Life and Times of The Johnston family

Thursday February 5th I finished packing up the van(Tony did most of it the night before) and after a 15 minute mad search for Lovey(that had me frustrated to the MAX!) we left the house later than I had wanted, to pick up Tony from work. We picked him up about 4:20, stopped to top off the gas tank then drove to Pasyon while the kids just played in their seats with their seat trays which are the best "for the car" investment we had ever made! They make traveling in the car SOOOO much easier! At Payson we drove through at McDonald's and got dinner, and got the kids set up watching a movie. We then drove to Primm which took another like 4 or 5 hours(I'm sure we made a potty stop in there somewhere but that's not all that important) and the kids just watched movies. Devin fell asleep during the last movie and Elizabeth was so very ready to get out of the car by the time we got to our hotel after 11. The kids fell asleep easy though! Elizabeth got us up nice and early, so we were ready to go by 7. We sat the kids on the bed and surprised them with the announcement that we were not actually going to Las Vegas for our Vacation but were driving on to California to go to DISNEYLAND!!! They were THRILLED! To say the least!! We stopped for gas, had breakfast in the car, and went to the Howard Johnson(which was about 4 hours away) just down the street from Disneyland. (this will be our go to hotel from now on, it was so nice!) They even had a room ready for us! (we had called after we made the reservation to tell them we would arrive early and asked if we could leave our car and luggage....we didn't know they'd have the room ready for us though!)It was great! We brought our stuff in while the kids had fun checking out the room. Our kiddos LOVE hotel rooms! Then we went to Downtown Disney for our lunch reservation at Rainforest Cafe. Two things we learned for when we go back. 1)Both kids, but especially Elizabeth need noise reducing headphones. 2)DO NOT sit by the gorillas, they scared the crap out of our kids! They had to stare at the elephants across the way during the "storm". But other than that it's a fantastic place to eat! After lunch we went to Disney's California Adventure and the fist thing we did was set up a DAS pass for Devin(next time we'll get one for Elizabeth as well, so she can go on roller coasters, Devin doesn't want to. Her SPD and Anxiety qualify her for the pass as well, we just didn't realize they'd need their own). That pass was an absolute lifesaver! It's not a line jumper, we still had to wait, we just didn't have to wait in the normal line. We had a return time scanned on our passes and would go through the exit or handicap entrance to be admitted onto the ride. We did still wait a lot of the time but it was usually just a few minutes. The longest we had to wait was the 2nd time we went on Radiator Springs Racers which was about a 20 minute wait(the actual wait time was like 90 minutes), and our kids nearly lost it! So the pass made our trip a success! The cast members were so good with our kids as well! They gave Devin an Honerary Citizen badge and Elizabeth a Cinderella Happily Ever After badge, and their own maps while Tony was getting the pass set up. I must say Disneyland really brought out the Autism in Devin...really it just made us notice it more, as he's not in those types of places and scenarios very often at home in our day to day life. He didn't hardly talk(to anyone other than us), he often used me to talk with people(telling me what he had to say instead of the person talking to him), he had no nails left by the end as he was chewing on them constantly. In fact we noticed a lot of nervous habits coming out in Devin. He loved the characters, but didn't ever talk to them(unless he had doggie then he talked through doggie), Elizabeth did most of the talking for him(they have a very symbiotic relationship in that aspect, Devin hates talking to people and Elizabeth cant get enough!) Elizabeth did have trouble with the noise there, and often had her ears covered or had headphones on. The busyness and over stimulation came out big time in her anxiety, and she lost it several times, as did Devin. But actually overall they both did much better than we anticipated. We never had to leave the park due to a meltdown and we really thought we would have to....more than once. Anywho I'm not going to bore you with a play by play of each day. I'll let the pictures do the talking, I'll just fill in things I didn't get pictures of.(I've decided I'm going back to a point and shoot camera as I just don't like how big and bulky our camera is. I've missed being able to put it in and pull it out of a pocket, and I just use the one we have as a point and shoot anyway). For this trip I used my phone when the camera wasn't accessible.

Telling the kids our secret!

This could be an Autism awareness video. Notice the vast difference in their reactions! Elizabeth looks at us and celebrates "with us", using words to express her feelings and thoughts with us. She runs to hug me sharing a connection with me. Devin barely utters a word when I pull it from him! He jumps but not really from happiness but because Liz is, he's just following her lead(as he often does) And he avoids eye contact at all costs!(especially when I try to engage with him) FYI he was just as thrilled as Elizabeth.

The "super fun, awesome" hotel room!

At Disneyland!!

Lunch at the Rainforest Cafe

While waiting in line to see Pluto the kids watched a man decorate the rice crispy snowflakes.

