Pure Michigan

We are back from 9 days in northern Michigan. We go every year, sometimes many times a year and I am always a bit surprised at the beauty. It seems to sneak up on me time and time again and take my breath away. One of my friends was making fun of the "Pure Michigan" ads on TV. But I get it. Especially in northern Michigan. It is pure and lovely. I am usually feeling a bit cranky before we head up there. I don't know if it's the packing or the driving or just negativity, but as soon as I sit down on that beach along the Lake Michigan shoreline, I am once again sucked in to it's beauty. I'm relaxing and wouldn't want to be anywhere else. Can you blame me? Look at this vision!!

I'll start our journey on the blog after we spent our first days on Lake Michigan beach. We had made plans to go to our friends lake house about 40 minutes east of us on a lake that I have heard about a lot but never been to. It is a very large inland lake (4th largest in MI) that does in fact make connections all the way out to Lake Huron. Daniel was very unsure of this day trip since we have never ever gone there before. He does not like to leave the area and perseverates about "how far" things are and becomes quite agitated. I, as usual, like to push him to show him that IT'S OK! It won't kill you AND you might even (gasp) have fun!!

We were not starting out very well, since not only were we making him leave the Charlevoix area, but it was also very dark skies, and even raining. These two things have a tendency to rock Daniel's world (more later in the week on this). There is nothing worse to him than a threatening sky. I don't know if it's the thought of plans changing, the barometer changing or a combination of both. What I do know is he's MAD. So we started this adventure with two very big strikes against us.

We arrived at our friends (fantastic!) house in the rain. We came prepared with movies, portable DVD players and lots of snacks. Everyone actually settled in quite nicely despite the rain. They were watching the radar closely looking for breaks in the weather so we could go out in the boat. The plan was to take my kids tubing for the first time ever. My thought was that Daniel would love this as he loves speed, he loves roller coasters, he loves water. It seemed to make sense. My only hesitation was that when we go out in his Grandpa's boat he does not love the spray off the water. Sometimes it's ok and sometimes it isn't. Would being on a tube in the water make the spray ok? Or would it make him really angry? Only a trial run would tell us the answer to that.

Zachary and his friend (a girl from his class) went first. This way Daniel could see how it works. Daniel immediately had to move to a different seat in the boat so he "wouldn't get sprayed". This made me nervous as he was not relaxing into the trip. Zachary was on for quite a while, his friend fell off once (which was probably a good thing for me) We took the opportunity to show Daniel it was ok if you fell off. You just climb back on!

Here are Zachary and his friend having a great time!!!

We decided it was time for our turn. We swapped places and Daniel and I were ready to go. One of the instructions was to "lean back when you start". As you can see in these pictures, he got the "lean back" part, but seemed not to understand that "when you start" was only at the beginning. He was leaning back the whole time. It doesn't take a detective for you to see by the look on his face what he thought of the experience. . .

His face and his entire being was PURE JOY. The whole time. He laughed and laughed. That laughter that is contagious, because it comes from a place of such honesty. It was contagious because I couldn't stop laughing the whole time either. There is nothing more wonderful as a parent as knowing your child is having the best time of their life and you helped them experience it! Pure Michigan. Pure Joy! Thanks for the day to our wonderful friends!!

Bob and Daniel

Scene from "What About Bob"? Ever seen it? Here's a synopsis. Bob, a man with, well, issues, played by Bill Murray, follows his new psychiatrist Dr. Marvin to his vacation home. Majorly crossing patient doctor boundaries. His Dr. had given him his new book to read while he is on vacation. The book is called "Baby Steps" which is the title of one of my blogs here. While the concept is simple, it blows Bob away and he is feeling a breakthrough from his obsessions for the first time in his life. He is so thrilled he must follow said psychiatrist to thank him. (played by Richard Dreyfuss) After many attempts he can't get Bob to leave. The family, of course, takes to him and he stays. I always thought this movie was funny in sort of a strange way. This was BEFORE Daniel was even born. My favorite scene from the movie is when the family goes sailing. Bob is Obsessive compulsive of the highest order and scared of everything. Then Bob, after getting in good with the family is invited on an outing. This has always been my favorite scene, I don't know why. But I have referenced it over and over through the years. His excitement makes me happy, not in a way of making fun of him, but I am completely thrilled for him that he is sailing.... even if it is while tied to the mast. Whatever accomodations are needed, right?




