Visiting cousins in Flagstaff

Today is Tyler's birthday, and I know I already wrote a long, thoughtful post for him, but I also wanted to share some photos from our day. With Ava being out of town, we didn't have too much planned to celebrate Tyler's big day as a family. At the last minute, we decided to check with Tyler's cousins that live up in Flagstaff to see if they were available for a little impromptu party. Luckily, all three of them were around, and we ended up having a really fun day!

On the way up, we stopped at Rock Springs Cafe in Black Canyon City to grab some pie. Pie is one of Tyler's favorite desserts, and Rock Springs is known for their pies. When we got to Flagstaff, we stopped for some ice cream, plates and spoons, and then found our way to Matt and Sydney's apartment. Josh lives just down the street, so he came over to join us for pie. This is the first time we've visited their apartment, so it was fun to see where they live. Crazy to think all of these kids are adults now! It's really fun to see them grown up and doing their own thing. Josh has graduated from NAU with his Bachelor's degree, Matt is halfway done with his at NAU and Sydney is working at an animal shelter. 

Dave and I had to get in on the picture too. It's not quite the same as all the birthday pictures around Grandma Claire's table over the years, but at least Tyler got to have a few of his cousins there to celebrate his 18th birthday. 

Tyler and Dave both brought their bowling gear with them, so we all ended up going bowling for awhile after we had our pie. It reminded me of one of Tyler's previous bowling parties for his birthday, but this time the kids were quite a bit older (and less of them were there). I had to put the two bowling birthday party pictures together for comparison. Pretty cute, right?! 

After bowling, we took everyone out for dinner at a local brewery in Flagstaff before heading back down the mountain to go home. It was a lot of fun hanging out with all of these awesome young adults today. I'm very happy that we were able to find something fun to do with Tyler and his cousins today to celebrate this milestone birthday. Our first born is officially an adult today! Where did the time go? Happy birthday Tyler, we love you and we are so proud of you! 
 

Happy 18th birthday Tyler

I have time traveled 6 months ahead from the last blog post, and I promise I will get caught up on much of what has been keeping us busy for the last half of year. Clearly it's a lot, as I have not had time or the motivation to keep up with the blog. For those who might still be checking, my apologies. Life is....life, and it's not always easy to find time for this, despite the importance. But, speaking of importance, I didn't want to miss this milestone birthday for Tyler, so this post is getting written in real time. 

Eighteen years ago, Dave and I were practically babies ourselves, only 27 years old. In the blink of an eye, that tiny baby boy grew into an absolutely extraordinary young man. Things were pretty easy with Tyler, starting around the time the mornings sickness ended halfway through my pregnancy. Even childbirth was easy! Three hours after we walked through the door of the hospital, our baby boy was here, and this photo was taken shortly after. I thought this whole childbirth thing was supposed to be hard? Luckily for me, it all went smoothly, which turned out to be the running theme for the next 18 years. Tyler was an absolute joy as a baby, toddler, child, and teen. Maybe time has blurred the memory of the hard times when we were knee deep in the stress of parenting, but if there were many tough days, they don't seem significant at this point. 

From the time Tyler could talk, which was at very young age, he was stringing together several words. I love to go back to some of the videos on my first You Tube channel with those videos of little Tyler, spelling his name, hearing him proudly call out words on cards, read the Race Car book, sing "Mommy's Song", and just hear the sound of that sweet little boy voice. 

His passion and single focus was clear from the time Tyler was about 2. I'm sure that if I asked anyone who's known him his whole life to say one thing they know to be true about Tyler, the one consistent would be that he is passionate about whatever it was he was "in to" at a given time. The main players were trains, space, and then film (but you can read about those and some other less prominent interests here). Whenever Tyler had an interest, he dove in head first and his drive to learn everything he could was usually all consuming. And while Tyler learned everything about these things, we did too. I can't tell you the number of train tracks I helped build, space projects Dave helped Tyler with, or films I acted in (the things you do for your kids...). One look no further than some of those videos on You Tube to see the various stages play out. There's Tyler singing "Santa Claus is coming to town" while playing trains in his footie jammies, the 10 minute tour of the planets or Saturn V rocket lesson, and of course, the hours of videos on Innerlock Studios when he was a budding film maker. Watching those videos even now has me bursting with pride at his talent at a young age, even though film is no longer something he plans to pursue. He may look at that Legion of Legacies film and say it's "cringe" or "so bad," but he started that when he was 12, finished at 14. I don't care how "cringe" he thinks it is, I cherish that video for so many reasons. 

