Out with the Old in with the New!

Since we have been on break from school, things have been great with Colin. This tells me that school is a stress in his life. Even thought he says he likes school, I wonder how much of that is him WANTING to like school. Only time will tell when we head back next week. The first part of our break we went to Florida. Now, I was a little nervous driving down but we had recently driven out west so I knew it wouldn't be too bad, and it wasn't. We stopped in Orlando for 3 days and took the kids to Universal Studios and the Magic Kingdom. Colin did not hold up at Universal. Standing in line was not for him, he became way too impatient. The one time we stood in a pretty long line I was extremely nervous the whole time. I thought we would get to the front and have to bale. I worried about his brother and how that would make him feel. Luckily he managed to make it and we were able to enjoy the ride as a family. But, after that C was done. My husband took him back to the hotel to swim and rest and my oldest and I stayed to ride the roller coasters. It wasn't the fabulous day I'd imagined we all would have together but it worked out for the best. Colin didn't have a major blow up and his brother and I got some quality time together. Here's a wonderful tip for anyone that has a disability. Disney has a Guest Assistance pass. A friend of mine plans Disney vacation and she gave me this tip. Is all I had to do was go to the customer service area and request it. They asked me what my concern was (they didn't really care to know his diagnosis) and I simply told them, "I am concerned he will not be able to handle waiting in line." That was it! We got a pass (they took his picture) and we were able to ride the rides with a minimal wait time. We would go check in at a ride and they would tell us what time to come back. When we got back to the ride we went through the fast pass line which at most rides is only about a 10 minutes wait, if that. We were able to stay together as a family and enjoy the park together. Colin had a great time and he mentioned that he liked Disney better (over Universal). I plan on writing Disney a letter to let them know that I believe the guest assistance card helped us have a great time. I really think without it we would have had a repeat of the experience we had at Universal. I close this last post of 2014 with two things in mind. #1 2015 has got to be a better year for Colin! #2 I'm ready to close the books on 14 and move on to bigger and better things! Happy New Year!