First look at the trailer

It's so close to being done! Tyler has been working very hard over the last few months to get the cabinets and the desks built. I cannot even explain how impressed I've been at the work Tyler has done on the inside of his trailer. The quality of his work is pretty spectacular considering he's never done any carpentry before. He truly had a vision for this space, and as you can see from the rendering of the design at it's conception to the nearly finished project, he stuck to it. I'm blown away at this before and after shot--it's almost identical! As a reminder, this top image is the plan for what he wanted it to look like, and the photo below is how it looked today. 

You can see that he's installed the cabinets and now the desks as well. Max (his business partner) put up the carpet on the walls, and they worked to mount the desks to the floor and the wall. 

They had to connect the desks to the floor, which meant getting under the trailer and screwing through the bottom of the trailer. They are very secure! 

Here you can see that Tyler has stated to mount a few of the monitors, with three more to go on the back desk. There will also be a TV and two more monitors (mounted stacked one on top of the other) at the front work station. Here is a video of me doing a walk through of the trailer. If you'd like to see a bit more about the first stages of this process, go watch the video Tyler posted to his company Instagram page. It's going a bit viral, with nearly 38k views and 400 shares since he posted it yesterday. It goes without saying, but we are so damn proud of this kid! 

The desks are done!

This has been a long project, but Tyler is finally (mostly) done with the desks that he designed and built for his broadcasting trailer. He had to make 3 of the same design, which were custom made by him. His business partner's dad did some welding on a component that was needed for where the racks will be mounted (that open space on each desk), but other than that, this was all Tyler. It's been amazing to see these come together! The trailer is so close to being done! Just wait until you see how these look in there. It's truly impressive work. We could not be more proud (or amazed) by what Tyler has accomplished. 

He is still working on getting the monitors mounted, but that will probably happen once they're inside the trailer. Two of the desks will have 3 monitors installed side by side on these stands. The front desk won't have the monitors mounted to it, but will have 2 monitors and a TV mounted on the wall directly in front. 

Shadows of flight

I was wearing my Meta glasses during a catch with Herdlyn today and captured this cool shot of our shadows on the net.

Here's the video from my point of view (and here it is from the ground view). You can also see a video from my perspective while I pulled lines for George. These Meta glasses are fun for trapeze! 

Show night

We haven't done a night show in awhile, I think November 2024. The last couple shows we've done have been during the daytime, so it was fun to be able to fly under the lights again. Like I mentioned, this show came up a bit last minute, but we still managed to do about what we usually do. 

I caught a split with Herdlyn, but missed my hocks salto. Not terribly surprising as I've only ever caught it with Petter twice, and haven't thrown it to catch much. I also only had a couple attempts to practice it with Herdlyn. That's ok though, it's still a cool trick and the audience isn't expecting it to be so fast. I look forward to trying again in the next show after some more practice. 

Tyler took these photos for us, thanks Ty! It was a bit tough in the dark, but they turned out ok. 

We have a new member of the team, and this was her first show. Shay is the PT assistant that worked on Jan after her shoulder surgery. She wanted to come out and watch us so she had a better idea of how to help Jan recover, and ended up being a natural! She has some gymnastics and athletic background, and she learns quickly. I've enjoyed getting to know her! If only we had a PT in our group years ago, maybe it would have saved our shoulders. I appreciate having her there to help me with some exercises and other ways to help heal my shoulder. I hadn't caught her before this week, as I've been taking a break from catching and hadn't gone up there since she started. When I decided I'd be catching, we practiced a knee hang (her favorite trick, oddly) and we had a really smooth catch in the show!

I only caught 4 tricks, plus the fake out I do with Rod, but I'm glad I went up there. It's also helped make me want to get back up there more often. It doesn't seem to bother my shoulder much more than anything else, so that can't be my excuse anymore. 

When Rod got up there, I threw him a planche and my shoot. It wasn't my best shoot, but it was fine and I returned both tricks. 

