Whispering Hope Camp

Dylan attended camp up in Payson at Whispering Hope Campground from August 20 – 22 and according to the staff that accompanied him he had a blast! The campsite is beautiful (we looked at it online) and they have over 100 animals for therapy! The staff said he had such a good time, that they went swimming and horseback riding as well as doing many craft projects while they were there. They said Dylan had the most fun out of all the people that went. We were thrilled that he had a good time, he loves camping and being outside so that was a plus. He brought back some really great artwork too. Hopefully we’ll see the pics from the trip soon, they did say they have at least one of him riding the horse. 
When we got there this weekend, Dylan was doing really well, he has moved rooms and has a new room-mate again. He’s now on the opposite side of the hall than he was before. He’s got a roomie who doesn’t talk and is pretty quiet for the most part, his machines make a little noise, but we make much more than him on a normal basis so it’s all good. We ran into Dyl’s physical therapist on Sunday and she spoke with us for a few minutes and informed us that Dylan is doing AWESOME in therapy. He is walking, with a walker for balance, across the gym whenever he’s in therapy, his balance is really good and she said he’s a minimal assist on standing and sitting. When he’s standing in therapy they have taped a piece of paper to the wall and they let him draw/write on that paper, she said she held the pen and he grabbed it with his right hand and then wrote on the sheet of paper with his right hand too. When we were there this weekend we really worked quite a bit on his sitting on the bed and on the edge of the bed for balance purposes, he’s doing really well with that, he’s able to sit on his own for long periods of time. We played 4 or 5 songs on the Ipad before he wanted to lay down and relax. He’s very good with the wheelchair too. It’s not his own, but a borrowed one that has larger wheels so he can push himself. He’s able to guide himself across the dining room and he’s steering himself with the use of his foot too. It’s cool to see him mobile and not dependent upon us to get where he wants to go ;) He’s eating really well too. They still have him on the pureed foods at this time (because he had choked a few weeks ago on a piece of pineapple) but I think he’ll be ready for the mechanical softs really soon. His blood sugar levels are really stable too. He’s usually between 70 and 140 wooohooo, it’s been a long time since he’s been steadily in that range. He has a small bolus feed at 8pm, but he’s no longer on the overnight feed and he gets breakfast, lunch and dinner by mouth every day. We were able to take him out in the rain on Saturday for a little while, which was really nice, he loves the rain! It poured for about twenty minutes and then it cleared up, but he enjoyed sitting outside and watching the storm. He has made a few new friends that live at Hacienda too, he has the company of Alison and Jacob throughout the day and sees Tye pretty often too. The kids really seem to enjoy spending time together. It’s nice because they keep each other occupied when there’s no company there. We are really looking forward to this weekend, we get the long weekend with him. We have many plans on how to sneakily work him out. He doesn’t realize he’s getting the exercise because he thinks it’s a game ;)
Please continue the positive thoughts and prayers, Dylan’s progress has been amazing and we appreciate all the wonderful people who continue to pray for him and follow his progress. - Keri