The train days included perpetual and always unique wooden train tracks set up in our house, many trips to the train park and train museum, and learning the names of all the various Thomas trains. We also took a few train rides to the Grand Canyon and on the Polar Express. I think it all started when Joyce gave Tyler a magnetic name train that we found on a trip to Prescott, so I'll always have her to thank for the trainiac days.

I think the space phase was my favorite. I loved seeing Tyler's creativity with the various projects he did during that time. With Dave's help, he made a variety of shuttles and rockets, and we all learned so much. Apollo 13 is still one of my favorite movies because of this time in Tyler's life. I honestly believed he could be an astronaut one day! 

The film days were by far the most impressive. This was from the day before his 12th birthday when he sought out and asked if he could film inside this private jet at the airpark in Mesa. It was June, indoors with no A/C and the girls were wearing warm clothes. It was miserable, yet so impressive. That was the day I "died" for the second time for this film. While Tyler is still very talented at filming and editing, he doesn't really enjoy it (especially the editing). Those years spent learning about film and production would ultimately lead to what is more likely to be a career for him. We knew his passions would serve him well, and at 18, he has done some pretty amazing things! 

Tyler's passions over the years, and the unique talents and skills he has are the most obvious things about him, but there's so much to this awesome kid that I may not write about as often. Here are some other things about Tyler that make him who he is:

• He is responsible in all things. He gets his work done, he wakes up when he needs to, he helps around the house (when asked), drives his sister around, goes to work, all without any prompting from us.
• Tyler is a cautious and safe driver, which is the hope of any parent with a teen on the road. Let's keep it that way, ok?
• He doesn't care about superficial things. He definitely hasn't cost us much in the clothes/shoes department. Does the shirt fit and does he feel comfortable in it? If so, that's enough. Thanks for saving us so much money, Tyler...if only Ava had the same beliefs about her wardrobe. 
• Tyler does really well in school. He graduated high school with a GPA of 3.8, and that was with very little effort. School seems to come easily to him and he gets the work done despite being busy or lacking interest in the material. He is heading into college having already completed 26 credits with 3.5 GPA. Once again, he did all that with very little pushing from us. 
• Tyler is always seeking out opportunities to use his skills, and improve what he sees. The school had a live stream for sports--Tyler made it 25 times better. VRML had their first event, Tyler went over the top to make it great, and is doing even more this year. If he sees a better way to do something, even if it's more work, he will do it. He knows good work, and he wants his work to be the best. 
• Tyler is humble and never needs to/wants to be the center of attention. There is no boasting or bragging coming from this kid after he does something awesome. If anything, he will point out what is wrong with his work, if he sees something, rather than accept the praise. A perfect example is after the champions were crowned at the Echo finals in Denver last year. They brought Tyler (reluctantly) on to the stage to give him credit for the work of the production team in putting on the event. The first thing he did was shout out his primary teammate and the rest of the group who made it all possible. 
• He is very smart with his money, and has done a great job saving for several years. We are encouraging him to make some investments now, and hoping he continues to save in the event that he wants to buy his first home in the next few years. We have no doubt that he'll be continue to make smart purchases and investments. The crazy thing is that he managed to build up a good savings account despite having a consistent job (aside from his once a week church job). 
• He's always been good to his sister, even if it's not cool to act like he likes her right now. They may act like teenagers to each other now, but I know they've developed a foundation that will allow them to be friends as adults. 
• Tyler gets more and more fun to talk to--really talk about real stuff the older he gets. There was a moment awhile back where after an especially interesting conversation with him, I thought "wow, he's an adult, and so so smart." Those conversations don't happen as often as we'd like, but when they do, we really cherish them. I look forward to a lifetime of those conversations with adult Tyler.
• Brains for days...Tyler is so damn smart. He might not always say much, he might not have a large circle of friends or spend much time doing much outside of the house, but he is always learning. Always. 
• I'm pretty sure we've never worried about any of the typically things that parents of teenaged boys worry about. He's not staying out late, not partying or drinking, not being irresponsible in ways many teen boys are. He's just a really.good.kid. 
• He's kind, plain and simple. He cares about people and doing the right thing. We have raised a truly good person, and if nothing else, I hope the world sees that in him. 

