Hershey Park 2009

We went to Hershey Park over the Memorial weekend with my sister’s family. We got there on Saturday afternoon around 3pm and our first destination was Hershey Chocolate World. We took a tour and bought some yummy chocolates there. From there, we went to the hotel to check in and rested a bit. There was a huge swimming pool in the hotel so some of us went for a fun swim. Jake didn’t go because I didn’t anticipate him swimming so I didn’t pack a bathing suit for him. That was a missed opportunity for fun, and next time I will remember to pack it for him. Then we went to dinner and in the evening, my husband, my brother-in-law, my niece and nephew went to Hershey Park and started their evening fun. My sister, Jake and I went back to the hotel because by then it was already almost 8pm, and I wanted Jake to keep his routine, get a good night sleep so he can fully enjoy Sunday in the park.

We got to the park right round the time it opened on Sunday Morning. Jake got a special yellow wrist band which was used to identify people who needed handicap access to the rides. It was very helpful though out the day as he didn’t need to wait in lines and he was able to sit on his stroller for some of the rides. We were surprised that the park was much less crawled than we had anticipated being that it was the Memorial Day weekend, but hey, we can’t complain about that. Jake went on some of the kiddie rides himself, and my sister or my husband took turn to ride with him on some of the bigger rides. Sometimes Jake looked nervous when the rides first started, and always grabbed on the hand bars around him with very tight grips. Hey, safety awareness is always good, right?! Jake had fun, we all had fun. It was great that my sister was there to help with Jake since I couldn't go on any of the rides with him, so I wasn't too stressed out about Jake not going on enough rides because my husband was just excited about going off to big rides with my niece and nephew. Below are some pictures of Jake in the park.

DJ Jake

Jake’s class performed a dance called Shape Inc. at the school assembly this morning. Jake was the DJ (DJ Jake), and he introduced the shapes by using a Dynavox (a voice output augmentative communication device) as his classmates came out dancing according to the shapes they represented. The dance was performed for the general education students in the same building, and those kids loved it. They clapped and cheered on, it was great. I thought his teacher Rob gave Jake a very appropriate role in the performance. Instead of have him walk out with his walker as one of the shapes, I think Jake was able to comprehend and connect more to the whole performance by doing what he enjoys more, which is using his communication device.

I was in a rush to get to school on time for the performance, I forgot to take a camera with me, so attached is a picture from his teacher.


Jake also went to a wedding earlier this month. One of his speech therapists invited us to attend her wedding ceremony at the church and Jake had the task of bring up the gifts to the father. I don’t have a picture of Jake walking to bring up the gifts because I was walking along side of him, but here is a picture of Jake walking into the church before the ceremony started.