Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Special Needs on Vacation

My husband and I were very brave a few weeks ago, and we took our sons on their first "vacation." By vacation, I mean we took a three day weekend and went to the Great Wolf Lodge in Dallas TX.

After Cotton informed us via YouTube, that he wanted to have a swimming party we could not resist. Luckily my sister lives in Dallas, so our first stop was her house. She lives in an amazing neighborhood, with the most fabulous parks, the kids had a blast! My sister made a truly remarkable cake for Cotton. It was an ipad cake! She put his favorite apps on the cake and even rigged it to play Star Wars and of course Fox Fanfare... I seriously could not believe the effort she put into this cake! Cotton is a very blessed little boy, and he loves his family very much!!



After a night at Aunt Jee's house, we left for the hotel. Now, here is where you need to really have your act together. There is a LOT of stimulation at these sort of places. You need to know what you are doing, where you are going, and how you are going to do it, as much as you can, BEFORE you get there. Any sign of confusion or delay can end in a meltdown, it is important to show no fear lol. Luckily we pulled it off. We got in, changed, and into the water park within 30 mins. score team. We spent the afternoon in the  water park, 90% fun 10% paralyzing fear. The only thing that would have made it better for us, was to have 1:1 ratio. I took for granted that Landon could swim. There was five minutes of terror where we lost him, as he thought he could just go ahead and ride a slide on his own. Another important thing for us, was to leave before everyone was tired. We did, everyone was happy, we ate, and then Cotton and Rev went to bed at their usual bedtime.

So my advice, be over prepared, you don't have to do everything, focus on the most important thing and do that. There were a million side items, we could have done, but it was important for us to avoid over doing. Finally stay true to eating, and sleeping schedules. Cotton and Rev are not "go with the flow" kids, and we have to respect that. The final thing we did that may be different from other families, is that we took Landon to things he enjoyed on his own. There was some really neat activities, that Landon enjoyed doing, but would have bored Cotton, and overstimulated Rev. So, Landon went on his own. We did our best not to feel guilty about that. When we actually attended the activities, I was happy with the choice we made there were loads of babies, and overstimulated toddlers that were totally freaking out. So we did it! I am super proud of our family for a) being brave enough to try and b)you know coming home with everyone alive:)

1 comment:

  1. Wow, sounds fun (with moments of terror)

    I keep reading the reviews of that place and wondering if it would be worth the six hour drive. Maybe when everyone is a little older and a lot more potty trained.
    An IPad cake that plays the Fox fanfare is so cool. And I like the idea of Youtube as a means of communication.

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