There is so much more I could say. I'm sure I'm already embarrassing him by even writing this--remember, he doesn't like being the center of attention. This is a significant moment in Tyler's life and our family's. Our baby boy, our first born, the one who made us parents is officially an adult. Graduating high school was one thing, and along with that, turning 18 signals a different chapter in life. While he won't be moving out or heading off to a far away state for college, he has the freedom to do that if he chooses. I am selfishly glad he's not heading off to college somewhere away from home. When I was his age, I was packing up my 1994 Saturn Coupe and heading to Arizona. I can't imagine how hard that was for my parents to have me move across the country at 18. I'm grateful that Tyler is staying close to home, at least for now. That time will eventually come, but for now, we're happy to celebrate our amazing, smart, responsible, kind, funny, thoughtful and passionate son on this big day. Tyler, we know it isn't always easy, life never is. You have shown the most remarkable sense of self, commitment and passion for the things you enjoy, and a never ending drive to learn and grow. I hope you know how much we love you, and that we could not possibly be more proud of the truly amazing man you are. 

Happy 18th birthday, son. You are loved by so many, and we are all here to support you in this next stage of life. Here's to adulting! Let's hope you find some fun adventures, fulfilling work, and a circle of friends who can go with you through life. For a fun little trip down the memory lane of Tyler's 18 years, check out this album. 

Ava's first day of vacation

Ava is as far away from us as she has ever been in her whole life! It was quite the journey to get there, which involved a red eye flight on an airplane, a 3 hour car ride, and the final destination could only be reached by boat! Are you curious? Ava was invited by her best friend to spend 3 weeks with her on the east coast with her dad! Lexi's dad lives in the Boston area, and Lexi and her sister spend time there in the summer and on school breaks. This summer, both girls got to bring a friend. They are planning to spend a week or so at Lexi's family's lake house in Maine (which is located on an island), some time at their home outside of Boston, and then a few days in NYC before they head back. What an adventure! Here is one of the first pictures I received of the girls about to head to the cabin. 

Ava is about to have the best summer vacation! They get to go boating, tubing, jet skiing, and she'll get to try water skiing and wake boarding. They'll ride on the pontoon at sunset and jump into the lake, lay out on the dock, hunt for frogs, and sit around a bonfire. I will share the photos I got from Dasia (Lexi's stepmom), and the few stories I have. I remember days spent on the lake growing up, and they are some great memories. Of course, none of them are on a lake in Maine, so Ava will probably have even more fun. 

Here's to a fun adventure! 

Home from camp-boating and flying

Well, I'm home! Now what? Ha, just kidding.

One of our favorite coaches is in town for a few days, and she and Ali were looking for something to do--something that would be easy enough for Ali to do on her crutches. They had made plans to go on a boat ride out at Canyon Lake, so Ava and I joined them. I've been to Canyon Lake many times, but I don't think I've ever been on this boat ride. You can sit inside where it's air conditioned, or up on the top deck where it is not. The stairs are too much for Ali to navigate, and it's the end of June, so inside it is! They do a nature tour, pointing out some history of the area and information about the wildlife, plants, and landscape. I suppose it was interesting, but definitely targeted at tourists and others not familiar with the area or desert environments. 

We did make our way out to the back of the boat for a few photos. 

Ali is getting around really well in her boot at crutches, but she has to be very careful. She's so tough! She's healing nicely from her major ankle surgery. Katie is also recovering from wrist surgery, so they were a good match--Katie was even doing her wrist PT exercises while we sat on the boat. 

I always enjoy when Ava joins me when I ask her if she wants to come with. I'm sure this wasn't too much fun for her, but my friends included her in the conversation and it gave us a chance to hang out a bit before she leaves us in a few days for her big trip. 

I don't remember what she was doing here...maybe the seat was too hot? That is very likely. Either way, she's so cute! 

I'll throw these two pretty sunset pictures in this post as well. There were only a few of us flying tonight and we grabbed these pictures after Katie had us doing some conditioning on the low bar. She always gives us great coaching, not only up on the trapeze but on the ground as well. We are all very grateful to have her around! Her energy and her positive support is unmatched! 

As fun as it was at camp, it's always good to be home! 

Coconut's second week

It's the start of week two and I'm already sad it's almost over! I love camp! I've been asked many times by the other counselors if I could stay longer, even just another week or two. I guess they like me! Either that or they're worried about being short staffed and like the idea of having a full team of trapeze counselors. I would love to stay, but I do need to get home because as soon as I do, Ava is leaving for 3 weeks (like I said in the last post, more on that later). I talked to my boss though, and she said she didn't mind if I took another week of vacation to go back, so my plan is to go home for two weeks and then come back to camp for one more. I'd love to stay longer, but that's a good compromise for this summer at least. For now, I'm excited to start week two! Here's a photo from one of our staff trainings after work one day. We had a few practices where we invited other counselors to join us, so a few folks got to try for the first time or refresh some of the past skills. 