I bring this up because over the past three days at Boyne Mountain I was watching Daniel, who was nicknamed "fish" by my extended family on our vacation, in his GLORY at Avalanche Bay indoor water park. This was our third trip there. We went with my cousin Beckie and her family (who we traveled east with). Apparently we aren't yet sick of each other!

Daniel would go and go and go at the water park until, as Beckie said, he would collapse into a heap on the floor. Even if he were bleeding from his feet from walking with them wet for 24 hours he'd still say "I'm fine, I can keep going". I don't want to leave yet. We didn't quite get to THAT point, but close enough. He is just beyond in his glory. By the third day I limited the water park to an hour before we drove home, he was literally limping around the park, walking veeeerry slowly.


I said, "Daniel, does something hurt?"

Daniel- "No mom, I feel GREAT". (limp limp limp)

Two of the slides are approximately 3 stories of steps to climb while pulling a huge tube behind you. The first time I did it I had to stop at the top and get my breath and stop my head from spinning. The last two times we were at the park there were huge lines, so you didn't just climb 3 stories straight, you inched up. No one was there this time, so you just climbed 3 stories, got on the tube, went down and did it again. In Daniel's case over and over and over. On Tuesday for 6 hours. I of course made him stop to eat, forcibly. Monday night we were there for 3 1/2 hours. Wednesday for an hour.

Besides the tubes there is a lazy river. Of course he doesn't want to bother with this relaxing experience. He's in it for the thrills. He is fearless. There is also a "race track" where you also climb millions of stairs, lay down on a mat with handles on your stomach and race down as fast as possible. It takes about 5 seconds. Then again you climb again. Then there is the surfing. I could (and did) sit there for hours watching my boys surf. You can lay down on a boogie board and surf the waves, or they have a surf board to stand on. Few people use this. Every time Daniel would jump onto that board and surf those waves, expertly, back and forth until his time was up, he'd yell, "LOOK MOM, LOOK AT ME, I'M SURFING!" Sometimes so loud everyone would look around with a smile wondering who on earth he was talking to. He was the only person I saw in the hours I sat there who talked while surfing. The. whole. time. I would just smile thinking of Bob tied to the sail boat in his glory at overcoming his fear. The way Daniel was yelling was EXACTLY the same. His joy was contagious. People would smile when they'd see me waving back to him, giving him a thumbs up at his joy, acknowledging that I could see him. Then the whistle would blow, he'd roll off and get whisked to the top of the waves and get in line and do it all again. and again. and again.

Vacation adventures continued...

The next leg of our vacation brought us into Massachusetts. My mother was born there. She died 16 years ago, but she has two siblings who raised their families in Mass, so I have many many cousins, as well as aunts and uncles still in that area. A family reunion was the actual starting point to this whole vacation. I used that as a point to work out from to find interesting things for the kids to do.

I prepared Daniel for the reunion by printing out pictures of as many people as I could with their names by them. I knew it was going to be a lot of new people, all who want to please him and be friendly and he wouldn't know what to make of most of it. The reunion was to be held at my cousin Jimmy and his wife's Debbie house. Because his brother and wife live right behind them, we refer to it as "the compound" since so many people live in a block area. The good thing for us is that they have a pool. If there is one thing to relax Daniel it is floating in a pool, so all we really needed was good weather. We started out the festivities Friday night going to my cousins. This was after an 8 hour drive, mind you. We were all exhausted. But we checked into our rooms, I unpacked and organized everything since we'd be there for 4 nights. My borderline obsessiveness kicks into high gear when I'm in a hotel room. I need to know where everything is. Four nights allows me to unpack and organize it all. We had a one bedroom suite allowing us some separation if needed, and I knew Daniel would need it! We went right over to Nancy and Billy's, the other family on the compound. Including the 8 of us who made the drive together, there were probably 18 - 20 people there. In my rush to their house I didn't bring anything for Daniel to "do". Often, I bring his Nintendo DS or something else to keep him amused. He seemed about "done" anyway, so we knew it would be a short visit.

