Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Draper Temple Open House

So what can I say about being able to view an open house of the Draper Temple........AHHHHHHHHHHH, ARRRRRRGGGGGGGG, AHHHHHHHHH!

Okay, phew.....let me just give out a little piece of advise to all of those who are planning on seeing the Draper Temple Open House, do not go at night with two little kids with autism!!! But if you do decide that you want to go and will just deal with it, take extra grown-up hands! At least 1 adult per child, and if you can have more adults there to help! BRING THEM!

I know I should be more positive and look on the bright side and think, oh it will make a difference and they will remember this in the future and it is all apart of the experience, but are you sure? My child laying in the middle of the floor yelling that he is tired and not moving....what is he getting out of that? So time will tell, if any of them will get anything out of it. Now you ask well, what about you and Travis? Between fighting the 3 kids we did get a few glimpses of the beautiful temple and it was gorgeous. Would I do it again? With my children, no. With Travis, yes.

It all started getting them ready after school. This is where my hopes were up, they were excited to get dressed! Brandon got dressed extremely fast and was excited to go. So Travis and I were thinking on the way that hey, they will be good. But shortly after we arrived at the church where we would see a short film and then take a bus ride to the temple, I knew that I was in for it. Brandon and Nathan refused to wait for the film, and then once the film started, they were running up and down the aisle in the chapel, saying the film was too long! It was a 12 minute video. Then we got on the bus. Now that was the highlight of the whole night. They were so excited to be on the bus. Then we got to the temple and well lets just say the amount of people and the long lines, were not Nathan, Brandon, or Kimball's idea of fun. So the hour in the temple seemed like a life time.

Along the way when both Brandon and Nathan were being too rowdy or were laying in the middle of the floor refusing to move, I would tell people that this is what autism looks like....then "click" a light bulb would go on and then they understood.
After the bus ride home, this is when the boys had free rein of the bus. (They were used to the people by now so they had fun moving on the bus. I hope they won't have too hard of a time on the bus to school tomorrow because of it.) We had a nice and fast drive home and since it was bed time we were able to put the boys to bed right away.

It was quite an adventure with our 3 boys. Even though both Travis and I told them how special the temple was and how special we were to be able to go inside, I am not sure if they understood. But nonetheless we tried.


Brandon on the bus, to the temple. He was so excited!
Nathan kept spinning on this pole, and kept asking the girl in front of him if she would be his friend.
Kimball and Daddy on the way back to the car on the bus. Kimball thought it was really fun to hang on the straps.

Kimball and Daddy at home after the temple. Kimball just looked so cute in his little outfit that I had to take a picture

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Oh Crystal! You poor thing! I feel bad for you!! It's so hard when you're in public and your kids are not cooperating especially at a church event...we had one of those the other Sunday with my oldest...Hang in there! I'm glad you said that this is what autism looks like because people need to know because it is so prevalent now. I remember growing up and my little brother Jayden with autism would take his clothes off in the middle of a church event and a guy was like that boy is doing some very inappropriate things or I could go on. That's why he wears shirts that say I have autism what's your exuse or other sayings. I think a lot of the times people think they are just misbehaved children when in all reality it is their disability not the child or your parenting! Man I would have been bawling but just know if I would have been there I would have come and tried to help you out in some way. I love kids with autism, I'd love to meet your handsome boys!! You are a TROOPER and I think that you will be blessed for taking them even though right now you still have a headache from it :)