This summer, my family headed to Cooperstown in upstate New York. For weeks, we watched the weather. It was a tease, promising cool temperatures compared to the sweltering heat in Florida. It also promised rain. So much rain. But I came prepare for both. All the moms had more than a handful of baseball shirts made, and those would fit perfectly under a hoodie or light jacket. And because of the rain, I finally committed to buying Sperry duck shoes.

To get to New York, we flew. This was Bennett’s first time on a plane. To say he was excited was an understatement. He ran from window to window in the terminal, yelling at the planes. He also just ran everywhere because my two-year-old is feral and keeping him still is impossible. In truth, I let him run everywhere because I wanted him to get his energy out. Even though it was a late flight, we knew he wouldn’t sleep.

My husband and I packed the essentials to keep the kids entertained. Snacks on snacks on snacks, so we wouldn’t go broke before the plane taxied out. Coloring, laptops, and tablets, everything a kid could dream of. My kids… they were happy with the window before we boarded the plane. Well, not the middle schooler. He was glued to his phone and talking to his teammates. That’s until he became in charge of hunting down his little brother when he would escape.

The flight was easy and smooth. The worst part was trying to keep Bennett’s seatbelt on. He does not like being “trapped” as he calls it. The most anyone heard of him on the plane was when the PA would start and his movie would pause. His verbal frustration would earn laughs from all around him. The grownups didn’t like their movies being interrupted either.

The whole time I filmed little bits and pieces. I wanted to capture more moments than just on my phone. I’ve never done a vacation vlog before and figure this would be the best moment to do so. I borrowed the Osmo pocket 3 from school and let loose. There was something powerful about capturing these memories with a camera not attached to a phone. There were no distractions or urges to instantly post what I recorded. I simply turned on the camera record and went back to enjoying what was going on.

The whole Cooperstown 12U torment was something else. Every single day baseball, baseball, and more baseball. But the most fun was Opening Day. This was the day when the boys ran around and got to be 12-year-olds. No pressure, expect, finding that perfect trading pin. Some parents had a hard time letting the boys go crazy on their own. But this place was better than Disneyland for the boys.

I gave Mark the camera, and he went crazy filming all sorts of things. Experiencing the 12-year-old’s perspective was awesome. At first you can hear in his voice how uncomfortable he was with asking questions to strangers. But as the morning went on, he was popping off questions left and right. At some point, one of his teammates took the camera and asked his own question. Sometimes the questions would get lost and Mark would take the camera back and start the mini interview over.

What was cool was seeing the boys wait for the opening ceremony to start. The parents were having their own problems, dealing with rain, finding each other and organizing twelve pairs of adults. With how busy we were, I don’t think most of the parents thought about how bored the boys were down in the mass of kids, just waiting for their chance to run.

Mark captured what they did. I only had to edit out a few things. Because let’s be real, when you give a 12-year-old a camera, you’re going to hear a few things that never need repeated.

The vlog ends with Mark following his baby brother around in the chaos of waiting for the home run derby.

I couldn’t have been more proud of how my kid took himself out of his comfort zone and tried something different. We may have been there for baseball. But all the boys got a small taste of learning how to function without their parents hovering over them.