostly on his own trying to find things to do. 

On Sunday, they had their final match of the competition, and I actually watched this one from home. It was interesting to watch the game in VR, but then to also see the players in real life. It's a pretty goofy looking activity, if I'm being honest. It's a team of people wearing a headset, spinning around and swinging their arms while they catch and toss the disc to the teammates while they try to score goals. When you're watching the game as it looks in VR, it looks much different than it does when you're watching the actual human that is playing. Here is a video where you can see the people in the room watching the match on their phones through Twitch (not sure why they don't just watch the big screen), you see the players at the front of the room and the screen showing the livestream. You also see Tyler taking video with his camera. 

Here, Tyler is shooting the livestream IRL camera that was cast to Twitch for the awards ceremony after the event was over. They presented the top 3 teams with their trophies and did interviews with the winners. 

Here is the winning team (I think it was Ignite, if I remember right), and you're seeing Tyler's footage projected onto the big screen--which I was also watching from home. 

I hope that all made sense--as much as possible anyway. It was really fun for Tyler to be able to attend this event, and meet some of the people he'd been working with for so long. Dave received a pretty great compliment from one of the lead guys in this organization--Sir Dimwi. When they met, Dimwi said to Dave "I'm honored to shake the hand of the man who raised this kid." He told him how impressed they all are by the work Tyler does, and how blown away they all were when they learned his age. Hearing something like that about your kid is a pretty great feeling. Dave said it was one of the best compliments he's ever received. 

I'm glad Tyler and Dave were able to have this weekend together. I know it wasn't necessarily an exciting trip for Dave, but it's always nice to get out of town, and feels pretty great to be able to support our kid's interests. We are very lucky that this is something we can make happen for him, and I know he appreciates our support. We know that Tyler is going to do great things, no matter what he ends up doing. It's fascinating to see the work he does, and where it's taken him at such a young age. To say we're proud of him is an understatement. He's a pretty amazing kid, and we're very lucky he's ours. 

When I was looking for some info about this event, I came across this YouTube video that was posted by one of the lead casters from VRML. It's a fun summary of the event--you even see quick glimpses of Tyler (at 27 seconds) and even Dave in the background of some of the group shots. Disregard the part when they're all partying and drinking. Seeing this video definitely solidified our belief that we don't want him going to these things alone for awhile. We can't go with him forever though, so I guess we just hope me makes good choices when the day comes that he goes on his own. 

Swim championship meet

The synchro season ended on Tuesday, and tonight is the last swim meet of the season. I have to say, swim meets are a lot less interesting than the synchro competitions. I used to talk about this when the kids were doing swim team a few years ago, but swim meets are the worst! I was on swim team for 10 years as a kid--I can't imagine how many swim meets my parents sat through. When you're the swimmer, they're fine--you're hanging out with your friends, waiting for your race, having fun. When you're a parent, time stands still, all the kids look the same, and you wait hours to watch your kid swim for 40 seconds. These meets this summer haven't been too bad because they usually keep it to one stroke per meet, and the older kids go at a different time than the younger kids. This was the final meet of the season though, so they were all there. Not only that, but the little kids got rained out at their preliminary meet last week, so they were doing both the prelims and the finals tonight. It was the longest night ever.....but at least the sunset was pretty!

I was at this meet by myself, and Ava was only swimming a few races over the course of about 4 hours. I had a lot of time to listen to my book and people watch. Hello from me and my little wiggly guy friend. 

The kids had to qualify for their races in this meet, finishing in the top 16 at the meet last week. Ava qualified in the 50 breaststroke, 100 freestyle, and was an alternate for the 50 free. She ended up swimming all 3 races. But, when your competition is this girl, you don't stand much of a chance! Jodi is so stinking fast, it's unreal. She is built to be a swimmer, which makes sense because her parents were both D1 collegiate swimmers. She set some city records tonight, and won 2 out of her 3 races. Here is a video of both Ava and Jodi swimming the 100 freestyle. Jodi is in lane 4 and Ava is in 7. Jodi blew the competition out of the water, and I'm pretty sure she set a record with her time. 

Jodi also tied for the high point scorer for her age group, sharing the trophy with another girl who kicked butt in all the races that Jodi didn't swim. I'm glad Ava enjoyed swimming this summer, it's such a great sport that she can do throughout her life. Of course, it's so much more fun with you get to swim with friends!

I mentioned in my last post that Ava and Jodi have been friends for a long time. They met when they were both swimming for a club called Sea Dogs, which Ava started when she was 6 (Jodi was 7). They're in the same grade, but Jodi's birthday is in November. They got to be good friends during those days of practice and meets, but then they both stopped swimming. They have found ways to stay connected, going to each other's birthday parties and other activities over the years. They reconnected when they both did synchro last summer, and now they're closer than ever. Aren't they so cute in their little pink caps and goggles?

Google photos made this fun collage for me using pictures of Ava and Jodi together over the years. It's so fun to watch their friendship grow. They'll be playing volleyball together later this year as well, so the adventure continues! Next summer, Ava is planning to do swim and synchro again, but she also wants to do the junior lifeguard program. That will put her at the pool every day until at least noon--I'm sure that will make for a fun summer! Maybe she'll follow in my footsteps and be a lifeguard for her first job?