Adaptive Skiing and Snowboarding

Back at the end of 2010, we heard about a program called Wasatch Adaptive Sports. It is a program that takes different types of sports and makes the accommodations necessary for kids and adults with special needs to be able to participate. We thought that skiing would be something that Grant would just love. He is the type of kid that is a thrill seeker! I have even said before that if he hadn't started out in a wheelchair, he probably would have ended up in one because of some crazy trick he would have tried. He loves speed, bumps, and anything wild and crazy! So for Christmas we got him everything that he would need to be able to go skiing. We scheduled his first time skiing for the Saturday after his birthday, but it was canceled because of weather. It was rescheduled for the following Saturday, February 12th. And we are so glad we switched days! The weather was absolutely perfect! We even had to strip some of the extra layers we had put on him because it was so warm. Once we got him all checked in, we met our instructor Cary. I wish I would have gotten a better picture of her with him. She was so patient with him and he loved working with her! As we were getting him all strapped in he wasn't too sure about what was happening, but he was still pretty excited. We had been talking about it for a while, so I think he kind of knew what was going on.

You can kind of see his smile under all the ski gear!

Up on the lift...

It was so cool to see how everything worked. He never had to get out of the sled once he was harnessed in. The ski part on the bottom of the sled just pops off and the sled is sat on the ski lift ad belted in. Pretty cool!

As they came down the mountain the first time you could just see the grins and hear the squeals from him! I loved being able to see him having such a "normal" experience. The instructor just skis behind the sled with some tethers and helps him go in a typical zig zag pattern that you would normally ski in. So he was able to feel the motions of tilting left and right as the sled moved across the mountainside.

The resort was a little busy since it was such a beautiful day to be up on the slopes, but he was still able to go down quite a few times in the 2 hour time slot that they give us. We definitely knew that it is something that we would have to do again soon!

Since we were taking Grant, we thought we'd take Mikkele as well. She had never really shown an interest in wanting to learn, so we had never taken her. But we thought it was time she learned. We asked her if she wanted to try skiing or snowboarding and she chose to try snowboarding. We called Adam and Jessie to come down and join us and help to teach her how to board. They were great teachers! Since she is a beginner, we just got her the bunny hill pass, which is where Grant did his runs, so they were able to go down the hill together quite a few times.

After a few runs she was able to go up on the lift and down the mountain by herself.

Adam helping guide her down the mountain.

She spent a little bit of time on her bum, but she picked it up pretty fast! And she looked pretty cute :)

And let's not forget Hallie May! She had a great time playing in the snow and Aunt Jessie even took her for a few small rides.

It was a great day!

Grant 6 Year Old Stats

Singing songs at school on his birthday.

We brought in chocolate cupcakes to share with the class.

*Height: 40 inches 1st percentile

*Weight: 32 pounds 1st percentile

*Wearing size 4T-5T clothes

*Size 9-10 shoe (without braces)

*Loves to listen to music

*New found love of the Game Show Channel

Favorite shows are Cash Cab and Lingo

*Loves to flirt with girls by blowing kisses

*In all day kindergarten and enjoys school

*Taking steps with the help of a gait trainer

And we have a lime green one on order

*Loves his big sister

*Still trying to get used to baby sister...

especially when she beats up on him on a regular basis

*Still a big mama's boy, but doing better

*Gets excited when he hears dad's truck when he comes home from work.

*Says: mom, dam (dad), sis, ya, i love you, more, umm (for food),

dam-ma (grandma), dam-pa (grandpa), will answer no by sticking out tongue

*Can make choices between 4-5 different items

*Likes to go to his church class, mostly for the songs :)

*Likes to help do the dishes and make dinner

*Doesn't love kisses from the dog

*Loves to go on crazy car rides and on the school bus

*Goes to bed at 8pm and sleeps all night

(well with the aid of his sleep meds ;))

*Gets up at 7 to get ready for school

Will sleep later on weekends

*Can count to different numbers 1-10 that you ask him

by clicking his tongue

*Loves food, especially ice cream

*Can suck through a straw,

but still likes his bottle at night

We love this boy and we are so happy he is in our lives!

Grant's 6th Birthday

Grant has a friend from his class at school named Carlos, and they are the best of buddies. There has been a few times when I have gone into his class to drop him off after an appointment or pick him up early for an appointment and Carlos is always very concerned about where he is going or why he wasn't on the bus that morning. One day he told me "Thanks for bringing my friend Grant back to school." That kid just melts my heart! Such a sweetie! So I decided quite a few months before Grant's birthday that I wanted to invite Carlos to his party. I thought it would be a little weird to just invite him to our family party that we always do, so I decided that it was about time that Grant had a friend party. We invited some kids from his school and church class. 14 kids total were invited. And all but 2 came!

