A Free Train Ride and a Holiday Dinner

Marc and I love free.

Brother loves trains.

Sister and Baby don't care and don't understand.

So the choice was obvious.

We would all bundle up to wait in line for 45 minutes in the winter wind to ride for an hour on a train they just introduced to our area.

OK, OK, so we really didn't plan on waiting in the cold, winter wind for 45 minutes. Our kids have Fragile X, remember? They are overly sensitive to sound and feel! But, sometimes we don't really realize what will go through to make them happy in the end, or at least that day, to make Brother happy...

We should have known that riding a new train on a free day would mean there would be lines a mile long but we had hope because we know how much Brother loves trains.

So we made it through the wait with, surprisingly little, crying and wailing and finally got onto the train. There wasn't a lot of room so we walked around the three levels and various cars till we could find a spot. That stressed Sister out more than the wait in the cold. I had come prepared, though, and had my bag full of snacks and coloring books, so we sat down and proceeded to inform Sister would have fun once we got going.

See, look how happy Brother is!

But, on a train that is made for public transit there are a lot of stops. So, for 10 minute stretches Sister was fine while there was movement, but at every stop she cried and yelled to go home. The snacks and coloring books did not help unless we were on the move.

You can see how "happy" she was in this picture...

(I am thinking that, by the girl's body language sitting behind, that she was having just as much fun as we were listening to Sister whine...)

Baby just wanted to wander through the train cars and explore. It was very crowded so it wasn't easy to maneuver around with her but we did it to keep her happy.

Here's a snap I got of Marc before we were separated in the divide and conquer strategy of handling Sister and Baby while Brother was in complete train heaven.

He managed to snap one of me too (which is amazing as I usually do not appear on my blog unless I take a picture of myself... tee hee!)

I know I look tired. I am. Most of the time these days. I am worn out. But, I'll leave that for another post...

So when we finally got off at our "home" stop and walked off the train toward our car, Sister over ecstatically exclaimed, "That was so much fun!!!!!"

????

I guess you never know how much the anxiety she is going through is covering up...

Later that night, our sweet, dear Lindsey volunteered her time to come take care of our kids while we went to the first ever Fragile X Association of Utah Holiday Dinner!

I thought this would be a good idea for some bonding for the parents and grandparents of the Association. It was kind of a last minute deal but I had been so excited for it, and frankly, after the day we had with Sister, we were excited to get out with a bunch of adults.

It was so neat to meet with friends I already knew and even meet new ones. I loved hearing the stories of everyones children and how their families are affected by Fragile X. It was an inspiring and daunting experience in the fact that I was able to see what other children were doing and wondering what our childrens' futures hold. It was also so nice to tell stories and know we all understood what it is like to be in those shoes, but also to see how different all our experiences were and that our children are not made from cookie cutter molds just because they have Fragile X.

Here is a photo of most of our group, I forgot to get it before our newest friends had to make it to an appointment.

I must say that our waiter was amazing at serving us and making sure we had all that we needed, but he is a terrible photographer... bless his heart.