He did amazingly well and spent most of his time perched on a stool in the center of the kitchen telling his "stories" to whomever would listen. This consists of repeating videos. The majority of these relatives haven't been around Daniel since he was four years old, so I don't know if they really knew what to expect. Some read this blog occasionally and some contacted me ahead of time to find out what would help him be the most comfortable. What a lucky girl I am to have these people as my relatives! Nancy had FILLED here refrigerator and pantry with the things that would make her an instant hit for both of my boys. It worked :) Nancy was the woman with chocolate chip ice cream and regular cones. A sure way into Daniel's heart. She also had Italian ice for my allergy ridden Zachary. That is such a kind gesture isn't it?

The next day the weather gods provided again and it was sunny and beautiful!! The pool was open and the kids took full advantage! People were beyond kind with Daniel trying to engage him. Sometimes it even worked! We were at their house from about 12:00 noon to maybe 10:00 at night. We had brought a portable DVD player so there was a considerable amount of time that he escaped to the house to watch movies. I have to admit, it gave us the chance to have fun too, but that is a long time. He needed the escape. I don't think I can expect him to say engaged that whole time. I like to aim high but give him some back up in these situations. In this case it was his DVD's.

In this leg of vacation we also went to Boston for a day. We took the commuter train into town. This on it's own was a big deal. Daniel LOVES trains. Shocking? Not really! Here are Todd and Daniel waiting for the train.

The picture below is by the Old North Church on the Freedom Trail. It was HOT this day in Boston. The most interesting part of the day from an AUTISM standpoint....

Right after this we went to lunch. In a restaurant. Not any restaurant but a SPORTS Memorabilia restaurant, filled with TV's. Not one or two, but A LOT of tv's. He was stressed at first. We assured him the evil Belle Tire would not be present. I have talked about Belle Tire here, here, and here. After 2 or 3 minutes of sitting there with his hands over his ears stressing we convinced his that in Massachusetts there are no Belle Tire commercials. I had written this in his social story too. ( I didn't even say the Belle Tire "name" as that is too much stress.) This was a HUGE success. He actually sat in a restaurant surrounded by tv's. I know we have much work to do to get that to happen around here, but it has to be a huge first step right?

The next leg of our journey was to Cape Cod. We stayed here for two nights. We had an indoor and an outdoor pool at our hotel, we were in the middle of it all. The best Daniel story was when we went to the ocean. He ALWAYS bends down and picks up rock and throws them into the water. He was out in the water and had been the whole time we were there. Todd was out there with him most of the time, (apparently the water was crazy warm? I wouldn't know) but Todd had just gotten out. Daniel leaned over to pick up his next "rock". He looked at it as it was in his hand and he screamed "AHHHH A CRAB" and threw it through the air! Yup he had picked a crab up right off the bottom of the ocean. I think they were BOTH surprised. He likes to tell people that story now and I think it will be a good one for him to share with his peers! He did not get pinched, but he likes to say "the crab asked me why I was picking him up?" What if he really did? :)

This second picture was after he threw the poor crab and decided may be he'd stay closer to the beach.... This is me, trying to get in a picture, because I always have the camera. I took it of myself. Good thing I have really really long arms!

Our trek home was now all the way from Cape Cod to East Lansing. It's a haul. After fueling up with a huge breakfast we left the Cape about 9:30 am. Our intention was to stop somewhere on the way but we drove STRAIGHT THROUGH. We were home about 11:30 pm. Unbelievable. I would have never thought we could do that. The boy did an amazing job! We are so lucky. I think the adventure turned out to be a fantastic experience for everyone. Now Todd is wondering when we'll be driving to Florida? Um, what?

