The Portnoy Family Vacation- Wally World or Bust!

The time has come. It's time to attempt planning our first ever .......DRUMROLL PLEASE!.....Family vacation! I am sure our family is not alone in the special needs community for never having taken a vacation. Of course there is the financial aspect of it all- do you choose Hyperbaric therapy or the beach? Vitamins and expensive doctors/meds or a cruise? Our family choice has ALWAYS been in favor of therapy needs for Nate. Always. Then there is Nate- a VERY rigid child in regards to changes in structure and environment. Moving to Arizona this time was brutal. We had to stay in a hotel for one night before we flew here and it was so hard on the little guy. He was up a lot and crying. Confused to pieces as to where the heck he was. Ugh. We hated it but we knew it was necessary to the moving process. Then there was our rental house when we got here in August. Nate ended up sharing a room with Neve which proved to be difficult on many levels, but it worked out (somewhat) after he finally got slightly comfortable.
So how do we afford it? What do we sacrifice to make it happen? What if Nate doesn't sleep? What if he has a seizure while we are there or has an allergic reaction? The "Hows?" and What-ifs?" keep mounting.

Well, screw it. Sometimes you need to step out of your comfort zone and just go for it. (this is me talking myself into this..ha!) Disneyland is a 6+ hour drive from here- totally doable, they both are fine in the car (well as fine as any 3 and 6 yr old are--annoying, but fine). Aaron and I both know that Nate will love the actual parks. He loves rides and we are able to get a disability pass to cut down somewhat on the "waiting in line" part. Nate actually doesn't mind the noise or crowds so much- although I know he will be in sensory input overload with all the lights and sounds. The chefs at Disneyland are capable of creating special meals to accommodate our dietary needs (gluten, dairy, soy, corn, nut, rice, FREE)- even allowing Neve to have special made mickey ear shaped waffles and pancakes for the character breakfast and fruit and meats for Nate. The resort is able to bring a large refrigerator into our room for our stay for our refrigerated medications and special foods. My kids love raw fruits and veggies so we are able to pack our bag with broccoli, cauliflower, apples, carrots, bananas, and the like for portable munching in the parks (so we can avoid the churros and ginormous turkey legs-well Aaron will sneak off for those I am sure-hehe).

We have been mulling this over for awhile and the kids will be 3 and 6 in the Fall- so we are planning for during Fall Break in October (yes, the kids get a week off here in AZ for "Fall Break" - so dumb if you ask me). ...and now we believe Nate's grandparents are on board to come meet us there to help. Hallelujah!

So let the planning begin. I just heard back from Medieval Times as well and they are able to accommodate all of our dietary needs as well. Yay!
It will be nothing short of a Griswald debacle I am quite sure, but we are going for it. Wally World or Bust!!