This is one of the coolest shots that Tyler got. I love how you can see the cloud of chalk when they make the catch. 

We didn't get a very good group photo, unfortunately. The lighting was harsh with some in the light and some in the shadow. We'll need to make more effort to get a good group photo next time. We're always in a rush to try to get this before everyone scatters to greet their friends and family after the show. Maybe we'll try to do it before the show next time. 

I didn't have a huge crowd there this time, but my family was there like usual. Karen is my other die-hard supporter who rarely misses a show, and this time she brought Dawson and his dad (who's never been). A friends from the admin office at work also made the trip, so that was a nice surprise. I'm always grateful for those who come out to cheer me on. 

Here's the newest member of the team, Shay. So happy to have her joining us, unfortunately she'll be taking a few months off because of knee surgery. She doesn't need her knees to fly, right? Hopefully she'll be back out there soon. Here's a link to the show if you're interested in watching the video. Maybe Tyler will come out and stream it with his trailer next time? It'll be up and running by then, but the bigger problem will be if he has time for it. They have a busy fall ahead of them. More on that soon. 

Lacy's graduation

Lacy is graduating! She's the second to last grandchild to graduate, with us just having Ava left out of the 9 grandkids. Since 2022, we've had graduates each year. Syndey, Talon and Matt in 2022, Hailey in 2023, Tyler in 2024, Braden in 2025, Lacy in 2026, and Ava will end the series in 2027. Graduation isn't until later this week, but they decided to have their party early. As with all Dairman parties, this was another good one! 

These two girls spent so much time together when they were growing up. Lots of sleepovers, preschool together, volleyball, family trips and so much more. In their middle school and high school years, they sort of went separate ways a bit, as they had their own friends and hobbies. Whenever together though, they jumped right back in, as close as ever. I know that they'll be good friends throughout their life, and I'm very grateful for the time we had together when these two beautiful girls were growing up. 

Lacy is headed to NAU in the fall, the first of the Dairman kids to move away. I'm sure she'll have a great time experiencing all the fun of college away from home. She's a great kid and I know she'll be successful in whatever she does. 

On graduation night, I watched the live stream of Lacy's graduation long enough to see her cross the stage. I was flipping between the RMHS graduation and the Mountain View graduation because Tyler was running that live stream. It was interesting to see the difference in the production value of the two graduations. Tyler's team definitely brings the experience and professional look! It's really great that high schools can show this live for people who can't (or don't want to) be there in person. Congrats Lacy! 

When Tyler and I were talking about his plans for the MV graduation, I asked if he planned to run his drone. After all, he is a certified drone operator and has a great new drone. He said he actually hadn't thought about that, but that it was a good idea. The drone added a great view to the stream! You can see it here if you have any interest. It was cool to see the students walking in from the drone view, and at the end, he shot the fireworks from the sky. It was awesome! I also looked at the MHS live stream, and they are clearly running theirs with a student group. Tyler will likely be doing more graduations, and will definitely have one the same night as Ava's, meaning he probably won't be there. Unless of course, MHS wants to hire them! Great job Tyler! 

Almost showtime

We decided to do a bit of a last minute show before it gets too hot. I don't feel like I was quite as prepared for this show because I've been sort of protecting my shoulder lately and not throwing very many tricks across to the catcher. I figure I don't need all that much practice since I do the same 4 tricks every time we have a show, and have been doing them consistently for years. But, I do have a new trick in my repetoir, which I haven't had many chances to catch. We have a guest catching coming for the show, Herdlyn, so I'll plan to throw it to him but not have high hopes of catching it. It's a unique trick that the audience won't have seen before, so even if I don't catch it, it will be a fun one to throw. It catches people off guard because it's a half time trick, meaning I don't do a full swing before going into the trick. Anyway, tonight was our practice with Herdlyn, and I threw all the tricks I plan to do tomorrow. I love this sunset silhouette shot of me doing a shoot to Rod.