No Fear

My best intentions where thwarted in terms of blogging on vacation. I wrote one. As I suspected trying to look back on the whole vacation, my mind is boggled up with so much information I can't keep it all straight. As a friend of mine told me after looking at my pictures on facebook, "it looks like you were on three vacations". She's right. We packed in a LOT of things in this vacation and were moving all the time. My children were so thankful to get home "and do nothing". I can't decide if that is bad or good? I do know that I was ready to sit down in my own house and do nothing, except that I have piles of laundry and suitcases spread out taunting me as I sit. Vacation part 1 is Niagara Falls. . .

As I mentioned the drive went well, as soon as Daniel discovered he could use his Ipod and not get car sick. He'd periodically yell from the back seat, "I'm not car sick!" "I'm so happy I'm listening to music." It all makes so much sense. I love when we figure something like that out, but it makes me want to slap my forehead and say DUH, why didn't I think of that before? Better late than never will be my mantra.

We were so lucky weather wise on this trip. It's like "someone" said "the Sneathen's are here, clear the skies". That "someone" knew Daniel wouldn't be able to take a thunderstorm on top of everything else. The day we arrived in Niagara Falls was gorgeous. I mean GORGEOUS! The day before it was pouring rain and gloomy. People said it was one of the best days all summer and it was there just for us! Egocentric? Possibly. I just felt BLESSED that it happened. We arrived, dropped our things and headed out to explore for the next 4 hours. Here is Daniel in front of Horseshoe falls complete with a glorious rainbow that stays and stays. Daniel's two favorite things, together for continuous viewing pleasure. It's a beautiful place. If you've never been you should go!

During our exploration, we went on the Maid of the Mist. (which you can see over my shoulder in the above picture) Daniel was getting annoyed with the long walk to the dock. It was pretty far, and it was pretty warm out, so we were all feeling it. Luck was once again on our side. We got to the long line for tickets and they opened a new line. We jumped into that line and avoided the complaining and waiting that would have followed.

Our theory is "no fear". We could have worried about how Daniel would handle all of this, but we just forged ahead and told him it would be fine. It seems to work. He was unsure, but we keep reassuring him. We were leaving the next morning so we only had so much time. Daniel had said he wanted to ride on the Maid of the Mist when he saw the video on the internet. Todd and I knew that it would be stressful for him, because as much as he likes the water, he likes to be submerged in the water. He is not a fan of a light mist floating over him, especially with clothes on. He is very very concerned about peoples clothes getting wet. It is very upsetting. We keep trying to reassure him that everything will dry, it's no big deal, but to him it is. So part of me was nervous about his reaction. I was just moving forward with my new found no fear attitude.

We donned our "complimentary souvenir rain ponchos" and waited for our boat.We chose not to run to the top front where you get soaked for obvious reasons. Daniel was quite stressed but probably only we would have noticed. Everyone is too excited about the ride and not paying attention to the kid worrying about his shirt getting wet. He wasn't making a scene, but if you know his facial expressions you could see the worry. It is an amazing view! The power of the falls is remarkable. The boat gets right up to the bottom of Horseshoe falls and stops for a while. It felt like we were inside that permanent rainbow. You could see the colors around you. I could also feel when Daniel relaxed. The air changes around me and he actually started to enjoy what he was seeing. Todd and Zachary ran up to the top, which sort of stressed him again, but I stayed with him and reassured him, that we don't have to worry about them.

