Our Life With Alex: What A Great Weekend!

Saturday night we went to the annual Richmond Hope Foundation wine gala which helps create scholarships for the children who go to Hope for the intensive physical therapy they provide since most often it is not covered by insurance. We had a great time and enjoyed spending time with everyone, including our good friends Dara and Jerry and Christy and Tom.

Jerry, Dara, Me, Aaron, Tom, Christy

Lots of fun for a great cause.

Sunday, my brother was participating in a "mud bog" at the county fair to support a local family whose daughter has a rare form of cancer. All of the money raised by the drivers was donated to the family for her medical bills. Jennifer had spent the night while we were at the Gala and my sister had kept Zach for the night so I went to pick Zach up and then Jennifer and I took the kids to cheer on and support Uncle Danny. I have to say it was my first mud bog and I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but I enjoyed it!!

Before the mud

Entering the "bog"

Nice and Muddy!

Beans congratulating Uncle Danny after his run

Alex, Zach and Uncle Danny

When we were done watching him Jennifer and I took the kids into the actual fair. Zach was riding some rides and then he and I went to play one of the games - my favorite fair game where you shoot the water into a clowns mouth. Anyway, after we played (and I won!) we were waiting on line for one of the rides and the attendant that was running the game we had just played called me back over. He pointed to Alex sitting in her chair and asked me if that was my daughter and wanted to know what was wrong with her. He told me that he had a son with Downs Syndrome and then turned around to the shelf where all the prizes were and asked me to pick out which stuffed animal I thought she would like the best. He told me he wanted to give her something because he wanted to make sure that she had a great time at the fair. How nice was that?!? It just takes one persons small act of kindness to really put a smile on your face and make you feel really good.

They had this interesting swimming pool set up that you could pay $5 for and let your kids get into a plastic ball - it's deflated when they get in, but they blow it up, zip you up, and off you go...(Alex loved the noise when they were blowing the balls up and laughed every time they turned it on - it was funny to watch her enjoying that so much rather than probably actually getting in!) So Zach got in and it was hysterical watching him - he looked like a hamster trying to run around on a wheel - it was impossible for him to stand up but boy was it funny watching him try!

OK, on to the BEST part of the day. When Zach was on the ride called the Sizzler, Jennifer looked at me and said "Don't you think Alex would love to go on that?" I looked at her like she was crazy and said "Are you serious?!?" and she said "Yes, I think Beans would love it!". I was not thinking it was something with Alex's low tone that she could go on. The ride spins around really fast and the force of gravity pushed you to one side - all I could picture was her slipping out underneath the bar! So we walked away, Zach did the bubble thing and Jennifer kept looking back at the ride. I said to her "You REALLY think Beans could go on that?!!" and she said "Absolutely!" - SO, guess what?!? Alex went on her very FIRST ride!!! And she LOVED it!!! Way to go Jennifer for talking me into it because I never would have even considered it. When we got off the ride a guy waiting in line ran over to help us get her out and said, "Man, she sure did enjoy that - I was watching her smile the entire time!" And she really did LOVE it - she was smiling and even squealing! Alex loves when the wind blows in her face so why wouldn't she enjoy being twirled around so fast?!? What a normal thing that most kids get to do and enjoy just made my day - I was SO happy for her that I had a smile on my face the entire rest of the day - and every time we talked to Alex about it she just laughed and giggled.