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| Celebrating Dawn's Birthday |
Vacation!
This past week we took the kids on a world-wind trip. We started with an 8 hour drive to Pittsburgh, PA to visit Aunt Anne, Uncle Chris, Megan, and Kate. Ryan and Julia did great on the trip. We only stopped once for a quick bathroom break and then right back into the car. We finally got into Pittsburgh around 6:00 PM and then went out to dinner. Of course the restaurant was extremely busy and we had to wait, but Ryan did great waiting. We had to stay at a hotel and since it was a short stay we all stayed in the same room. He did great but did have a little difficulty understanding that he could not sleep in the middle of the bed since we all had to share. We had a great time and Ryan's cousin Megan loves him! She spent the majority of the time wanting to hold his hand where ever we went and wanted to show Ryan her train set. We visited the incline in Pittsburgh, that goes up and down the side of a huge hill that over looks the city and Heinz field were the Steelers play. Ryan loved it and we have a picture of both Ryan and Julia with big smiles in the car on the incline. We then visited the children's museum and had a blast. There was a huge layout of the Pittsburgh area with trains going around the exhibit and he ran around the table telling everyone what to look at next.
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| Ryan and Julia on the Incline in Pittsburgh |
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| Ryan and Megan looking out over the city of Pittsburgh |
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| Both fast asleep on the way to the Latrobe Airport |
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| Singing Happy Birthday to Kate and Dawn |
We then flew out of the Arnold Palmer Airport in Latrobe, PA in a snow storm to Fort Laurerdale, FL to visit Dawn's grandmother, Grandma Mille. Ryan loved the airplane ride. He was so engrossed with the little card that the airline attendants go over. He clipped it to the tray table and studied it for a good 20 minutes. When we were about to land he asked if we were landing on the water? When he found out that we would be landing on the runway he announced to our area that were not landing in the water but on the runway.
We did not land until 8:40 PM and did not get our car until 9:30 PM. To get to the car rental place was an adventure to begin with. We had to walk to a bus stop, take the bus to the airport car rental garage, then wait for the car rental van to pick us up to drive us to their location. Through it all Ryan was great and found it all a big adventure. We did not get to Grandma Millie's condo until 10:30 PM.
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| Happy to be in Fort Lauderdale, FL! |
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| Excited to be at Hallendale Beach! |
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| Ryan and Julia with their Great Grandmother Millie. |
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| Reading the safety card! |
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| Studying the card! |
We spent the next few days driving all over the place. We found a store that sold organic and GFCF food items and then spent the rest of the first day at the pool. We were the only ones in the pool and this was the first time that he felt comfortable to be in the pool without his swimmies. It was nice feeling comfortable being able to watch them from the side of the pool and not having to be on top of them in the water. The same went for the next day when we went to Hallendale Beach. They both played for hours at the edge of the ocean while we were able to relax just watching them play. The second evening we went to visit my Aunt Mary and Uncle Bill to have dinner. The only bad part of driving in Southern Florida is the traffic. It took us an hour and a half to drive 25 miles. Another late night but he did great.
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| The kids with Phil's Aunt Mary and Uncle Bill |
The next day we found a Children's Museum in Fort Lauderdale that they loved. This is a video of a huge gravity clock in the front of the museum that he loved. They had all sorts of hands-on exhibits that they both enjoyed. They spent over an hour in one place that had an exhibit that allowed you to pick oranges from a tree, put them in a wooden case, and then put them onto a conveyor belt that put them back on the tree. He spent the majority of the time playing with this exhibit and the other kids came into this area. He shared and pretended to play both with his imaginary scenario and theirs. It was great to see.
On the trip home it was another long day. We got to the airport with plenty of time considering we had to do the entire process in reverse and boarded the plane without too much hassle through security. They did have to test each bottle of his medicine but they did not make a huge fuss about it and the TSA agents were very pleasant about the whole thing. However, the plane had a mechanical issue that caused us to have to return to the gate and get off to wait for them to fix the issue. This delayed us for about 2 hours but we finally landed back in Latrobe around 8:00 PM.
Ryan handled the whole experience wonderfully. He rolled with the delays, the different schedules, and all the little expereinces that could cause a child with Autism to have major metldowns. We have an appointment with Dr. Bock in 2 weeks and we can not wait to give him the report about how he did on this trip. Before this diet and treatments this trip would have been a disaster. Both Dawn and I were thinking that we probably would not have attempted this trip but Ryan was fantastic. We were so impressed with his patience and flexibility!
Below is a clip of Ryan having fun at the Childrens' Musuem and one of him hanging with his sister and cousin.
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