Mickey mouse!

On our way to Toy Story Mania, I had to capture this beautiful scene!

We also had to stop to chat with Donald Duck! He is Tony's favorite and this was his first time meeting him!!

Then we made it to Toy Story Midway Mania. We promised Devin he could go on a Buzz ride first and foremost! It was thoroughly enjoyed by ALL!!

Then we checked out the awesome new(since the last time we were there) Carsland! It was amazing!!

Meeting Mater!

Luigi's Flying Tires(they are no more, they're changing it up)

Bug's Land!

Tuck and Roll's bumber cars!

Just waiting for daddy to get a ride return time for the Monsters Inc ride.

We didn't have to wait long!

We had snack while waiting for the Pixar parade!

Monster University

The Incredibles!

Finding Nemo

I think this was Bug's Life

Buzz! Toy Story!

Mater brought up the rear

After the parade wen went over and just made it in for the 6:30 Frozen sing along! Waiting was excruciating, but it was tons of fun! Elizabeth was in HEAVEN! She provided great entertainment for all those around us. We got several sweet comments, and Elizabeth was very gracious about the compliments on her voice. (I must say it is getting really good, since her lessons in her theater class)

We had a packed dinner and decided the kids were done in the park.

We ended our day with a trip to the Build a Bear in Downtown Disney!
Elizabeth got the Elsa bear and got her dress as well.

Devin got the Batman bear and outfit.

All tuckered out.(Elizabeth's blanket is a weighted blanket that helps her sleep, made by my amazing mom!)

