Wellness GIFTS Retreat
Before I talk about my weekend, I'd like to do a couple of shout outs. I got a card and picture today from my best high school and college pal Scott. He got married on May 27 in St. Lucia in the West Indies. So congrats to him and many happy years to he and his new bride! Wished I could have been there but he understood both the monetary and familial issues. Second, I was taken to task by one of my former Navy buddies, Dr. Bry (just got his PhD, congrats to him!) for my post about Zarqawi's death. He being a staunch conservative and me being a bleeding heart liberal, we had many words for each other. All respectful, of course. However, he felt that I implied that our troops on the ground in Iraq were acting "cowardly and evilly" in following their orders. I will apologize publicly for giving this impression. It was never my intent to criticize those service members doing their jobs. I know exactly what they're going through and the difficult task they have. I have the upmost respect for them, all through the ranks. While I highly disagree with the policy they are supporting, their job is to execute the foriegn policy of the United States and they do it the best they can.
Now, on to the weekend. Our camping trip was a lot of fun. We arrived Friday evening and checked into our cabin, which again was totally awesome! We were much better prepared this time, since we knew what to expect. Saturday was full of activities for the boys. The theme this year was space and there was lots of space themed activities: making rockets out of pop bottles, making spaceships out of cardboard boxes for racing later, etc. Due to the heat, the boys spent a lot of time in the pool and less on activities, but that's ok. The Wife and I got to attend a very interesting workshop on bullying and how it affects you kids. The best part was the interaction with other parents. One said it best: "This is a weekend where I feel totally ordinary as a parent". It was great to talk to other parents that understood our issues. I also realized what a wonderful school district we live in. Many other parents had horror stories of dealing with teachers and districts that didn't understand their children's disabilites. We've never experienced any of that. I never realized how lucky and blessed we truly are.
The Wife and I also got to chill out some. We watched the first half of Italy vs USA (I could dedicate a whole post to that, but suffice it to say my heart was with Italy, but I'm incredibly impressed and proud of the American effort). Rocket races were in the afternoon. Grasshopper won his race! They had three lanes and had to avoid meteors (someone throwing balls at them), comets (silly string), and refuel (3 cheeze balls and a half glass of water) before crossing the finish line. It was a hoot! We also had a nice candlelight dinner with the other parents (the kids had a pizza party outside). We had an excellent veggie lasagne and stimulating conversation with a couple from Buffalo with two autistic boys and a mom from a neighboring county also with an autistic boy. We finished off the evening with star gazing.
Sunday was a little more relaxed. We skipped the last workshop and took a hike while the boys did activities. I got a chance to watch a little more soccer before we did the big rocket launch. This brought up one of the few disappointing parts of the weekend. Last year, the assistant assigned to the boys was awesome. He made sure the boys did lots of cool stuff and kept them interested. He guided them and actaully had fun with them. Our assistant this year was more of a babysitter. She was nice enough, but just seemed to follow the boys around. If we were nearby, she seemed to look for a reason to wander off. The biggest dissapointment was with the bottle rockets. The boys wanted to do something else when they were making them on Saturday. Sunday comes along and they realize they didn't have one. Grasshopper especially wanted to make one and we figured they could do it during craft time. They were told, sorry, that was yesterday's project and we can't do it now. You should have seen Grasshopper just before the launch. His head was down and he didn't want to go. I'm sure they could have accomodated the boys if someone pushed. Our assistant last year would have. I made him feel better by buying him a Nerf rocket from the camp store.
The only other downer was the weather. It was sunny and 88 Saturday, sunny and 93 Sunday. While I appreciate the sun, it was a bit too hot and humid. It made it a little harder to be outside in the middle of the day when it's scorching and you're wearing a purple T-shirt. But since it was 65 and rainy last year, this year was definately better. I'll finish up with a couple of pictures from the trip. All the pictures can be found here. Is my woman hot in a tankini or what?
Now, on to the weekend. Our camping trip was a lot of fun. We arrived Friday evening and checked into our cabin, which again was totally awesome! We were much better prepared this time, since we knew what to expect. Saturday was full of activities for the boys. The theme this year was space and there was lots of space themed activities: making rockets out of pop bottles, making spaceships out of cardboard boxes for racing later, etc. Due to the heat, the boys spent a lot of time in the pool and less on activities, but that's ok. The Wife and I got to attend a very interesting workshop on bullying and how it affects you kids. The best part was the interaction with other parents. One said it best: "This is a weekend where I feel totally ordinary as a parent". It was great to talk to other parents that understood our issues. I also realized what a wonderful school district we live in. Many other parents had horror stories of dealing with teachers and districts that didn't understand their children's disabilites. We've never experienced any of that. I never realized how lucky and blessed we truly are.
The Wife and I also got to chill out some. We watched the first half of Italy vs USA (I could dedicate a whole post to that, but suffice it to say my heart was with Italy, but I'm incredibly impressed and proud of the American effort). Rocket races were in the afternoon. Grasshopper won his race! They had three lanes and had to avoid meteors (someone throwing balls at them), comets (silly string), and refuel (3 cheeze balls and a half glass of water) before crossing the finish line. It was a hoot! We also had a nice candlelight dinner with the other parents (the kids had a pizza party outside). We had an excellent veggie lasagne and stimulating conversation with a couple from Buffalo with two autistic boys and a mom from a neighboring county also with an autistic boy. We finished off the evening with star gazing.
Sunday was a little more relaxed. We skipped the last workshop and took a hike while the boys did activities. I got a chance to watch a little more soccer before we did the big rocket launch. This brought up one of the few disappointing parts of the weekend. Last year, the assistant assigned to the boys was awesome. He made sure the boys did lots of cool stuff and kept them interested. He guided them and actaully had fun with them. Our assistant this year was more of a babysitter. She was nice enough, but just seemed to follow the boys around. If we were nearby, she seemed to look for a reason to wander off. The biggest dissapointment was with the bottle rockets. The boys wanted to do something else when they were making them on Saturday. Sunday comes along and they realize they didn't have one. Grasshopper especially wanted to make one and we figured they could do it during craft time. They were told, sorry, that was yesterday's project and we can't do it now. You should have seen Grasshopper just before the launch. His head was down and he didn't want to go. I'm sure they could have accomodated the boys if someone pushed. Our assistant last year would have. I made him feel better by buying him a Nerf rocket from the camp store.
The only other downer was the weather. It was sunny and 88 Saturday, sunny and 93 Sunday. While I appreciate the sun, it was a bit too hot and humid. It made it a little harder to be outside in the middle of the day when it's scorching and you're wearing a purple T-shirt. But since it was 65 and rainy last year, this year was definately better. I'll finish up with a couple of pictures from the trip. All the pictures can be found here. Is my woman hot in a tankini or what?
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