Well, it's time for the semi-annual post. Some people say long form content is dead and that I should be Instagramming and tweeting you. They may be right but our family motto is "often wrong, never in doubt" so I will continue to present you with paragraphs and pictures.
Last time on SMARDy Pants we were visiting Donner Lake. A lot has happened since then that we need to catch up on. Some highlights being Nate turning 7, which is completely nuts, and our recent trip to San Diego.
This is our second year taking a vacation to San Diego and we've learned a few things. Something we learned this trip is that while Nate says he does not want to go in the ocean, he will grin like the Joker the entire time he is in it.....right up until a wave hits the wrong way and he gets smacked in the face with an errant splash. Then he is done.
Something else Nate tried this year was boogie boarding. I set a boogie board on the shore just about at the point where the incoming waves could pick it up. Nate knelt down on it and I held him steady. Then we waited for the waves to come.
Every time a wave would lift up the board Nate would smile and get excited. As the wave would leave he would immediately announce he was done. We did this for a couple of minutes. Nathaniel has a lot of fears and anxieties that come with dealing with SMARD so it can be easy to think he's a scaredy cat.
But that would be false.
He has had to overcome more fears and anxieties at age 7 than most adults do their entire lives. For all his protestations, he never panicked or freaked out. His weak pleas to end the experience were more like formal complaints to appease his stubborn nature than to actually express fear or dissatisfaction.
And at the end of the trip, he told us boogie boarding was his favorite part.
Next up. We learned the Mormon Battalion visitors center and Old Town San Diego were a pretty good time. Nate got to fulfill two of his lifelong dreams: 1. sitting in a stationary covered wagon and 2. looking up and to the left at nothing while the rest of the people in the picture look at the camera.
We also learned that both Nate and Annie can grow pretty great mustaches. You may note that Nate is once again looking off in the wrong direction. I suspect someone was about to assault the Wells Fargo coach and he was steeling himself for the upcoming shootout.
After all, you don't stand in front of a Wells Fargo coach in a cowboy hat and mustache unless you're preparing for a shootout. Look at that steely, he is ready to make some introductions to God.
And of course, it wouldn't be a trip to San Diego without Sea World. Last year Nate wheeled about the park with one goal in mind - see the Orca Whales. If weren't doing that, he was mostly ambivalent. This time, however, he was ready to see it all. And he did.
At Sea World, you pretty much have two options if you are in a wheelchair. See the show from the very top.....or from the very bottom. So, of course, we chose the very bottom, the splash zone.
The Splash Zone is the area where you can sit in a nice air conditioned room and watch the magic unravel between a charismatic Tom Hanks and his fish-out-of-water mermaid girlfriend, no I'm kidding. It's literally exactly what it sounds like. A zone where you WILL get splashed.
We figured it would be better to get a little wet then hike up to the top of the stadium. It wasn't until the sixth or seventh warning to the crowd that the splash zone isn't just a cute name and we will all walk out of the show so wet that we will never feel dry again, that we decided to hike up to the top of the stadium.
In the end, it didn't matter. Nate loved it all. I don't know that there is anything better than a child enjoying a family vacation.
Okay, still with me? Good. We're almost done. You don't want to close the blog now because Nate's favorite part is coming up.
The MIDWAY aircraft carrier.
Annie and I toured this ship on our honeymoon and I loved it. Annie was okay with it. We went on it again last year with Nate. I loved it, Annie and Nate were okay with it.
Nate insisted we go again this year so we did. I loved it, Nate loved it, Annie was slightly less okay with it.
Nate loved it all. He listened to the audio tour and didn't want to leave. He just sat at the front of the ship and stared at the ocean, convinced he had seen a shark fin.
Later that day he poured over the tour guide map and would read to us what the different rooms where.
It was a lot of fun. We all had a great time and we are very happy that we have the ability to get a boy, who is on 24/7 life support and has very little control over his own body, across the state and enjoying so many activities.
One of these days we'll have to tackle flying somewhere but...ho boy, figuring that out seems like a nightmare.
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