One of my favorite things to do was to sit out on this balcony in the mornings or evenings, enjoying the peacefulness of the mountains around us. This night, we had a beautiful sunset! 

We do have a couple new housemates this week, one trapeze team member (Roscoe) and two on the aerial team (Diver and Tortugita). Here we have me, Ultraviolet, Roscoe and Dragonfly out enjoying this lovely sunset. UV insisted I delete this photo of her, so don't tell her I'm posting it. 

We did a little more flying this week, which was great. Rabbit got up to catch us during one of the practices. I have had some fun times flying to Efe at this camp, having come up a few times for weekend workshops over the years. When I first visited Pali back in 2016, I never would have imagined I'd be working here as a trapeze coach one day in the future. What a journey this trapeze experience has been!

I had so much fun hanging out with new (and old) friends in the camp house. Puzzles are a constant presence on the table at the camp house, with several being completed during the two months. This one was very difficult, and I don't think I contributed much. I think we resorted to using the letters on the back just so we could get it done and move on to the next one. Here is our photo to prove we did it! I've introduced everyone in this photo except for Spidey, who is on the far right. He's runs the Stunts specialty at camp. 

I got to be the catcher on Friday, which is the best day of the week! For the trapeze kids on the last day, we fill up a bunch of water balloons and place them in the net (a few at a time). When the kid does their trick, whether they make their catch or not, they get dropped or fall into a net full of water balloons. They have so much fun! Not only do they get to get splashed in the net, but also below it. It's the one time we let kids under the net, but only if they lay down flat on their backs. When the flyer lands in the pile of water balloons, the kids on the ground get drenched! Since it was my last day of camp (for now), I got to catch on Friday and it was a blast! 

Here is our group from the second week and as you can see it's quite a bit bigger than last week. They're supposed to be styling like the circus, but these boys on the left aren't quite doing it right (I blame Giraffe). 

Francesca was my favorite from week one, but Tosh took that title during week two. He was hilarious! He loved being our little helper, and would sit at the bottom of the ladder to clip his fellow campers into the ascender (the device that keeps the kids safe while they climb the ladder). When he clipped them in, he'd say "bye, see you never!" He was crazuy about trapeze, and really loved hanging out and chatting with all the counselors. We were lucky enough to get him in our specialty and in most electives each day, unless he decided to go do magic with Zoltar. One morning when I was picking kids up for specialty he said, "Coconut, the worst thing happened, you'll never believe it." Seeing the super sad look on his face, I had no idea what he was so upset about. "All the trapeze electives were full today and I couldn't get in to any of them." That really was sad, I'd only see Tosh for 3 hours today! He was such a sweet kid, and truly a joy to have around. He was very happy when Giraffe gave him a set of zebra ears and tail. Giraffe always had multiple sets with him and would give out a set to one of his favorites each week, it was kind of his thing. 

Here are a few photos of me catching kids on the last day. They're not great pictures because I took photos of the trapeze phone screen since I don't have access to the actual pictures from the camera. There were some good flyers this week! I caught a penny roll, a pullover shoot, some straddle whips, and obviously a few knee hangs.

This is another fun picture (which also isn't good quality). It's me landing in the pile of water balloons when I finished my session of catching. You can see a couple kids below me that got wet with my bounce. It's definitely a lot of work to get all these water balloons filled on Friday morning, but it is worth it! 

We had a fun evening as well. It was a special full moon tonight, so we made a plan to go out and watch it rise together from a high point near Lake Big Bear (the same location we scouted out last weekend). It was an amazing moon! Of course photos aren't going to do it justice, but look how bright it was! UV is showing off her glow in the dark Pali sweatshirt which lit up wit the black light we had with us (as did the several scorpions we saw on the trail). 

Here's a fun shadow picture of some of us who went on the adventure. That's a shadow of us in the moonlight! Crazy. 

Here we are back on the granite outcropping that we visited last weekend. It's pretty impressive that it's this light outside, with only the light of the moon. 

On Saturday morning, we grabbed one last coffee at Lulabelle's and said our goodbyes for now. 

Here is the crew that was at the camp house this week. Back row, Spidey, Roscoe, Coconut, Mojo, Rabbit. Front row: Dragonfly, Ultraviolet, Giraffe, Cricket. 