It is so powerful for him to see for himself that what we are telling him is true. I think we know what his limits are and are very respectful of that. He needs a push. I know what he'll like. In these times, he learns so much about acceptance. It empowers him to move forward, to take a chance to see new things and not be stuck in his world. It can be uncomfortable at times, but it is so worth it. He is so proud of himself when he does something that is hard for him. Aren't we all? Aren't those the things that help us all grow? The things that leave us feeling better about ourselves. When you are armed with that, anything is possible. Granted, the things I'm talking about are pretty small compared to most families. I understand that our standards are different. We try to work around them. As with any of us, we are doing our best. If you don't have a child like ours in your family you probably won't understand, but there is a fear that comes with it. We are always fighting it. This whole vacation was about trying new things. I knew he was ready or I wouldn't have attempted it. No Fear.

Look, I see a motor home!

We are on day two of our eastern trek vacation. Currently I'm typing this blog on my laptop in the front seat of our car. Talk about staying connected! Fantastic! Technology is wonderful. I thought I had better get some thoughts "down on paper" before we continue on with the vacation. My memory span seems to be shrinking as my and my age and my waist line grow.

Thursday we left East Lansing by 8:00 am. Not bad considering we had decided we'd leave between 7:30 and 8:00. I've mentioned before the Sneathen's are nothing, if not efficient. We had a stop on the way that was over 45 minutes. That is a very long aside about a prescription and I don't want to bore you with it. We arrived to our destination of Niagara Falls that day by 2:00. The kids did remarkable in the car. As I believe I mentioned, the car ride was making me nervous. Daniel has the unfortunate problem of getting car sick. He seems to be fine if he's just riding. All of our attempts over the years at using DVD players have ended with Daniel either a. moaning and crying from a stomach ache/headache or b. us scrambling to grab a wadded up McDonald's bag from the floor of the car for him to throw up into. Either way they are both unattractive options. With his memory, that sticks with him...forever. He doesn't want to repeat it. Reading and playing Nintendo DS obviously end with the same results since in all instances he is staring at something with the world whizzing past his window.

Last year we bought Daniel an Ipod for his birthday. My thought was that he could listen to "his" music and we could mercifully listen to something ourselves. You see, he also has had a "thing" about the radio. When he is in the car, it must be off. There has been no negotiating this. I have always chalked it up to the fact that it is too random. You don't know what's next, you don't know if annoying Dj's will talk for 15 minutes, or if a "scary" commercial will come on for something that terrifies you. If I tried to leave it on, panic would ensue and he would start escalating. So, we left it off, and drove in silence. Well, not silence, since he is normally chatting or singing or repeating videos. After a while MY sensory system would go into overdrive and the constant noise. Therefore, driving long distances has been avoided. Luckily for Zachary he can happily play his Nintendo DS, read, and/or put the head phones to his Ipod in his ears and can check out of the whole situation.

Before Charlevoix, our vacation last week, I loaded up Todd's Ipod with songs, and bought an adapter for the car so we could listen to Todd's ipod through the stereo system. This worked on the way to Charlevoix and he tolerated this music. After a while he'd ask for it to turn off. It wasn't a real long time that he would leave it on, but it was helpful to break up the monotony of things.

Yesterday, on the way to Niagara, somewhere in Canada, we, for the 927th time this year, suggested that Daniel listen to his Ipod. The thing that was different this time was Daniel said, "I can't listen to my Ipod, I'll get car sick". DOH! All this time he thought he'd get car sick if he listened to music. Why not? He gets car sick when he tries to do anything else! We assured him that when you listen to music you don't get car sick, it's only when you are looking at something with your eyes. He decided to give it a try.
This picture is Daniel and how happy he was after he figured this out!! Can I just say this? OMG! It is unfriggin' believable. He is SOOOOO happy. He is listening to his favorite symphonies. He is LOUDLY (since he has headphones on and doesn't understand that he is yelling!) saying the things that he always does, like, "LOOK, it's a motor home" (literally every single motor home he says this about since looking inside our neighbors this spring, thanks Laura!) Or "here come the bassoons" or "it's the baritone, just like I play". He can identify any instrument by sound in the midst of listening to a symphony. It is quite amazing. The fact that his mind replays the video from Fantasia as he listens is an obvious advantage. It seems like he is seeing the whole video as he listens. He is saying things like, "the dinosaurs are fighting, the dinosaurs are stuck in the mud, one just died" This is him describing what is going on in the video as he listens to the music. He knows the visual at the exact moment in the song. He is in his GLORY. We all are. It has totally changed our driving dynamics. At this very moment, Daniel is listening to his Ipod, Zachary is playing his DS, I'm blogging and Todd is mercifully listening to XM radio, to WHATEVER he wants! It's AMAZING! Who knew all we had to do was lock Daniel in a car for 5 hours to figure all of this out? So once again, it goes to show you that getting our kids out, experiencing life, trying things, as scary as it can be sometimes, is, in my opinion the way to go. I could have paid his therapist big money to try to help us with the music in the car issue, but we didn't need to, we figured it out. We are now wondering if the radio will now be acceptable to have on even if he doesn't have on his Ipod. Maybe he always thought he'd get carsick if he listened to the radio. We haven't had the chance to figure that out yet, even though today's drive is 8 hours, he's had his Ipod on the WHOLE time . . .LOOK mom,I see another MOTOR HOME!

