Ohio

Back in July Alessandro and I went to Ohio.  He was participating in a deaf study (as one of the hearing kids) at Ohio University.  He started in this study when he was 1 yr old over at Utah State.  They have since moved to Ohio and it was time to do a follow up if we were willing to travel for it.  The study is to help them figure out better ways to teach deaf children and help them progress.  Anyway, I figured it was a good opportunity to go out with Alessandro on an all expense paid vacation.  :)  We had an absolute blast.  He opened up to me that weekend like he has never done before.  It was absolutely wonderful and it made me wish I could do this with each of my children.  Anyway, we flew out on a Thursday.  Most of the day was traveling, but after checking into the hotel we went out for a late dinner.  We were both exhausted so went to bed shortly after that.  Friday was a free day for us so we decided to go to the COSI (science museum).  It was absolutely amazing.  We spent 6 hours there and probably could have stayed longer, but it was closing so we had to leave.  He loved the aquatic area where we played with water.  That was his favorite part.  We also walked through a dinosaur area and got to do activities in there and his favorite part about that was a dinosaur video game he got to play.  We participated in science experiments, which were a lot of fun.  It was a great time. 
After that he got to pick where we ate for dinner and after dinner we decided to go for a walk.  I forgot to bring his toothbrush, so I was hoping we'd pass a gas station or something.  After walking and walking and walking, we finally did find one but it was probably about 2.5 miles from the hotel.  hahaha  We passed two parks and played on them and just had a great time talking and walking, laughing and walking.  It was one of my favorite parts of the trip.  We had to hurry on our way back because it was getting dark and I didn't want to be walking in the dark in an unfamiliar city.  At the hotel we hung out eating candy, watching tv and just being silly.  We were still used to Utah time so it took a while to feel sleepy. 
We had to get up early on Saturday to go to the University for the study.  We were there all day.  He had a good time there, but it was long for me.  Just sitting there waiting for him for 10 hours, but I did get to chat with some of the other moms there.  That night he picked where to eat again and then some of the other kids in the study invited him to go swimming with them so we went to the pool.  Sunday we got up early again for the study and were there until 1:00pm.  We went back to the hotel and watched the womens world cup game and then went to the airport to fly home.  That was the longest flight ever.  Or maybe it's just that they were late flights and we were exhausted so they seemed long.  We got home about 1am monday morning.

It was a wonderful trip where Alessandro got to make all the choices of where to eat, what to do, etc.  At least when we weren't at the University.  I know I will always remember this trip and I'm pretty sure he will too.  it was a special time.  To this day he still brings up our walk and things about the trip.  I'm glad we decided to go.

He was in this submarine maybe 5 seconds.  He said it smelled and couldn't handle it.  :)

These water bubbles were his absolute favorite 

Doing science experiments 

We were trying to get a picture when both of our bubbles were big, but we were not successful 

Just being silly