Our last few months

The last few months we have had A LOT going on. We had family visiting so with that.....

Jake finished his second year of college so we headed out to celebrate with lunch

 

Tony, Lindsay and their kiddos came for a much needed visit. We had lots of fun and visited many places, ate lots of food, laughed and even earned a few years back running after three little kiddos again:

a trip to Lollipop park

  

We had snow in May while they were visiting, nice change for them and certainly made for a change in temps for all of us. We went to the Butterfly pavilion

 

  

Madisyn's last band concert of the school year

 

My mom was here to celebrate her 70th!!! Doesn't she look amazing!! Glad she was here so we could celebrate with her.  We all went out to  her favorite place to celebrate.

 

 

 Which was followed by Cayson graduating high school and 4 years of early morning seminary(church class he attended for four years and waking up at 5am everyday). I cannot believe how fast time has flown by. I have 3 children now that have graduated from high school. What??? Our house is getting so quiet and empty. This is so hard!!! 

   
  

 

 

We heard off to our yearly trip to Glenwood springs. So glad to have some extra family to come along this trip

 

  

 Just before grandma Diane left we made it to the Denver zoo. We had an awesome day of fun there. The weather was perfect. We had animal activity. Mostly had a good day together as a family. 

 

Braydon and I celebrated our birthday. Grandma Diane bought us an ice cream cake, we went to dinner with some of our favorite friends, had lunch with my sister in law and a few friends. 

 

We decided to get back into camping since not going in almost 8 years. So what's a better birthday present then a new camping trailer? 

This is going to be our much needed adventure's with Braydon. So much easier on him knowing where he will be sleeping and having some comforts of home. 

 

Cayson headed off to his last year of High Adventure Scout camp and Madisyn headed off to YW Camp. 

           

Excited to share our summer adventures and all the change that comes with the coming months!!

 

I am honestly a good person but....

For quite sometime now I have been thinking about our life with a special needs kiddo or atleast one aspect of it.  There is a truly good reason that I enjoy my free time. I feel I have earned it  as should anyone, but what I really mean  I am not sure if everyone understands. You see Justin and I have been caring for someone for the last 22 years since the birth our first. I mean we have been caring for someone for 24/7 for the last 22 years. Braydon will be turning 15 this June and since his birth we have been doing everything for him. He isn't able to dress himself, feed himself(you get what I am saying, he needs us for EVERYTHING). As with that I don't think most people understand that when he is at school, I have time for ME. So with that I apologize that I am not one who openly says I would love to watch your kids, because frankly I can't it is so exhausting on us everyday, day in and day out, that when I am free for the day I want to truly be free. I use this time to do anything but think about being a special needs parent, let alone a parent in general, HA HA.  I love invitations from friends to go and do something(HINT!HINT!) because after those short 6-7 hours the routine starts over. This is not a plea for sympathy. I just want people to see it from my perspective. It is hard for me to not feel guilty about this too. I remember being a younger mom with kids in tow and have always been fortunate enough to be home with them. I understand every mom who has a baby along with a toddler or a mom who has young school aged children and little ones at home. I have been there and I have done that too and it is exhausting, BUT I am still caring for one who cant care for themselves. Just think of how exciting it is with each kid as they learn to dress themselves or feed themselves, when they learn to entertain themselves and finally when they are old enough to be at home by themselves? It is a wonderful time in every mom's life to have these things happen. It has happened to me 4 times now, but think about it I am still in the constant routine of  feeding, dressing, entertaining and being this person constantly there cause they cannot be alone. Need I also say that physically the demands are harder as the years go on for obvious reasons, he isn't getting any smaller. I know many of you see Braydon as part of our family because only the strong or righteous are blessed with someone who is such a special spirit like that, but that doesn't make the reality any easier folks. IT IS ONE THE HARDEST THINGS EVER!!!

I wrote about this because I needed to get it out there that even though the typed version of our life sounds rough, I know for a fact we wouldn't change a thing. We've made it work, we're making it work, After all aren't we all a work in progress??

Is it Really 2017??

I wanted to get back into blogging again for a couple reasons, first would be the most obvious to make a record(digital) of our family events, history, etc. and second to share some experiences, lessons, enlighten, and give an overall picture of how we exist and cope as a family with a special needs child.