Memorial visit and some Firefighting

On Memorial Day weekend we decide to head up to Fort Leavenworth to visit Matt's grandpa's grave site.  We had taken Kylie to a cemetery last when we were in Ohio to put flowers at the sites of all of my grandparents, and my uncle.  We also took purple flowers to them as well...for and from Kylie.  So as soon as we arrived to the cemetery in Leavenworth, she said we need to bring flowers.  So we visited for a bit first. 

You can see she brought her penguin...she wanted him to meet her penguin.  There was a pic I took (not posted here), where she was helping her penguin wave to him and one where she put the penguin on top of his stone.  She is so sweet.

I just love how she is staring at everything here.  So beautiful..I know they must have shared a moment here.  You will see the flowers she picked out for her great grandpa.  We stayed a little while longer and fixed all the flags that had fallen over.  It was at that time when a man pulled up at the top of the hill and started playing the bag pipes...it was just surreal and so perfect for all those that were visiting loved ones over the holiday weekend. 

Not too far from where we were was this tree.  It is the first time Kylie climbed a tree.  Something Matt said he did with his grandpa, so it will be something for her to do with him watching every year.

Since Kylie's school visit from the fire department was not a hit, we knew we wanted to sign up and attend the Annual Children With Special Needs Fire Department Fun Day at a local fire fighter training center.  Yay, here she sitting in a fire truck.  They had lots of trucks there and this one was off to the side without much traffic of people coming by, so it was the perfect one for checking out and hopping in!

They had a few different demonstrations going on, and this was just one of them.  They had a propane tank and the sound of it, along with the flames and water were anything but pleasant to our sensory girl.  She got pretty upset, but we were able to distract her and talk through things to help her calm down some. 

They also showed us some of their tools they use for auto accidents.  I did learn that what we all hear about as "the jaws of life" is known to the fire fighters as "the spreader."

Hey, what are you doing with that door!

They had some guys rappelling down the sides of buildings too.  Kylie was okay to wave to them from a distance, and she was good with just that.  When the guys would get close to the ground, they would flip upside down and the kids thought it was fun to give high fives to him while he was upside down.  Maybe next year she will give a big high five to the spider man guy :)

They also had a small little RV that had a kitchen and bed, for the kids to practice what to do in case of a fire.  As soon as someone acknowledged Kylie she would run out the other side or turn away.    She went in this little house of hers over and over again.  This made the lady and guys inside a little less scary, because she had seen them so many times.  They had firefighters outside the window to help you climb out.  When she figured out they were getting her out, she wanted nothing to do with that.  They said it was okay for Matt to do it, so after several run through of the house, she finally climbed up for Matt to help her out.  Then then did it several times thereafter too.

So there was this aerial ladder on one of the trucks that went up way to high for any sane person to go on.  Just look at how high they went!

Well, we wanted Kylie to try everything, so that meant that we had to do it too.  We told her she could have the candy she was given, but not until she got in the bucket to go up.  I can seriously say that, I don't know how any of us did that....they things you will do for your kids!  I wanted to move over so Kylie could look down, and somehow my feet were like glued to the floor...I was terrified of moving!  We did it though..just look at how high up we were!

Here she is asking me to open her candy :)

The Shriners had some of their little fire trucks there too.  They were taking kids for rides in them, but that was a bit much.  It was several passes later until she would go up and ring the bell to one of them.  She loved it too!

They had face painted there, and I could not believe that Kylie said okay when I asked if she wanted to have something done. She said just on her hand, and we will take it!  Funny thing was, that the lady in the white shirt came to our house several times when she was shadowing the OT Kylie had in the Early Intervention program she was in.  

Kylie ended up getting an ice cream cone painted on her hand!

They also had a couple fire trucks taking kids and their parents for rides.  We tried one time and she was just a mess of tears when it came to be our turn.  We got back in line later, and we got to see some of our friends from school go...we were trying to use that to fuel our ideas for how fun it was to go on the truck.    Once Matt started to put her up and in the truck she melted down, but we stayed put and got buckled in for the ride.  A minute or so after we took off, she had calmed down...she just needs to get over that hump, that anxiety of trying new things for her to see it's okay, safe, and even fun :)

Still a bit gooey from the tears, but trying to check things out...hmm, this is okay.  Wow, she did it..we did it together! 

They even had a helicopter from Children's Mercy fly over and then it landed right near the little house that Kylie was playing in and climbing out the window. 

Taking a peek inside, but holding on tight to her dadda.  It was tight quarters, but so glad they have that transport system for kiddos that need it. 

 

They also had an ambulance at the site, and one way to get Kylie to see that it was okay to hop in a look around was us telling her that she was in one when she was a baby.  After some passes by, she stepped inside...I think it was when the girl was talking to someone else, so she felt safer to not have to deal with anyone.  Heck, she did it though :)  I kinda feel bad, because now when she sees an ambulance, she always says "I was in one when I was a baby."  I just don't want too much emphasis on that, but yeah..she was when she was sick, and then she got to hop in one at this event...well and ready to check it out :)

It was a long day there...about 3 hrs.  But we wanted Kylie to do everything that we know she can do, and that she deeply wants to do, but her anxiety to holds her back.  We were willing to stay as long as it took until she was comfortable enough to at least try all the things they had.  With much effort and repeated attempts, she did so much and that was great to see!