I apologize for not writing blog posts more often, but it's been a crazy summer. I wanted to share our vacation experience with you all. As most parents with kids on the spectrum will admit, planning a family vacation can be difficult....and you always have to over-prepare and be ready to make adjustments at any given point in time (as needed). Because no matter how much you plan and prepare for things, something will almost always occur -- the slightest thing can throw a monkey wrench in the best of plans -- and then total chaos occurs. Thus in the past, our "vacations" usually consisted of taking a one or two day "vacation" to go visit family. Nothing fancy -- nothing that would be a sensory overload for Taz....just a quick and simple road trip.
When I was a child, our family vacations weren't trips to Disney or going on a cruise.....my parents were "working poor" or what some would call blue-collar workers, thus we couldn't afford fancy trips. Instead, my parents took us camping. At first it was just simple camping in a tent, then mom & dad bought a pop-up camper.....years later they found a nice used pull-behind style camper and right after I graduated from high school, they purchased a mini motor home. Some of my best childhood memories are of camping with my parents & siblings. The campgrounds that we went to weren't anything fancy.....usually near a lake with a basic playground and a few other "perks" like a public restroom with showers or a game room that consisted of a pool table and a few arcade style video games. Most of the campgrounds were fairly plain and rustic, not like the ones that exist today. We would spend time riding our bikes around the campground, playing at the playground, fishing, swimming, and enjoying time together as a family. We would sit at the picnic table and play cards or board games, roast marshmallows around the campfire, and eat "cowboy" style food.....hot dogs, burgers, fish that we had caught that day, etc.
For years I've wanted to share the whole "camping" experience with our kids......I wanted to create wonderful family vacation memories for them like the ones I have of my childhood. The only "problem" --- we had no idea how Taz would deal with camping. Last summer we finally decided to gather our courage and give it a try......we decided to start out simple by renting a cabin. We found a fairly nice family style campground almost two hours away from home that had an arcade room, a nice lake, a playground, and some rustic cabins available for rent. We agreed that starting out simple -- a three day cabin rental -- would be the best way to "test the waters" so to speak. Aside from a few minor issues, Taz did fairly well and all of the kids enjoyed the experience. I of course was a nervous wreck the entire time.....worrying that Taz would wake up in the middle of the night and try to leave the cabin, or run off somewhere during the day, etc. -- thus although we had a good time, it wasn't that relaxing for me.
Later in the summer, we decided to take a few days and go on a "road trip" to visit family in the north.....they were renting a cottage on a lake for a few weeks, and invited us to come and visit. The cottage was wonderful -- it was fully furnished with a fairly nice sized kitchen, microwave, coffee pot, 3 bedrooms, 1 and a half baths, and a living room that had cable TV! Taz did very well at the cottage.....he loved swimming at the dock (the water wasn't that deep near the dock), sitting out by the campfire, and of course watching all of his favorite shows on the TV. Yes I will admit, it wasn't really "camping" per say.....but it was a nice relaxing time and gave us the chance to visit with hubby's side of the family....and gave the kids the chance to spend time with their cousins whom we don't see that often due to them living 4+ hours away. Things went so well during our visit, that hubby & I decided we'd try another mini three-day vacation later in the summer.
We went to a different campground this time -- one that was almost 2 hours south of us, and had more "frills" than the other one we had tried. This campground had rustic cabins that were a bit nicer than the ones before.....a loft sleeping area, nicer beds, electricity inside the cabin, and a nice little covered porch that had a swing. The public restrooms & shower facilities were directly behind our cabin and there was a really nice playground right down the "road".....close enough that the kids could go over and play, while hubby and I sat on the porch swing and watched them.....thus basically the playground was on the other side of the cabin next door. There was a swimming beach on the other side of this huge campground -- we walked there once but decided it was easier to drive to. They also had a heated swimming pool, a really nice arcade room, and a mini golf course. Taz loved having the playground so close to our cabin, loved the pool and of course absolutely LOVED the mini golf! He did really well at this campground.....followed the rules for the cabin and swimming, didn't try to run off at all......thus I was able to sleep better and relax a lot more on this mini vacation.
As the summer came to an end, hubby and I decided that things had gone well enough on our mini vacations, we'd plan for something more for next (this) summer. We already had some camping gear that we've obtained over the years.....and bought new sleeping bags, a large tent, and some other gear during the clearance sales at the end of the summer in preparation for future camping trips.
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