We survived! And Thanksgiving weekend fun:-)

Brian made it home from his long trip and we all made it! He got home from Singapore/India/Las Vegas last Monday. I feel like he should do his own blog post about how it all went (which of course he won't) so I did include a few pictures that he took. It sounds like his birthday trip to Vegas was a lot of fun! The Oilers played an awesome game for them, so that's a big win right there! 

The kids and I did fine most of the 10 days he was gone. I did get tired of being the "on" all the time, but Adam wasn't really any worse than he would have been if Brian was here so that was good. His latest repetitive stint is making us repeat an exact phrase, so while that is exhausting, at least we don't have to guess at what he wants us to say. It is pretty incessant though, not many breaks to be had right now. He pretty much has to leave the room in order for us to talk about anything, but at the very least he has been better about leaving sometimes so we actually can talk. It sounds like we are going to talk about phasing out the repetition with his ABA team, something that was not encouraged the last time we discussed it. We are meeting with Bill (the guy at ORL that knows the most about repetitive disorders) on Thursday and I think we are going to come up with an "extinction" plan. I have no idea what this would look like for him, but all I know is that we are very open to trying whatever plan they can come up with! 

Brian had his 40th birthday last Wednesday. We didn't do anything too extravagant, seeing as he just had his birthday weekend trip to Vegas:-). We went out for dinner, which may have been more of a treat for me because it meant I didn't have to cook! Thursday we went to the Daveys for Thankgiving dinner. It was delicious and we had a great time! So thankful for such good friends! We put up our Christmas tree on Saturday, and so far Jasper hasn't gotten into it so fingers crossed that continues. Sunday Lynsey and I went to see Frozen 2 which we both enjoyed. A nice holiday weekend!

Christmas preparations are in full swing. We have a good start on the Christmas shopping, and a pretty solid plan for whatever we haven't bought yet. As much as I wanted to tell the kids that the dog was their birthday and Christmas presents for the next 10 years I knew that wouldn't fly:-P. To be fair he is ongoing work for me, so it should count haha! I am always trying to get him together with other dogs so he can play and continue to build his doggy social skills, it's just like having an only child in that respect! We love him, it's already hard to imagine life without the little guy!

Halloween, Lynsey's birthday trip to Great Wolf Lodge

The last two to three weeks have had a lot of stuff going on! The day before Halloween, we carved the pumpkins we had picked up at the pumpkin patch. This was the first year that Nathan carved his own pumpkin mostly on his own! He did a great job! Adam of course was more interested in playing with the pumpkin guts, but at least everyone enjoyed the activity:-D. Halloween night went pretty well! The weather was perfect, and Adam ended up trick or treating for longer than he ever had before. He required a lot of repetition which was super high maintenance and stressful, but whenever we would ask if he wanted to go home, he always said "no" immediately. Jaqui and Joey came to join us again which was fun. Always a bit of a stressful night, but the kids have fun so well worth it!

On that following Saturday, we made the trip to Great Wolf Lodge for Lynsey's birthday. This was all she asked for for her birthday (although we also bought her a new adult sized bike). The kids had fun in the pool before dinner time and we went to the buffet restaurant for dinner. After dinner, I got Lynsey and Nathan sorted for their wand games (GWL has this additional rip off, I mean, game that they offer where you buy wands and games to play on these wands, essentially a treasure hunt around the hotel). We actually let Lynsey and Nathan loose in the hotel by themselves playing this game, worked out well for Brian and I who got to relax in the hotel room instead! The next day we got some fast food breakfast and waited somewhat impatiently for the pool to open (the "fall back" time change doesn't work so well when your kids get up early and the pool doesn't open until 9am!). We had to do the whole crazy thing where I get us checked out of our room since check out is 11, and then when the kids were done swimming they changed in the change room by the pool. It is such a pain. I dearly wish they would either open the pool at 8 or have checkout be at noon, that would totally give us enough time to swim, come back to the room and get changed and checked out. But no, this awkward 2 hour time frame bites us every time. Anyway, such is life! It was a fun weekend, and Lynsey really enjoyed herself which was the important thing!

That evening we also had an ice cream cake to celebrate Lynsey's birthday, since she wasn't having a party. Twelve years old! Seems like a big milestone! Last weekend was more low key, Lynsey and I met Jaqui and Ari at the mall and we let the girls loose on their own (of course they bought a bunch of matching things!). 

Brian is going to Singapore for work on Saturday, where he will be until next Friday, when he flies to Las Vegas for his 40th birthday trip with friends and his brothers. I'm sure it will be a blast! He's not coming home until Monday, so I'm sure I will be going crazy with Adam's repetition but hopefully I will survive and he will have a good time. They are watching the Oilers play the Golden Knights, how fun! I haven't watched a game live since Connor McDavid joined the team, that will need to be corrected soon;-).