I wasn't really planning on catching anyone in this show because I haven't been doing that much lately. I don't know if I've really caught anyone since our last show! Partly because I'm protecting my shoulder, but I just haven't had the motivation to get up there. On Tuesday night, I was getting a bit of peer pressure from Rod and others in the group, so I decided to get up there and see how it felt to catch people. It was fine, actually, so I decided I would go for it. I will only catch 4 people, and keeping them all in safety lines since I'm not super confident with my catching right now. Now that I know my shoulder doesn't really feel worse from catching, maybe I'll try to get up there more. I forget how much I enjoy it. The week of a show is always a lot of work. There is so much that we set up! Four giant mushrooms (the worst part of it), chairs, tables, curtains, concessions, flags, solar lights, stage lights, sound system. It's a lot! And, not everyone is able to help, so it usually falls on just a few of us. But, it always looks really good, so I guess it's worth it. 

This picture isn't really related to the show, but Tyler has been helping out with our TiVo system in the shed. Awhile back, he and Dave did some research to see if there were any better options out there for our playback system. TiVos are pretty old technology, and the one we had been using for the last 10 years was getting pretty bad. The image quality was really bad. We ordered a new one and it was working great for a couple months until it stopped letting us rewind and replay, which is the whole point. Turns out we had a TiVo that needed a subscription. I decided to order another one, but didn't know enough about it to get the right one, and that didn't work for us. Finally, Dave found another option to use at home and sacrificed his TiVo for us. We are all very grateful for his generosity! Everyone is happy to have the system back up and running. We have become very dependent on this tool to use to review our tricks, catches, and all the good and not so good stuff we're doing up there. We're very lucky to have this (and I'm lucky my family is so helpful)! 

Mother's Day

Mother's Day is always a nice time with family. We spent part of the day at Tim and Tina's, where the menu was a bit different than the typical spread. Tim made his famous chicken tacos (and Dave brought smoked pork) instead of the potluck style we usually have. It was a nice change, I'd even vote to make that the new normal. Tyler had to work this morning so didn't get there until a bit later, but I'm happy he made it. It was a bit of a quiet day, without the usual family game playing, and I ended up going home a bit earlier than usual. I'm very proud to be mom to these two amazing kids, and I become more and more proud of them as each year passes. The role of mom changes a bit when your kids become adults and almost adults. I find myself longing for more time with them, but with their busy schedules and other challenges in life, it's often hard to get time together. I think they both recognize that they need to try to save time for me, but I know it's hard when their lives get busy. I'm grateful for all the time with them that I have. I recognize that our time with them both living at home is limited, and soon enough, they'll be launched into their own independent lives. It's crazy to think how fast we went from the days of train tracks in the living room and stuffed animals in strollers to starting businesses and the last year of high school. What an adventure it's been. 

Mom is headed back to ND tomorrow, but I'm glad we were able to spend part of our Mother's Day together. I'm grateful for the time I have with her too, and for the years she's been able to spend with our kids and being such a big part of their lives. 

Customary family photos in front of Tina's door. No Mother's Day would be complete without them. 

How did Tyler get to be so much taller than his grandma? What a great photo of the three of them! These kids are lucky to have so many loving grandparents in their lives. I'm sorry we didn't get a picture of them with their Grandma Claire (she doesn't like being in photos). Man, how beautiful are my kids?? I love them so much. Happy Mother's Day!

Sunset hike

I'm not sure if it was meant to be an early Mother's Day "gift" to me, but that's what this evening felt like. We all went out for a sunset family hike around Saguaro Lake. Dave suggested a hike, knowing both kids said they were free tonight. I picked the spot, which is always a favorite for a sunset hike. 

We started out around 6 pm, figuring we wouldn't go the whole way so we could get back before it got too dark. I don't know if I'd ever realized this before, but everyone in my family is a fast hiker. They are definitely not stopping to explore or look at rocks. We stopped a few times for some photos, but we were booking it!

I didn't really expect that we'd make it all the way to the end but here we are! 

