This past weekend, Faith and I
both got to experience the Medora Musical together - for the first time ever!
We went with my dad and sister. The singing and dancing definitely met our
expectations. After the National Anthem, some of the first songs they sang
included, "Let's Hear it for the Boy" and "Dancing on the
Ceiling." Both songs were a great and energetic way to start the show.
Faith was super excited, nearly dancing out of her chair! One reason she could
hardly contain her excitement was that a few of the performers (Adam and
Taylor) go to our church! The storytelling in between the musical numbers
described how the little "cow town" of Medora came to be, as well as
the influence that Theodore Roosevelt had in North Dakota.
View from our seats!
Close up of the performers.
Auntie Dawn and Grandpa
During the song, "Paint Your
Dreams Across the Sky" by Dolly Parton, the cast invited the children to
join them onstage. I wasn't expecting one of the cast members to come up and
stand by Faith to sing. It was super sweet, but unfortunately, I didn't get a
picture. They also sang "His Eye Is on the Sparrow," along with a
medley of gospel songs.
There were country songs and funny songs, too, that got
the crowd laughing and clapping along. One that I remember was "40 Cups of
Coffee." The entertainment also included a trick roping cowboy and another
one yodeling.
We were thoroughly enjoying the
show when I noticed a shift in the weather. It had been bright and sunny upon
arrival, but it had changed to cloudy and windy. Just as they were about to get
into the Paul Bunyan Lumberjack Show, one of the ushers came over to us and
said they were going to call the show in five minutes if we wanted to get ahead
of the crowd to the elevators. I thought it was very kind of him to give us a
heads up, but I was also very disappointed.
Sadly, we didn't get to see much of the lumberjack show.
When we got up to the parking
lot, my sister Dawn pushed Faith as fast as she could to the van and just as
they got there, it began to rain. Just after the four of us piled inside the van,
it began to downpour.
Since we were just sitting there, I got a feeding going
for Faith. After the traffic cleared, we sadly made our way to Dickinson. All
was not lost, though, as there were some gorgeous rainbows in the sky. I have
never seen so many of them in such a short time span!
Bad weather heading straight for us.
The rain was coming down hard!
Videos by Michael Lawlar
Beautiful double rainbow heading from Medora to Dickinson (photo by Dawn Lawlar)
After getting to Dickinson, we
found a place to eat. It was called "Sanford's" and when we pulled
into the parking lot, Dawn and I realized it was the same restaurant we had
eaten at when we had traveled to Watford City about 3 years ago.
After supper,
we made our way back to the hotel and started Faith's evening routine. It had
been quite a day. I was so proud of Faith for how she was handling the
traveling and the disappointment with the musical ending early.
Waiting patiently for her chocolate milkshake!
Being udderly silly!
The next day after checking out,
we set out for our next adventure: a visit to the Dickinson Museum Center where they had the Badlands Dinosaur
Museum. Faith loves dinosaurs and she couldn't wait to get a new shirt for
T-Rex Thursday at her day program. It was fun to look at the bones and try to
imagine what it was like when dinosaurs roamed the earth. There were also
numerous displays of minerals from all over the world, some of which were
fluorescent.
We also explored the Joachim
Regional History Museum and Dad even asked if they could open up the Pioneer
Machinery Hall, which they sometimes don't do on Sundays depending on how busy
it is. Faith was a little bored with some of the history stuff, so she and Dawn
ventured to the gift shop where she helped her auntie pick out stuffed dinosaur
toys for her grandkids. After all that, we hit up the A&W/KFC and made our
way back to Bismarck.
Dinosaurs and fossils galore!
Faith didn't look too scared!
Faith checking out the cool fluorescent fossils.
Inside the machinery hall. I told Faith this is what Laura from Little House travelled in.
Grandpa was super impressed with this old tractor.
Getting Faith to the Medora
Musical was something I have been wanting to do for a long time and with the
improved accessibility at the venue, along with help from my sister, we were
able to make it happen! I was also very thankful that Faith's grandpa could
accompany us. I was so happy to be driving to western North Dakota, as that
will always be home to me.
The end of July was a great time to head west as
golden round bales dotted the landscape and the corn, sunflower, and wheat
crops were flourishing. The Badlands looked so beautiful, and we even passed by
a large herd of bison. It truly was a wonderful weekend getaway!
Today marks Faith's 8th day of school and we are all adjusting to a new schedule. Faith has made huge strides this past summer in sleeping better and having more energy so we decided to have her go to school from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. 5 days a week. This is a change as last year she did not go Tuesday and Thursday afternoons due to how tired and worn out she would get. Faith's first day of 4th grade School starts at 8:30 a.m. but we asked if it would be okay for us to get her there at 9:00 instead. This allows us to more time to get her first feeding into her before she even gets to school. Her aides noticed last year that when we brought her to school without any food in her tummy, she was pretty sluggish and tired upon arrival. Sometimes, after getting her to school she wouldn't start getting her feeding until after 9:00 a.m. which meant, that because she gets a feeding every 3 hours, her last feeding of the day didn't end until 10:00 p.m. Another advantage to
Last Wednesday I had my yearly doctor exam and when she said I should get my tetanus shot updated, I didn't think twice about it. The nurse said my arm would be sore for a couple of days, gave me a handout and stuck the needle in my arm. The next day my arm was sore and although I found it a little harder to pick up and carry Faith, I was glad the pain wasn't going to last long. Boy was I wrong! But not only was my arm sore, my whole body was. I felt achy and extremely tired. According to a medical site on the Internet, these were mild side effects of the Tetanus shot. If these were only mild side effects, I would really hate to have them at a moderate or severe level. On Friday, two days after getting the shot I felt so tired that I took a four hour nap after getting Faith off to school. Then on Saturday I took a three hour nap up until 7 o'clock but still felt tired and was able to go back to sleep around 10. On Sunday, finally the fatigue started wearing off and I didn
Today we said goodbye to our Special Tomato adaptive car seat. And special it was. It helped Faith stay safe and secure in our Hyundai driving her back and forth to therapy appointments, shopping excursions and many other activities. It also helped us through our time of not being able to afford an accessible van. Like all adaptive equipment , the special car seat was expensive and although it is the law that a child is secured in a car seat while traveling in a vehicle, neither health insurance nor Medicaid would pay for it. Thankfully, we were able to receive funds from the fundraiser, the Great American Bike Race ( GABR ) which helps families pay for services and equipment that insurance doesn't cover for kids with cerebral palsy and related disabilities. After doing research on the Internet and talking to Faith's physical and occupational therapists, we decided to go for the Special Tomato adaptive car seat. You would think something with that name would be r
You just took us on the trip. Wonderful!
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