One down...

We are back from Charlevoix the beautiful. This was the week of the Venetian festival. It's a big week for the little town in the north west portion of the state. My children LOVE all of the activities that revolve around this week. I, personally, have a love/hate thing going on right now. I love our time in Charlevoix, I LOVE that the kids love the activities provided during venetian week, I love watching them have fun. I, personally, feel like it is some sort of Ground hogs Day or Groundhogs WEEK. It is always exactly the same. EXACTLY. Which, of course, Daniel LOVES. I mean, it is an autistic kids dream. Thursday we go to Kids Day and the carnival. We did get them to not go to kids day this year. Last year they were too old for it. Frankly the image of the pony guy trying to pull Daniel off the pony going around and around the ring still makes me giggle. I'd bet Daniel outweighed the skinny kid assigned to pull the children down and lift the next one on, while the pony's walk around and around. Daniel coming down the inflatable slide at full speed toward a 3 year old basking in the glory of his run, makes my blood pressure go up. Nope, we are done. Zachary was bored out of his mind last year, and Daniel accepted the fact that he is just too BIG. Hurray.

That meant straight to the carnival on Thursday. You aren't supposed to get your special "kids day" price on the arm band until 2:00. Todd got the brilliant idea to ask at 1:00 if we could just get it then. The carny said yes. Brilliant. We got an hour of moderate lines until the 2:00 deluge of kids standing in the lines of 8 rides. By the way, this equals LONG lines. The excellent thing this year is that Todd and I stood in line with the kids and they went on everything TOGETHER. Having a wonderful time yelling and screaming and enjoying it TOGETHER. This was nice. I did get a ticket to ride "Crazy Dance" with Daniel once. Zachary ran into a friend and he wanted to ride with him. I actually sort of wanted to ride and went with Daniel. Crazy Dance is sort of like a tilt a' whirl, but faster and with really really loud music playing. It was a great ride. I love that sort of thing. We rode together and I thought, had fun. We got off and Daniel said "now you are done, I can go myself". ahhh. Somewhere in there he is almost 13 and definitely doesn't want to ride a ride with his MOM duh. Well, I had fun anyway.