Okay so going back a couple weekends ago, that Saturday we got up got ready and drove to Logan to go to Gossners to get flavored milk and some squeaky cheese, of course! Then we went to the Pepperidge Farm Outlet. We got there a bit before it opened so we had to wait a bit which did not give Elizabeth a great start going into the store. They didn't have a great selection, mostly goldfish crackers which is ok cause we did need those, they just didn't have many cookies. They have a sample table that we let the kids try some things from, but after we told Elizabeth no more she grabbed another one then tried to put it back on the tray, then threw a major fit. I had to take her out and use my mean mommy voice with her, but she still wasn't stopping so we went to the car and she sat in the van until Tony and Devin came. Eventually she apologized and hopefully learned her lesson. Then we went to Aggie Ice Cream! We went to lunch at the Brick Oven(in Layton) which was delicious. We came home and chilled for a while then Mary came up and watched our kids while Tony and I went to a Grizzly's hockey game, as he got AWESOME tickets from a vendor he works with. They were SECOND row seats, and padded! We got some dinner there and enjoyed a great game(it was the guns and hoses game, Police and Fire Fighters) Their uniforms were soooo cool! They were like a police uniform on one side and a fire fighter on the other! The Grizzly's even won 2-1! We decided we need to do sporting events more often as that's something we both really enjoy! It was perfect timing too because we went on our first date to a Grizzly's game the end of January, 9 years ago! Wow how time flies when your'e having fun!! Sunday Tony and Elizabeth went to church and Devin and I stayed home. After church Elizabeth had a life math lesson. She weighed out 29 grams of chex mix and 44 grams of sweedish fish to put in snack bags for our trip. That night we had a lasagna dinner with my parents and Jen and Daniel. We had a great time visiting while the kids had fun playing.
Monday started really rough as both kids were melting down over the littlest things. But we got breakfast and some essential oils on them and things got better! I did school with Liz, which went pretty well! That evening was her theater class which Devin has come to look forward to as he gets ipad time while she's in class, as it's been too cold to play on the playground(and they're putting in a new one which is a giant construction site at the moment, but it looks almost done!) Elizabeth did ok in class, she was in a weird funk....she didn't act out but she didn't pay a lick of attention either so. Tuesday was my brother's 33 birthday(and first we've had to have without him) It was a rough day for me, I just couldn't seem to get my emotions in check, but I didn't do too bad(I don't think I did anyway) I got Devin to preschool, which with oils on him, he did willingly and all by himself! I didn't even have to walk him into the room(usually I'm dragging him kicking and screaming into the room....or his teacher is!) We were both floored! Elizabeth did really well with school and even finished with time to play before we had to go pick up Devin! (maybe they felt bad for me and it was their way of helping me out? ;) ) I went up and talked to my mom for a bit as we got a plan in place for the afternoon. After picking Devin up from preschool I packed his lunch and my mom took us to the dollar store and the kids each picked out a little birthday balloon to put at Eric's grave. Then we went to McDonald's for lunch and the kids got to play. Then we went to the cemetery and met my dad there. My kids put the balloons next to their Uncle Eric's headstone, my parent's and I chatted for a bit while the kids ran out some energy. Then we came home and the kids watched a movie, then had some free play. I went up and talked some more with my parents, Tony got the kids some dinner, and later that night I just ate a bowl of cereal. Wednesday I managed to do school with Elizabeth but that was about it...we didn't even get to Bravo classes. That evening we watched my cousin's boys while they did some tax stuff, our kids had tons of fun playing with them for a couple hours! Elizabeth had a meltdown at the very end, but all in all they did really well. Thursday was by far the hardest day of the week. I was glad to drop Devin off at Preschool, which he did pretty well again! Then I got through school with Elizabeth, not too badly. Then went and got Devin from preschool and let the kids watch a movie while eating lunch. My mom watched my kids while I went back to my ENT. My ear was still a little infected so I have to continue the antibiotic drops, and go back in another couple weeks. At that point we'll talk more about putting a tube back in that ear and possibly replacing the eardrum down the road. Stupid ear!! After I got home I packed up Devin's dinner, then my parents, my kids and I loaded up in the van and my dad drove us to Bountiful. My parents picked up a beautiful floral arrangement to put by Eric's grave, then we went to the cemetery. Devin freaked out about being there again, and we were pretty early from when we told Jen and Tony to meet us so my dad drove us around the side of the mountain to look at the big houses. Then we went back to the cemetery and cleared up to Devin that it was NOT where we were having dinner, just dropping off some flowers for Uncle Eric. Jen and Daniel came shortly thereafter but Tony and his carpool buddy got caught in some slow traffic so he didn't get dropped off til we were about ready to leave. Tony snapped some pictures for us then I suggested we go to El Matador for dinner as it was always one of Eric's favorite restaurants, Jen heartily agreed. We had a very nice dinner all together. Friday we had a pajama day and after doing Elizabeth's school(which she did great!) just had a take it easy day. Tony ordered pizza for dinner, yum! Tony was such a great support to me throughout this week. Putting up with all my slack. Honestly I feel like a deserve an award for just accomplishing Elizabeth's schooling this week! And for going out in public at all! I thought of and missed terribly my brother so often this week, I cried on and off all week...even more than usual. Saturday morning we went out and ran some errands, took the van through our favorite car wash and had them do a quick interior clean as well, so it will be nice and clean for our trip on Thursday! That afternoon my mom threw a great Mardi Gras party for our family, in lui of a birthday party(as this is the time we would usually celebrate Eric and my mom's combined birthdays, as they're a week apart) It was a really great party with delicious southern cajun fixin's. That afternoon we decided to have a super bowl party, so my parents watched our kids while we went and got stuff for that and the last few things we needed for our trip. Sunday we found a sub for our primary class as we knew we wouldn't be emotionally able to do church. We used our time wisely though. We took EVERYTHING out of Elizabeth's room(except furniture that we just moved around and cleaned under and behind) I sorted all her toys and split them into three groups. One group went back into her room, the other two groups went into totes to be rotated throughout the year. This is to help her anxiety and sensory input, as well as make it easier to keep clean. Most the time she was so overwhelmed by her choices that she would pull lots of things out but not really play with anything, then leave her room a disaster, that was always "too huge of a mess to clean up" and she would meltdown, and we would get frustrated because we couldn't even walk in her room. Her room is perfectly simple now and there are still plenty of things for her to play with, she just can actually PLAY with them now! Tony and Devin cleaned up his room while Elizabeth and I were finishing up her room. Then Tony took the kids outside to play for a bit while he cleaned out his car. I went in Devin's room and organized it, got rid of some kids meal toys or other broken and incomplete sets. Chose a couple toys to move to the play room where there is more space for then than in his room. I also weeded out the kids little toys bin in the playroom where lots and dinky little cheap toys get put. Then Tony and I organized and packed up the food tote for our trip. We have a lot of it sorted by day so we just have to grab and go when we get there! That afternoon Tony cooked up some little smokies and pigs in a blanket, we took up the other snack things we got and we went upstairs, and had a little Super Bowl party with my parents and Jen and Daniel even joined us! My mom being the amazing gal she is, even whipped up some fun little Super Bowl activities for the kids, which they loved! We watched the game not caring really who won, chatted when the game was kinda slow, and enjoyed the big plays. And that was our week!

Some pictures from the hockey game

There was a player with the last name Johnston!

Elizabeth weighing out the chex mix

The kids at the cemetery on Eric's birthday

Back on Thursday the first anniversary of Eric's death.

The beautiful flowers!

Devin being.....well Devin!

Elizabeth telling me she misses her Uncle Eric.

I love the glowing temple in the background.

This a is "real" family photo, Devin doing his own thing, and Elizabeth upset because she can't have the random Christmas gold leaves decoration she found on the ground. :)