By Jen Slayden

“Wings!  Wings!  Wings!  They are wonderful flying things. Wings flutter and flap and they make things go. Some go high and some go low. Some fly fast and some fly slow. Some wings are red, and some wings are blue. Wings help you fly, that’s what they do!”

Riley used to love the book Wings on Things by Marc Brown when he was little. Each time I would say “Go pick out a book” his little hands would grab the Wings book and he would crawl up on my lap excited to hear the familiar rhymes. I read it so many times that I still have most of it memorized to this day.  My youngest son just found this book under his bed. We have been reading it, and it is bringing back a lot of memories! It just so happens that we rediscovered it just a few days before Riley heads to Minnesota on an airplane for the first time without mom and dad at his side.

Riley has been chosen along with five other students from Montana to take part in a trip in conjunction with the Missoula Watershed Network and Salish Kootenai College to participate alongside scientists, teachers, high school and undergraduate students in scientific lake studies and to take part in a science camp. It is such an honor for him to attend this all-expense paid trip but as a mom I have to admit, I have to let go a little. Riley turns thirteen this month and transitions from tween to teen. The timing and irony is not lost on me.
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