In this Ground hog day scenario Friday includes beach and Friday night fireworks at the same beach. I'll start with the beach. There are basically 3 beaches we go to in the little town of Charlevoix. One is by the public boat launch. Friday started with skies as blue as the lake. Glorious. Zachary and I jumped on our bikes and rode to the furthest beach, put our toes in and chatted. Just the two of us. It was really nice. We rode back to Sneathen base and had lunch. Grandpa got the boat ready and we headed back. But in this time it had clouded up. We were undeterred. We put the boat in, got in the boat. It was getting darker. My head was telling me this was NOT a good idea. My heart wanted to get in the boat ride. It's part of the schedule after all! Within 2 minutes we hit a trench of two wakes and a wall of water came up over the boat like I have never seen. Daniel was sitting in the front with Todd, I was right behind. The water came up over our heads. Note to internet, this summer has been COLD in Michigan the water was COLD. Daniel, while he loves the water most of all, does not like it in this situation. Did I mention, it was cold? The impending storm was making the air temperature drop faster than my hopes for a good ride. Then I was just freezing. I had on a bathing suit and a long sleeve, now soaking wet cover up. Daniel was crying. By the way, Zachary was sitting next to his Grandpa behind the windshield and ducked. He was the only dry person. We calmed Daniel down, but he was still upset that Todd's shirt was soaked. This kind of thing is very very upsetting to Daniel. I think he looks at Todd and sees a soaking wet shirt, he doesn't see himself and kind of forgot about that. But every time he looked at Todd he was SO concerned about his shirt. All weekend he kept asking Todd how his shirt was! This all went from bad to worse. The only ending to this portion of the story is that it started raining on us. HARD. Then everyone was just drowned and we had to wait in line to get to the boat launch. The thing that always makes me laugh looking back on these things is that we are all "oh, it's not a big deal, we are fine" and smiling like fools. When in fact, in my head I'm screaming "I'M FREEZING GET ME OUT OF HERE, I'M MISERABLE". It's amazing how trying to get your kids through an uncomfortable experience you learn to suck it up yourself. That is something I have learned. It is actually very useful for me to be horribly uncomfortable and put on a happy cheerleader face. It's funny because I am SO not a cheerleader. But for Daniel, I can be and will always be. We are teaching him to try to manage these situations and in turn learning to ourselves. It's all good.

That night is fireworks. The first of two fireworks. Daniel LOVES fireworks. The visual stimulation and beauty is glorious to him. We were PREPARED this time. After hanging out in the park at 10:00 it started raining. We all reached down and pulled up our umbrellas. Well almost all. My sister in law Amy and Todd's brother Mark were sitting there. She is still laughing about turning around and seeing up simultaneously put up our GIANT umbrellas. I knew it would rain. Of course it would, that's the way my day was going, so as we were finished playing with the washer toss, the football etc, I'd carry it back to the car so we'd have less to carry in the rain. I also grabbed umbrellas. Sure enough I was right. Be Prepared right??

Saturday was gorgeous. This is parade day. This will sound profoundly unAmerican, but I hate parades. Boring. And this parade is the same parade every single year. Groundhogs day. The only thing that changes is the queen that was just crowned for the Polish festival or the Elk Rapids queen, or the Venetian queen.... you get the picture, float after float of queens. The only parade I have ever enjoyed also involved queens but it was the gay pride parade in Chicago! Daniel loves the queens. He loves the tall guy on stilts, the bagpipers. The predictability of it all. He waves and smiles and yells at them all, all in his glory. The things we do for our children.

The day finishes downtown with a boat parade (yup another parade) on Round Lake. At dark the boats who enter parade through the harbor all decked out in whatever the theme they chose, covered in lights. My favorite this year was the dark boat, unadorned. It was called, "College Fund". I thought it was clever. . . . it ends with, yet again, more fireworks. That ends our ground hog week. We drove home on Sunday in the rain. Daniel was sitting on the couch last night and he said, "I'm really excited about our vacation to Niagara Falls and Massachusetts", just as natural as can be. He isn't anxious, he isn't worried. He's excited. That's what makes these all worth it. I think we may need to go back to get to get some better boat rides in though...

Be Prepared

I have begun preparations for our vacation. The majority of our vacations the past, (many!) years, while wonderful are, predictable. Starting when Daniel was 3 would would make our trek to Northern Michigan. The first year we stayed in a hotel and after that, my in laws started to rent houses. This was very nice in terms of food preparation etc. But for Daniel is started to be difficult because it would take him half of the vacation to get "used" to where we are staying. This is, of course, before I became a pro at preparation. Be Prepared. The motto of the boy scouts and of The Sneathen Family. I have learned, right along with Daniel how to best prepare him for trips.

