Some things don't change

We found Backyardigans in Spanish

 

Nick still loved it

Oh yeah, we're here for a Wedding

So now it was my baby brother's turn to get married.

 

 

It was a beautiful day, and I took lots of pictures!

This one is my absolute favorite!

 

 

Nick loved having 'pikey' hair!

And of course I needed a family shot!

 

 

The bride was beautiful, and I think the smile on Mike's face really tells the whole story!

 

 

While the bride and groom got their pictures done, Nick wanted to lay on the beach 

 

And Katheryn and I grabbed some pictures together

 

Nick was too busy entertaining the ladies!

 

He had a whole audience for his magic show

 

 

After a bit of a nap he was loving being the center of attention for a while!

 

And Katheryn took some time to play in the surf. And if the bride doesn't mind getting her wedding dress wet and dirty, what can I say about Katheryn's white dress.

It was a perfect day!
Complete with Katheryn eating her carrots, and Nick eating *gasp* salad! And liking it!

Sharks, Stingrays and a Pirate Ship!

Today we went on a pirate ship.

 

The bus ride there was interesting. The wheelchair went in the passenger seat, and the driving in Punta Cana is different from driving at home. For example, we have stop lights, and stop signs, and speed limits. They have large vehicles, pot holes and speed bumps. I did not see a single stop light.

But we were in a big bus, and we made it.

 

Katheryn was worried we were going to see real pirates, and Nick was excited that we might meet pirates! (There were no pirates).

We did make sure that the boat was accessible to Nick's wheelchair - and it was.

The sand... not so much

 

 

I was excited to swim with the sharks.

The kids didn't want anything to do with the sharks, in fact they didn't even want ME to be in with the sharks.

 

 

 

But they were game for the sting rays.

I have some pictures of us with the sting rays, but here is a video of us getting a sting-ray back massage. (It was soft).

Nick wasn't that happy about it, but he let us do it twice, and he was great actually touching the sting ray again (but a sold NO to feeding it fish).

 

The boat had entertainment as well, as we went between the sharks/sting rays as well as snorkeling and back to the beach.
Katheryn liked In the navy

And Nick thought the boat thing was great!

 I'm glad we went on an excursion. But I'm good with the rest of the time by the water.

Sun and Sand

That's right!

We were ready for some sun and sand!

This is what Punta Cana looks like during the day! (Yes I took this picture)

  

We stayed at Ocean Blue and Sand resort. It was very child-friendly, all-inclusive, fully accessible (except for the golf carts), most of the staff spoke English, everyone was friendly. It was great!

The kids were all prepared to spend a whole week in the water!

 

And Kyle and I were all ready to do a lot of this...

 

Thanks to Jill and her discussion about the puddle jumpers I went out and made sure we had some for our trip.

When we were at Easter Seals Camp in the summer, the kids loved the water. But life jackets are very bulky. I probably wouldn't have got them, except Jill raved about them.

OMG! These are the best inventions EVER!

Nick could swim! By himself!

It took about 1 day for him to be comfortable, and that was it. He was off!

 

We did got to the beach as well.

I don't remember really liking the ocean, but I couldn't get enough of it. I loved just riding the waves.

I would have spent my whole day at the beach if I could.

 

Nick wasn't that happy with the beach, or at least in the ocean.
I may have been responsible for that.

Our first day, Nick and I went down. I carried him in and we ran into the ocean. We rode the waves and played. Coming back in, I had him in my lap and was coming back in on my bum (getting sand everywhere). A big wave hit us, we both flew over backwards as the wave rushed over us.
We both came up sputtering.
Nick would not go in the ocean again.
But he loved the sand

And Katheryn loved the surf!

We spent most of the time camped out between one of two pools, in the shallow end, and the beach. My sister and family usually had 4-6 spots saved. And my parents were usually around. The party animals (my brother and friends) were usually at the other pool by the swim-up bar.

The kids really liked going up to the swim-up bar and ordering apple juice or chocolate milk.

The sun got hot and we all had at least 60 sunscreen on (luckily only Kyle and I burned) the kids still got dark.
And every afternoon we all went in for a siesta. The got all dressed up for dinner.

Nick travelled in his wheelchair the whole trip.
The resort was very spread out and we did a lot of walking. So we spent the day in the water, no braces. But put Nick's braces on at dinner time so he could get out of his chair and move around.

 

I knew that this trip was the perfect opportunity to get some family pictures. And it took a while to get what I wanted. I got a bunch of excellent pictures, but never quite what I had in my mind... 

 

 

I took over 700 pictures between 3 cameras, so I got all the pictures that really count.

Nick was not very happy that the wave got him!



 

Not that I'm complaining. I have a beautiful family and we had such an amazing time! I can piece all kinds of pictures together that shows how much fun it was!

 

I could stay here forever!

Flying High

We were off for our first airplane ride! Punta Cana for my brother's wedding.

24 people all sharing the trip.

 

I originally had some concerns about how Nick would be and any additional concerns regarding Nickolas in his wheelchair. But everything pretty much happened without a hitch.

 

We made sure we packed lots of stuff (and used about half of it)

 

We brought Nick's walker and checked it. Nick was NOT happy that he didn't get to keep his walker.
And once we waited in the correct line-up we were able to check it no problem
(Contrary to what the first person told us). Nick's walker was no charge for medical equipment, we checked it and it travelled no issues.

We took Nick's wheelchair with us, left it at the gate and picked it up at the gate when we got there. I had been a bit worried about it being damaged, but no problems.
We also got to skip all kinds of lines.

Even during the security check we didn't have any issues. Kyle had to take Nick out of his chair. All I could think was one of us being pulled out for a 'random security check'.
After a while it was time to get in the plane.

I tried really hard not to show how nervous I was. The kids were excited, and even Kyle hadn't been in a plane since he was 5. And mind over matter, if I pretended I wasn't nervous, I wasn't.

We got to pre-book Nick's seat for free (and 1 adult). Nickolas was very specific that he wanted to sit with Kyle. So Katheryn and I sat a couple of rows back (we pre-booked our seats for a cost).
All settled in for a 4 hour plane ride.

We were able to get some great pictures out the window.
And watched the sun set as well.
I had to cath Nick in the middle of the ride. Nick sitting on the top of the little bathroom potty while I'm crouching in front of him... and the plane started bouncing with turbulence. But I didn't want to wait and do it in the airport, or wait longer to actually get settled.

Nick fell asleep almost right away. And so was still sleepy when we arrived.
We ended up landing at 9pm (the kids were fine drinking to pop ears on the way down).
We had to carry Nick down off the plane, and then wait for the wheelchair while everyone went ahead of us.
Luckily we sent our family ahead with description of our luggage. So our were all collected by the time we made it through customs.

 

We were in our room by about 1130. Dropped everything and crawled into bed.

The kids behaved very well through the whole (long) day!

 

Tomorrow is time for some sun and sand!