vacation

It took me a long time to realize that when you go away with your children you are taking a trip, not a vacation. A vacation is something you do on your own, with your spouse, or with friends. We just returned from our trip westward. Before now, I had never driven further than Chicago. When I was 14, my family flew to California, but truthfully that trip was lost on my youth. This was a planned drive to St. Louis and then through to Oklahoma City. We loved St. Louis! After looking online, I found "The City Museum" and we couldn't wait to get there. This is by far the best museum I have ever been to. Tons of climbing and exploring to do, Elijah was the most adventurous as there were places to explore in the dark but Sam loved the outside. I was hot and sweaty and very happy to be having fun with my family.

Oklahoma was hot and flooding when we arrived. They had 29 straight days of rain! We spent some relaxing days with family and explored the country west of the Mississippi. It is beautiful there. We even managed to rescue a baby Eagle and drove him to a wildlife rescue. The poor thing was so sick, but the vet said that they thought he would pull through.

I am glad to be home. Traveling in such close quarters (a car) and being away from home is very hard on a child with autism. His sensory system was on overload and he had no comfort zone. During the first day or so, I thought we were going to have to come home, but he settled down and we were able to enjoy ourselves. My heart just aches for him as you can see, he just doesn't know what to do with himself and therefore acts aggressively and impulsively. We will have to have a better gameplan in place to help us all when we travel next.