It's been a while since I've had to do it. Partially because Todd's parents BOUGHT a house in Northern Michigan. This, obviously, helped a huge amount with Daniel. After the first time, he always knew what to expect. Our other vacations have revolved around visiting my aunt in Florida. She lives in Sarasota, Florida, which is beautiful. So each time we've gone there it has been the same house, pool, beach. Convenient. We are very very lucky indeed. There were two Walt Disney World (WDW) vacations thrown in there which needed a great deal of preparation. But basically we have been in a vacation groove. Not a RUT. No way. I would never describe having wonderful accommodations at our feet a rut. It's been wonderful. In a few days we leave for our regular northern trek. It is going to be much shorter than the usual because we have another vacation on the horizon. One that is causing my head to constantly swirl with activity about preparation.

My eastern cousins and the Michigan cousins have talked for years about getting together again. When we were kids it happened with some regularity. Since we are now all adults with our own families that has predictably fallen off. My Aunt and Uncle, last year, celebrated their 50th anniversary. There was talk of a giant celebration. Never happened. Last spring two of my cousins and I flew out for a wedding reception. It was wonderful. I hadn't realized how much I missed that part of my life. This is my mother's side of the family and she has been gone for (gulp) 16 years now. Unbelievable.

I also have become a genealogist part time and have spent countless hours looking into our family history. Facebook, believe it or not has also come into play. I LOVE facebook and spend a LOT of time (yes, too much) on it. It has been a wonderful way to reconnect with these relatives. Which brings me to this trip. I finally decided I wanted to go back and I wanted my kids to KNOW these people. Not only that, I thought it may be a great idea to DRIVE out to see them. I think nostalgia was getting the best of me because I hate driving anywhere. Ever since Daniel was 7 and I (ahem) experienced our first flight with him, I have taken the opinion that we can get on a plane and endure 2 1/2 hours instead of 20 hours driving. Makes sense. He does well on a plane. It is still a lot of work, don't get me wrong, but it is relatively painless. The memories of my childhood and driving to Massachusetts with my cousins got the better of me. I decided that we would all DRIVE together! My cousin and her family are driving too. Just like the old days! Well almost. We aren't all going to be sardined into an air conditionless station wagon together. We will be in separate cars stocked with Nintento DS's and Ipods. Daniel however, gets car sick and watching movies and playing video games doesn't work so well for him. But on the way we are stopping for an overnight. We are spending the night in Niagara Falls.

Daniel has researched Niagara on the internet and I believe this is what he is most looking forward too. The kids LOVES water. He has tried to create his own personal waterfall in our house when he was younger by overflowing the toilet, (on purpose) and continuously flushing it so he could watch the water flow over and over. I discovered it by walking into the kitchen and there was a waterfall coming through our kitchen light to the floor. So the prospect of taking in the REAL waterfalls is very appealing. We are then driving the rest of the way and spending 4 days with our family. I was trying to count last night and very quickly came to 33 people. 33 people. That's a lot of stimuli. They are all strangers to him. They of course know of him, and his challenges. Some even follow this blog regularly. They all seem very receptive and understanding of the challenges ahead of us. We'll be ending our trip with 2 nights at the Cape. Cape Cod. All of these places have SUCH wonderful memories for me. I can't wait. I just hope that I am able to slow down a bit and take it all in myself. I hope I'm not so busy trying to keep Daniel prepared and over stimulated that I can relax some of the time. I hope they come away with the same wonderful memories that I have of this trip and they appreciate the love that will be sent their way. I hope we don't all kill each other in the car. What was I thinking?

I spent hours on Sunday writing Daniels social story. I've printed out maps for each leg of our trip. I've written stories about what to expect, what dates we'll be where. I copied pictures off the internet of the hotels we'll be staying in (all with indoor pools for plan B of bad weather) all with refrigerators and microwaves to handle our food "issues". I've put pictures in of the relatives with everyone's name. I think I'm ready. I just hope everyone is ready for US!