Low tide.

Wow, long time no posty! I haven't written since the kids were in school, which feels like forever ago! You'd think after such a long summer break that I would have many fun things to write about but all I feel like writing about is how difficult this summer has been. I'll try to put a positive spin on this somehow. 

Jason went back to work yesterday after 2 weeks off at home. I'm pretty sure he was looking forward to going back though. It was so nice having his help the last couple of weeks! I pretty much got to sleep in almost every morning! I'm so glad I married a morning guy! 

Anyway....Landon's autism program goes through out the summer so we planned to do things locally so he wouldn't miss out on much therapy. If you're a friend of mine on Facebook or Instagram you would probably think we have a lot of fun as a family in the summer. The photos that I post give the illusion that we are having a great time, and we do, sometimes, but it's more like 25% fun and 75% stress/disappointment/frustration. Once in a while, like 1 in 10, we have an awesome time and so that's why we continue to try and do things that "normal" families do. Last week, after an epic fail at the water slides, I said to Jason "We need to stop trying to be normal! It's not working for us!". He completely agreed with me. That was just us feeling completely defeated though and just a few days later we were blessed by a nice time in White Rock. 

It was the last day of Jason's holidays and we were on the fence about going to White Rock. Should we drive all the way there for a potentially terrible time? The amount of public melt downs and stares from strangers that we've dealt with over the last couple of weeks made us want to stay home. We decided to make our decision based on the tide. If it was going to be low tide when we wanted to be there, than we would give it a go. We checked out the tide chart and it was predicted to be at its lowest exactly when we wanted to get there so we went for it. The nice thing about going at low tide is that there is so much space on the sand that we can set up far away from other people and not worry about their reactions to Landon's strange behaviour. (You'd think by now it wouldn't bother us what people think of him but there's only so many times water can roll off a ducks back before the duck is surrounded by said water.) Landon knew right away that this wasn't the same beach that he was expecting so as soon as we got there we set up Landon's chair and gave him some ripple chips (his favorite) to help him feel safe and relaxed in this new place. He sat under a towel chomping away for about 30 minutes before he decided to check out his surroundings. He took one step off the chair and quickly sat back down. Which I didn't mind as it gave Jason and I a chance to eat our fish and chips at the same time! 

We thought he would love splashing around in the shallow water but he did not love the feeling of the mushy sand. He got pretty upset and wanted to be up in our arms and not on the gross feeling ground. Jason and I looked at each other knowing that this could be the end of our time there if we didn't get this figured out fast. I set him down on the hard sand away from the water and started to make splashing noises with his bucket. We over enthusiastically laughed and cheered at the sound of the splashing, trying to encourage him to enjoy the water despite the mushiness. He slowly made his way into the "puddle" and enjoyed it for a little while. He then requested his chair and sat/played on it for the rest of our time there.

Adrianah had a blast collecting shells and protecting her new crab friend, Crabby, from the seagulls. Jason had a nap on the blanket (his favorite activity) and I enjoyed walking through the tide pools looking for sea life. We had a really nice time on the beach. 

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What made this day particularly great was the end of it. Normally we leave somewhere because Landon is having a melt down and we want to flee the scene so we are very happy when we get to leave on a high note. We packed up our stuff as the tide was coming in and we went for ice cream. We don't take him into restaurants because, well it just almost always goes terribly wrong. One of us inhales their food while the other sits in the car with Landon and then we switch. We're drive thru people now. Anyway we took our chances and took him into the ice cream parlour/bakery. I was amazed as Landon was happily standing in line with us. I'm watching him closely, wondering what he's going to do next, and after he takes a sniff of the place, he asks for a cookie! Sure thing buddy, you're definitely getting a cookie! Jason and I are both smiling as we make our way through the line up and order our cones without one of us having to take him outside. Jason is feeling brave at this point and suggests we go take a seat by the window. I shoot down the idea right away because I was afraid of messing with a good thing but then Jason spotted it....there, by the window, with a ray of light shining down from the heavens, was a stand up air conditioner right beside 4 comfy chairs. We both laugh and take Landy over there. Now, if you know Landon, you know that he LOVES a good air conditioner. He wants ours on all year long and he can hear one a mile away. We sat him down beside it and he immediately forgets about his cookie and happily says "I hear the air cishoner!". Jason and I continued to smile as we enjoyed our ice cream as a family. It was the perfect end to our day and his holidays. 

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And that's why we will continue to step out of our comfort zone and pursue normalcy as a family, because the little successes feel like gold medals to us.