December 23, 2015

What a wild and crazy week, so far. Because of a generous gift from the Gary Sinise Foundation, we were able to have a little family vacation.We drove up to the Los Angeles area and stopped in to see Mickey and friends (funny thing is, we didn't see Mickey or Donald, except on the parade floats), and hoped to get some serious R&R time in. We went in to this knowing that the rides were limited (only two, and for those still not sure, I'm talking about DisneyLand) that Jason could take advantage of, and those were with the Jungle Cruise and Its A Small World. Jason is not a big fan of Its a Small World, so that left the Jungle Cruise. We were even escorted over to the ride and found out that they have one boat and it was dry-docked for repairs, so he was out of luck. The next was that we could go see a show, and we wanted to check out the Aladdin show, over at California Adventure. Well, as it turned out, there were plenty of other people there that wanted to see the show and Kojak just wasn't tolerating the huge crowd. Jason decided to pull out and get the dogs to a place where they didn't feel so much stress. Bottom line is that we spent some time there, with the girls, but not much time with Jason. Fortunately the hotel was close by so Jason was able to get back to his room and at least he was able to rest comfortably there. He was very pleased with the bed, and said he was able to rest nicely, and the dogs were resting there as well.

Linda and I spend quite a bit of time with the girls and saw as many things as time permitted. We didn't have to wait in too many lines, as the Gary Sinise Foundation made it possible for us to be shown (escorted) around and that was very nice. The girls got to meet some story book princesses and Stacy even gave them each a souvenir  pin. It was a simple little pin, but you could tell that the "princesses" typically didn't receive gifts, and they were all touched by it. They gave both Stacy and Jackie a little extra attention, and of course both girls loved it. Funny thing though, we managed to get on to a dozen or so rides, and I think the one of the rides they liked the best was the DisneyLand Express, the steam train that circles the park. Both of the girls held up very well, and had energy until about 20:00, when we finally headed back in. I personally was surprised at how well they did. To be totally honest, Linda and I were pretty well worn out by then, too.

From DisneyLand, heading home, this morning, it took us less than 1 1/2 hours of driving. I was expecting a 2 to 3 -hour drive, and I don't think we slowed down to more than 60 mph at any point in the entire journey, until after we got off the freeway. This was a major plus for us, and especially for Jason, as we still want to keep him down as much as possible. We also had to get the girls ready for their next trip, with their mother, to Boston. They will be flying back to see their other grandmother, and we hope they have a good time, and I'm sure they will.

We have the Christmas Holiday this week, and then next week there is the New Year. In between I will be working, and then after the New Year, we will be getting ready for another trip to Colorado. Jason is being sent out there to work with a special team of engineers to develop an alternate seating solution. We're not sure if it will work, but we don't turn down any thing that shows promise. He continues to heal, and even though we have been busy for these past several days, he continues to improve. Tomorrow we will have some guests from Balboa Hospital over for dinner, and socializing with Jason. They will be from the Wounded Warrior Battalion. Then on Christmas Day we expect the same from Camp Pendleton, from the other contingent of the Wounded Warrior Battalion, though we really don't know how many to expect, from either place. We're hoping to provide a little "home" time for the guys, especially those that have no place else to go. On top of that Jason will enjoy spending some time with other Marines.

Anyway, in the event that I don't have time to make another post to the blog - Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all. Thank you, for all the continued support and prayers. Take care and stay positive.