I'm sad to be leaving after two amazing weeks as a trapeze camp counselor with these awesome people. I truly had so much fun. I had no idea what to expect, or how I'd do, but I couldn't have imagined I'd love it so much. I'm grateful to have the chance to go back again for another week next month, so it's not good-bye, just "see you down the road," as they say in the circus world. Luckily, my down the road is only a couple weeks away. 

Ava's week of camp

I said it before, but it's worth saying again at the start of this post. I'm so proud of Ava for being willing to say yes to this opportunity. Going to a summer camp is such a quintessential childhood experience, a chance to make some really great memories. I would venture to guess that the number of kids who attend summer camp now compared to even my generation is significantly lower. With the way our lives look today, it just seems like it's not something families consider as their summers are busy with sports, travel and working parents. I could be completely wrong, but I don't personally hear of many of my friends or family sending their kids off to sleep-over camps. There is certainly a financial barrier there--summer camp is expensive (especially one like Pali that offers so many cool activities), so I'm sure that's part of it as well. All that to say, I am very grateful that we could give Ava this experience, and that she was willing to step outside of her comfort zone for the chance to have a fun week. I'll remind you, she didn't know anyone, had to leave her friends and her cell phone behind, and she would be sleeping in a cabin with girls she didn't know--these girls right here. This was Ava's cabin mates and counselors on their first night of camp. They always do Sunday Sundaes on the first night, followed by entertainment in the amphitheater. I went and watched the show, and the best part was the magic show by Zoltar. He was hilarious, and definitely a favorite of the kids and fellow counselors. The two on the left are Ava's counselors (but I think she had 3). I'll have to ask her to remind me of their names, but I think the one in red is Cosmo and the one next to her was.....I don't remember but she was from New Zealand I believe. I'll come back and edit if I get the answer. This was a smaller than usual cabin, as week one is always less attended that the weeks later in the summer. The girl on the far right, Lola, was there for several weeks over the summer. I saw her all 3 of the weeks I was there. There are actually quite a few kids who come for several weeks--even up to 6 or more!  

I mentioned that the photos we got of our kids from camp came through an app they use. I took a picture of Ava before we left and loaded it into her profile in the app. Any time Ava appeared in one of the photos taken at camp, it would get sent to me through the app. It would even pick her up if she was in the background of a group shot. There were counselors who's job it was to take photos throughout the day, but each specialty also had a cell phone that was to be used for photos during our time with our kids. We would always try to have someone in charge of the camera during our trapeze specialty so our kids' parents would get fun pictures of them throughout the week. Here are some of the photos I received of Ava.

In this photo, the first thing I noticed was that she had her hair down, which is definitely not allowed when you work in a kitchen. Hopefully they at least taught them to wash their hands before they prepared any food. The kids from culinary were always popular after specialty when they had leftovers to share with their friends and counselors. We had a few kids come to trapeze in the afternoon and bring us treats they'd made. 

Ava did come to trapeze for her elective a couple of times. She was hesitant because she wasn't sure if she should be doing trapeze with her back still healing. We definitely didn't tell her back doctor that she was doing this. I'm pretty sure she would not have thought it was a good idea. She did bring her back brace, and she wore it on days when she had done a lot of walking. She's at the tail end of her healing time frame though, and she's taking it easy with her activities this week. On the first day she came to trapeze, she just did a swing, not being sure she should do more. She drug her friend Maddy to trapeze, but she wasn't a fan. I'm glad she came, and I really wish she could have done trapeze as her specialty, but I'm not sure it would be her first choice even if she wasn't injured. She might not have wanted to spend 3 hours each day of camp with her mom! When we were first looking at specialty options, she was interested in doing water sports, but I vetoed that option. No way does she need to be getting thrown off a tube or take a spill learning to wake board. I think she's glad she didn't take that option though. The kids doing water sports actually had to get up quite a bit earlier than everyone else each day to eat breakfast by themselves and then jump in the van for an hour long drive to Lake Big Bear each day. Plus, the water was really cold! I'm very glad she got into the culinary group, as it was probably the best option for her this year. 

I got some photos of Ava from electives too, and one day she went to Aerial Arts. I think I took these first two pictures of her, as I doubt she would have made this face to the camp camera person.

Here she is learning a split on the silks with Ultraviolet. 

Ok, maybe she would have made a silly face for the camp camera after all. Here she is photo bombing her friend Maddy's photo.

