Mother’s Day
mom and jacks
I know it’s already been several weeks, but I’ve been procrastinating posting my Mother’s Day photos. Anyway, so here they are. I took the three kids, ALONE, hiking on Pinckney Island in South Carolina. And for those of you who are not familiar with coastal geography, it’s a wildlife refuge just before getting onto Hilton Head Island. We had a wonderful time. It was extremely hot, and full sun. Lessons learned; take more water next time, and try to go at a time other than 1:00pm. The kids learned a lot from their great wise teacher, mom, about hiking. don’t litter. respect nature and animals. stay close to mom in the event that the gator who looks dead is not actually dead. don’t walk on marsh plants. and….. fiddler crabs are fun to chase. 
Another reason I chose to take the kids on the hike was Olivia. I believe that we as a family, the four of us, can get out and enjoy life and activities despite any idiosyncrasies of autism. It is simply too easy to say “we can’t do that because Olivia will ____”. and what are we to do? spend the rest of our lives and weekends at home because 1st I am a single mom, and 2nd one of my children happens to be autistic? I don’t think so! So Olivia requires a little more effort on my behalf. Not going to keep us from working as a family and team together. I’ll tell you, after that outing with the kids, I was quite proud of them, and myself.
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- trekker
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- from below
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- laughing Olivia
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- mom and jacks
Great pictures.
I am the designated cowboy (without the lasso and cattle prod) on our nature walks in charge of herding the kids so the Mrs. can handle the photography.
Our challenging youngest has actually surprised me in that he behaves well on hikes. He gets so absorded in the nature, rocks, water, and critters that I sometimes forget how much of a challenge he can be otherwise. I agree as well that doing things as a family and including everyone is best, despite the challenges.