Summer with Aspergers

[Guest guest]

My youngest daughter, Gillian, just got done with 4th grade. Next year will mean

big changes. This past year, her 3rd grade teacher moved up to 4th grade, so she

kept her teacher. She wound up moving buildings due to budget cuts, and

amazingly, her entire support staff made the jump with her. Her peer counselor

group, her ASD teacher, her speech therapist, her 3rd grade teacher, her

principal, etc. It made the change a LOT easier on her.

Next year, she'll remain in the same building, but obviously with a new teacher.

On top of that, her ASD teacher (who she's around 3 times daily for class

breaks, plus 3x weekly for group sessions) just found out she's pregnant, and

due in January. She won't be back after Christmas break until her maternity

leave is up. So, just about the time Gillian really gets settled, things will

change on her again.

Anyway- the point of this post isn't about the school year. It's about summer.

Friday was the last day of school, and already, we're off and running this

summer.

On Sunday, I drove her 2 hours west of where we live to go see her aunt, and to

swim in Lake Michigan. We saw 3 of her aunts (one is her Great-Aunt, 1 is

actually my 2nd cousin, and the other is my best friend), plus 2 " friends " (my

best friend's kids- we rarely get the kids together, because her son also has

AS, and the two don't get along real well- they are both way too alike-

stubborn, argumentative, and set in their ways!). She got to swim, we went to 3

different parks, had a picnic, then when it was darker, we drove down the coast

to the next town, where they have a huge musical fountain that runs for 30

minutes every night. It's huge, and it's set to music, with lots of lights. We

got ice cream on the boardwalk before settling in to watch the fountain.

She had a great day, and really enjoyed seeing everyone, and being able to swim

in Lake Michigan- even if it was only for about 20 minutes.

Tomorrow, we're heading to the pool for a farewell party- one of her friends in

Girl Scouts is moving out of state.

On Sunday, we're going to an amusement park for Father's Day, and meeting up

with more family. She loves going- we bought season passes for Christmas, but

this is the first time we're going this year.

In 2 weeks, we drive 4 hours up north with 9 other 10 year old girls to have fun

at an indoor waterpark with her Girl Scout troop.

Just a few days after we get back, we turn around and drive 5 hours north to

camp- just me and my 2 daughters. My son hates camping, and he's old enough to

be home alone during the day. My DH can't take time off from work during the

4th- he's the manager of a tech support department, and they are releasing a new

software upgrade that week, which means they'll all be super busy- especially

since they have a day off in the middle of the week. So, it'll just be us girls

camping.

We plan to hit up a Mystery Spot, an outdoor waterpark, and Mackinac Island.

It's a neat area- the Mackinac Bridge connects the two Michigan peninsulas, and

there's an island in between. All 3 locations (St. Ignace north of the bridge,

Mackinaw City south of the bridge, and Mackinac Island in between) do their

fireworks right over Lake Michigan & Lake Huron, so if you find a good location,

you get to see all 3 sets of fireworks. We've never been there for the 4th, and

we're excited to see the fun firework show.

We almost bought tickets to do a fireworks cruise, so we could watch them from

on the lake, but Gillian can only handle so much when it's noisy like that, and

typically, she'll just retreat to the car, or into the house if we're at a house

watching them. But, if we're on a boat, she wouldn't have anywhere to retreat.

While it would be fun, I'm opting for sanity.

After July, we don't have any set plans. lots of trips to the amusement park,

and we're hoping to go camping on the lake shore with family in August.

Now that all the kids are older, and we're not always broke anymore, it's fun to

be able to plan fun things to do with the kids.