All Rides, All Weekend

September 19, 2011

All Rides, All Weekend

As part of Oliver's Make-a-Wish trip, he was given a passport to one free visit at over a hundred amusement parks. We decided to take advantage of the pass on this beautiful weekend and went up to my parents in PA to visit 2 parks. On Saturday we visited Dorney Park. Waverly stayed home for a Grandma day, while Matt & I took Oliver to Planet Snoopy. We had so much fun. It always takes Oliver a few rides to realize that he can keep riding all day - lots of throwing himself to the ground after the first few rides until he learns the routine. Then he begins running from ride to ride in excitement. We had a great day just with Oliver. Yesterday, we took both kids to Dutch Wonderland. It is such a lovely park - perfect for younger kids. Both kids had a blast. We weren't sure if Waverly would still enjoy the rides, but she was all giggles for most of them. We typically only ride the rides that allow us to ride with them, but we couldn't resist putting them on the Hopper. Wavey started trying to grab the little girl next to her, but then focused on Oliver. Once the ride started she held on tight. I love this photo of both of them on the ride.

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Welcome to Holland

By Emily Perl Kingsley

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland.""Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.