welcome to smashville

someday when i am old and my knowledge of parenting is infinite, i'd like to write a travel pamphlet about places that are good to take your special kids. our family can't go just anywhere. we try and push our boundaries all the time and every experience is exposure therapy, but some things simply aren't in our wheelhouse and that's okay. traveling with kids with autism is going to carry with it a range of altered expectations but if i've learned anything about anything, proper expectations and realistic adjustments are key to a happy life. occasionally there are even bursts of vacation glory.

for thanksgiving we surprised the kids with a short trip to chattanooga and nashville. because of autism, we didn't tell them until wednesday morning at 7am as we were hauling suitcases down the stairs. with autism there is often a lot of preparation for new experiences, but since we are now old hands at gauging proper autism practices, we decided to forego telling them beforehand so that i didn't have to hear any complaining or suffer through unnecessary anxieties from our special people. sometimes a bad day of reaction is preferred to several days of anxiety. this doesn't work for everyone every time, but it's how we chose to navigate this particular experience. naturally and not surprisingly, reagan was not thrilled about the trip and athena blythe was over the moon. please follow along for perfect captures of reagan's emotions through iphone photography.

we stopped at rock city and used the bathroom but didn't actually see rock city because it cost an arm and a leg and i wanted to save our time and money for bigger things. we kinda saw the lookout, on lookout mountain, where you can see 7 states. i'm content with kinda on that one. when thomas and i come alone, we will explore the battle of chattanooga and pay the $20 a pop for the lookout. 



the really big deal for me was being able to see ruby falls. it was amazing. a testimony to a divine creator. it was only discovered in 1928, because a guy decided to crawl on his stomach in a tiny crevice in a cave for 7 hours. we took the elevator down. 


not everyone was a fan. but he kept it to a minimum until the tour guide asked at the end, "who enjoyed this tour?"
"NOT ME!" said reagan.





from the tower at ruby falls

After chattanooga, we hopped in the car and drove to nashville. we ate burger king in the car, which i think is a good autism friendly trick, offer very familiar food in a trying or unfamiliar environment. we made it to nashville just in time to catch the nashville predators hockey game. it was absolutely sensory overload, for me especially because i was so worried about our specials after an already eventful day, but it went really well. sometimes reagan is able to tune out an excess level of noise if we're lucky. athena blythe happily talked to a little girl seated next to her and loudly asked why people we throwing their garbage on the ground instead of using the very easily accessible garbage cans located throughout the arena. i love that about her. for real, are you too prideful to help out the cleaning staff? i was surprised to learn that some hockey teams have cheerleaders. i just didn't think that was a thing, but it is. 

after a thrilling night sleeping all in the same hotel room, short one pullout bed because it was thanksgiving, we went and saw frozen 2. the best thing i can say about it was the was the kind of theater that serves actual restaurant quality food and i did enjoy my nachos. it appears they're just letting anybody write screenplays and music these days. there's hope for my music career yet. 

we were able to have thanksgiving dinner with thomas's BYU friend, heather, and her family. she is now a pediatric neurologist(which is right up my alley in case you didn't read the parts about having 2 kids with autism) and she had also invited one of her friends who is a plastic surgeon to join us so i was able to ask medical questions to my heart's desire. i learned a lot about botox injections being used to help celebral palsy patients deal with muscle stiffness and i saw a SLEW of post-breast cancer reconstruction photos using abdominal body fat and skin. modern medicine is incredible and once again, there is a divine creator in charge of all this. 

heather's husband is a firefighter so he took us down to the station and we were able to ask all the question and climb all the ladders. reagan thought this was way better than ruby falls. 

their were also live chickens in a coop, plus two cats and a dog so there was really something for everyone at this thanksgiving. 

fun fact, in the 1970s they started making fire trucks yellow so that they would be more easily identifiable in the dark but it did not catch on with the public so they went back to red. i said this once to someone and they acted like i made the whole thing up so this trip to the fire station was especially vindicating for me. 

another fun fact, scott stapp from creed and THE ALAN JACKSON live in this fire rescue district. 

friday was filled with the country music hall of fame, much to the delight of thomas and myself and much to the chagrin to everyone else, especially to the other patrons who saw us coming. 

if you say you don't love country, you're not giving the right kind of country music a try. i have a visceral reaction with someone calls "florida/georgia line" country music. NO. that's bro country. give chris stapleton a shot. the high women! the highway men! do you want to cry? try johnny cash's "hurt". do not put THE DOLLY PARTON in the same company as luke bryan. sorry luke, i've heard you're a nice guy but your music sounds like you need to blow your nose and your lyrics are about as inspired as the directions to make instant ramen.

athena blythe with kacey musgraves met gala outfit:

thomas with his favorite, eric church. 

reagan finally smiled with he saw taylor swift, and that's all i have to say about that.

outside the country music hall of fame:

outside the predators arena and an accurate name for our trip:

 Want to see something really cool ruined with a few eye rolls and licks on the display glass? bring your kids. sometimes you muscle through activities your kids don't want to be at like any old family and realize it's not autism, it's having kids. 

and reagan is DONE:

europe is probably never going to be in our cards, but i'm not completely writing that out of the possibilities. maybe we can coordinate it with a firetruck ride outside of the sistine chapel. 

we had dollywood planned for saturday, but we were all harboring burgeoning illnesses and it was going to rain all day in pigeon forge so we tabled that trip until next year. that's my last bit of autism travel advice for today. acceptance is key. you have to play the cards you're dealt and not wish for different cards all day. flexibility is a two way street. this is who my family is. some exposure therapy and practice and social stories aren't always going to work. sometimes you just go home. thomas and i need to be as flexible as we're expecting the kids to be and canceling things can be a gift. we needed to get home not completely exhausted and sick and by skipping dollywood, we were able to have a good fast sunday.

the flu didn't hit until sunday night.
the. end.