It's always hard to think up a theme for Grant's parties since he can't really tell me what he likes. So I decided that since one of his favorite things is music, we were going to have a musical party. I made his invitation on a cd label and then burned one of his favorite cd's for each of the kids. I think the invitations turned out really cute! By far my favorite part about the party!

The table was set with a craft project for each kid to do. Each person got a paper plate tambourine, a water bottle trumpet, and a toilet paper kazoo. They got to decorate each item with foam stickers and curly ribbon.

Trey with his finished tambourine.

Carlos thought it was way more fun decorating Grant rather than his instruments. :)

Next we played pass the maraca. Kind of like a hot potato, but with a maraca that you had to shake before passing it to your neighbor.

Then came present time. Grant got lots of fun presents. Somehow Trey knew that Grant loved ice cream and got him some pies to go along with his ice cream.

Carlos decided that present time wasn't as much fun as clearing all the foam stickers off the table and pretending that it was snowing foam stickers.

But pizza and cupcakes came shortly after and that made him a happy boy!

I made ice cream cone cupcakes that were supposed to resemble a microphone.

Grant LOVES the Happy Birthday song! I have a ring tone of that song on my phone that we play for him when he's sad. Puts a smile back on his face pretty quickly. I think it makes him think of cake and ice cream...two of his favorite things.

Wyatt, Trey, and Grant. I invited Grant's girlfriend Savannah, but she wasn't able to come. That would have been 4 wheelchairs in the house though and would have really pushed the space issue. :) Aren't they 3 handsome little boys!

On Sunday we had the family over for cake and ice cream during halftime of the Super Bowl. I continued the music theme and made him a guitar cake. While I did cheat a little and used a guitar shaped cake pan, I still decorated it myself. I think it turned out pretty cute!

More presents! He was one spoiled little boy!

A big smile for the money from Grandma and Grandpa Gallier. $6 for 6 years old.

A cd case from Grandma and Grandpa Dorene to put all his cd's in.

And some cool converse shoes from mom and dad.

And of course more cake and ice cream for Granty!

Hallie loved it too!

I think he had a great birthday! As for me, I definitely learned a few things about having a friend party for Grant. The next time I do, there will be fewer kids and a shorter length of partying time. I'm glad we did it, but there won't be another one next year! :)

A Surprise Trip

On January 25 I received a package in the mail telling me that my girls and I were going on a spontaneous trip 2 days later to San Antonio. My mom had been working on an Stake Activity Days activity for the 10-11 year old girls in her stake. I had been helping her compile some of the things they needed for their projects and she decided to surprise us by flying me down to help with the activity and Mikkele to participate, and Hallie was a free lap rider so she got to come along as well. Grant got to stay home with Jeremy and have some male bonding.

Mikkele didn't know what was going on until I checked her out of school that day. She had been having a little bit of a rough week at school, so I told her that we were going on a girls day out. On the way to Salt Lake, she kept trying to guess what we were going to do. When we finally stopped for lunch at our favorite bakery I showed her what my mom had sent in the mail....

This was Hallie's first time on an airplane. She kept calling it a car. She did pretty good on both flights. She got a little nervous on the first take off, but just held onto me tight and was just fine. We brought lots of books and toys to help keep her occupied. She was a good girl. And Mikkele had perma-grin the entire time from Salt Lake to San Antonio!

No one except my mom knew we were coming down. So we surprised my dad when we showed up for dinner at Alamo Cafe. And then surprised Aaron and Brittany after dinner.

We had great weather while we were there. It was about 75 degrees on average every day. It was perfect for riding bikes and scooters and trips to the park!
My dad was out doing a bunch of yard work on Saturday and he always wears a straw hat when he's outside working. Hallie found it after he was done wearing it and thought she needed to try it on. What a cute little girl!

Short sleeves and flip flops were a must. And since we would be in flip flops we had to get pedicures :) We all got mani's and pedi's. We really felt spoiled on this trip!We ate at all of our favorite restaurants, plus a few new favorites.Hallie enjoying a rib from Rudy's.
Mikkele having some creamed corn from Rudy's.

We had some good visits with Aaron, Brittany, and the kids. Mikkele got to have a sleepover with her cousins one night. We miss not being able to see those guys on a regular basis.

We were also there for the Roberts family monthly birthday lunch. It's always a treat to sit through one of those. I'm sure everyone wishes they could be a fly on the wall at one of those. ;)

And of course the Activity Days activity. It was a huge success! Everything went really good, and all the girls had a great time! The theme of the activity was "Your Happily Ever After". It was based on a talk given by President Uchtdorf. My mom was just called to be the Stake Primary President right before we got there, so she will have lots of opportunities to plan more of these fun days for the girls.




On the way to the airport to head back to Salt Lake, we stopped by one of our favorite landmark as kids, the big boots at North Star Mall. The girls and I got out and took some pics. Mikkele even climbed onto one of them. They are even bigger up close!

We had a great trip! Thanks mom for having us down to enjoy the weekend with you!