She spent pretty much the entire week with Maddy, the one person she really connected with from her cabin. She didn't have too much in common with most of the others in her cabin, which I would say was probably the biggest negative of the week for her. I wish she had been in a cabin with more girls with similar interests to her or who she would have better connected with. I'm glad she had Maddy though! They did culinary as well as most of their electives together. 

Oh good, she's finally started to pull her hair back while cooking. See, they did learn stuff! I think they were making chicken alfredo here. 

This was one of the evening activities. Each cabin got to vote on what they would do that night, and had three options to choose from. I remember Ava was annoyed that her cabin chose Legos as their option, with one of the other choices being a movie night on the field. 

I think this was the day that she and Maddy did either zip lining or the triple swing. 

She did come to trapeze one other time towards the end of the week, and I encouraged her to do a trick instead of just a swing. It's been quite a while since she's done any trapeze, with the last time being our Club Med vacation in 2019. Either she's a natural or she's learned by watching me for so many years, but she did a perfect straddle whip to the net, as if she'd been doing it all week. I was very happy to have her there! She did bring her "didgy cam" so she was able to take pictures during her week. I think this picture came from her camera. 

Here are a few pictures from the evening entertainment, which included a dance on one of the last nights. 

Ava is on the top right in this photo, which is an example of how good their software is for scanning faces. I also think it's funny that all the girls seem to be huddled around this one boy. He was a nice kid, from Phoenix, which I learned when we chatted one day that he came to trapeze electives. We didn't get very many boys doing trapeze, and when we did, they were usually the ones that were most scared. Often they'd get talked into going by one of their buddies, and didn't want to seem scared so they'd go. We'd get them up to the platform and they'd be freaking out. 

At the end of the week, the culinary group did a competition where they had to prepare an appetizer, a side, a main dish, an a dessert. Ava's team won a few of the categories (I think), and she said the only reason they didn't win it all is because she thinks they wanted to let someone else win. 

I'm not sure what all they made, but looks like a veggie dip of some kind, stuffed peppers, a pasta and fruit tarts. Good job girls!

This is a group photo of all the kids in the senior culinary specialty, standing by their flag. They did break the camp into to age groups for a lot of things--juniors (8-12) and seniors (13-16). Some specialties were mixed, like trapeze (although we also split them into two mostly based on age) but some were split. There were even some specialties that weren't available for one group or the other. For the meals, the juniors ate downstairs and the seniors ate upstairs in the Huck. It was interesting to see how different one floor was compared to the other during meals. We mostly ate downstairs, but did venture upstairs for a couple meals. The younger kids were so loud! 

On Friday, the last full day of camp, they do water wars in the afternoon after specialty. There were no electives on Friday, so our day as trapeze counselors ended pretty early. Water wars included chasing each other around with water balloons and squirt guns, and other shenanigans. 

Here is Ava with her cabin mates on one of their last evenings. I was so happy to see her enjoying herself and fully participating in this experience. It was really cool for me to have her there with me, both of us enjoying Pali for the first time. For me, I'll probably do this a few times, but I'm sure this is a one time thing for Ava. Next summer, when she's 16, she'll be busy at the pool working a lifeguard and swimming again. This was a unique summer that we thought was going to be pretty boring for her with her limitations due to her back injury. Turns out, that would not be the case at all, as she ended up doing more this summer than ever before (more to come on her other summer adventures soon). 

Ava's camp week was over around lunch time on Saturday, but I would be staying another week which meant I was putting her on a plane by herself for the first time. The Ontario airport is just down the mountain, about a 45 minute drive from camp, and is a nice small airport. Pali will arrange transportation for kids who need it to the airport (either LAX or Ontario) for an additional fee, which is great for parents of kids who live elsewhere. There are a lot of kids from California at this camp, but plenty from other places in the country as well (and even a few international kids, I met one from Brazil). Ava has flown a lot in her life, but never by herself. I had no doubt she'd do fine, and she didn't seem too worried. I was able to get a pass to go through security and walk her to the gate, so that was nice. We hung out for a little bit, but then I said goodbye and headed out to start me weekend on the mountain. As expected, she did fine and made it home just a couple hours later where her dad was waiting to pick her up at the airport. What a fun week for both of us! Ava, I'm so proud of you for being willing to say yes to new opportunities, even when they are a little scary and and unknown. That will be a good trait in life, which will lead you to new adventures and great memories. Thanks for saying "sure" when I asked if you wanted to go to camp. I'm glad you had fun!