After all those times when I tried to get my kids to enjoy hiking, we're finally here. Now, if only I could get them to have time for it more often! Better late than never, I guess. 

We got back to this point on the trail just in time to enjoy the sunset. From here, it was only about a mile back to the car. There hadn't been anyone on the trail until the very end, which was when all the people planning to hang out at the lake with their coolers and music were finding their spots along the trail. At the very end, we got stuck behind a group of 3 who were not in any rush, nor did they think to step aside and let us pass. We went the last .25 miles at a snails pace, and I could almost see the steam coming out of Ava's ears. She hates slow walkers in general, and on a hike it's even worse. We had a really nice evening out there! I'm glad we could do this. It was the highlight of my Mother's Day. 

Just for fun, let's all enjoy one of my all time favorite hiking photos...

 

Senior Class President

 I'm so proud of Ava! She ran for Senior Class President and she won! One of the main reasons Ava switched high schools this year is because she wanted to participate in all of the fun things that go with high school--assemblies, spirit weeks, dances, student council, sporting events, etc. She did a little of that at Red Mountain, but it wasn't as big of part of the culture there, at least among her group of friends. Her best friend, Jodi was at Mesa High, and she was involved with Student Council and had a huge group of friends. Ava joined stuco when she started her junior year, and has been very involved with the group ever since. She was encouraged to run for senior class president, and I'm so proud of her for taking the initiative to do it! She wasn't sure she'd have any competition, but there was one other girl who was running. Fortunately for Ava though, she came out on top and will have this role next year! She acts like it's not really a big deal, but I sure think it is! The one thing she knows she'll be doing is speaking at graduation. She won't be giving a speech necessarily, but I think she's the one that tells the class to move their tassels from the right to the left, and says congrats class of 2027 before they toss their caps. It warms my heart, not only as a mom, to see her take on this leadership role, but as someone who has spent my career encouraging student leadership and involvement. It's literally my job to try to get college students to see the benefit of taking leadership roles and staying involved and engaged in activities on campus during school. To see my own daughter doing just that is a great feeling! I'm so proud of her, and I know she's going to be a great class president. I can't believe she's going to be a SENIOR in high school next year! 

Ava's Junior Prom

Our beautiful girl went to her first prom! I'm sorry that I missed seeing her all dressed up. She had a large group of friends she was going with, and her date was a senior named Drew. She borrowed this stunning red dress from Jodi just a week or so before prom, as she changed her mind about the original dress she ordered. I think this was a good choice. This one fit her so well and looked beautiful. She had to work this morning, the start of the summer training at her pool, but they let the prom goers leave early. It was a busy afternoon getting ready with her girlfriends, taking photos, dinner, and eventually they headed to the dance. It was held at an event venue in Chandler, which she said was really nice. Here are a few photos I was sent throughout the day, which further reminded me that I should have been there!

I'm glad Grandma Jean was able to be there to see Ava.

I don't have many pictures of these two together in recent years, so I'm glad they got this one! 

This was my attempt at making it look like I was there too. It's obviously not very well done, but I thought it was funny to put us together since we were both dressed up in our formal gowns. I'm sure I could put a bit more effort into it to make it look a bit more realistic, but we all know I wasn't actually there. 

Here are a few photos that she shared from their photographer. They went down to the Salt River for these photos. She was a bit worried about what her date was wearing because he originally said he was wearing a black, gray and red tie with brown shoes. Luckily she was able to give him some direction on what to wear and he looked great. 

Can you imagine having this many girls going to prom in one group? This is a mix of juniors and seniors. They all look so beautiful. Red must have been a popular color this year. Funny, my junior prom dress was red too. I told Ava we should both get dressed up in our red prom dresses and take a photo together. 

Speaking of beautiful young women in striking red dresses....

After the dance, they rented out a trampoline park with a huge group of kids. What a fun way to end the night! I'm glad she had fun at her first prom, and I'm in awe of how beautiful she looked. I will not be missing her senior prom! Sorry I wasn't there Ava, I hope you had a memorable night with all of your friends!