Mini Vacation to Hershey gardens and Dutch Wonderland...

On the road, prepared with pillow, glasses, and weighted blanket...among other dolls and blankies

Jumped on a cow, for the heck of it

beautiful flowers

First stop lunch at BK, for our princesses...not kings

Amanda with a butterfly on her shoulder

that's a toadstool

smelling flowers

Flowers bigger then Anna's head!

Daddy with a butterfly on his arm

Where do I start? It was such a great vacation. One that I hope parents with special needs children experience just once in their lives. That is how big of an impression it left upon me. We left at a descent hour to drive to PA. The trip wasn't bad and we got there by early afternoon. We had free time so we decided to go to Hershey Gardens, for the simple fact that we could walk it with Anna in her stroller and see some beautiful flowers. The main attraction was going to be the butterfly house for Anna since she loves butterflies. 
It was a bit expensive, but being a vacation we decided just to have fun with it. Anna wanted to run around but we kept her happy until we got to the children's garden. It was nice for her to have some free time to stretch her legs. The butterfly house was overwhelming to her. There were so many butterflies and they landed right on you! Almost immediately one landed on Anna and she got upset and shooed it away. She did like them, but just didn't want them to touch her. We left there for a bit and went through some of the wooded area, just beautiful to see. Later when she was getting bored, she wanted to see the butterflies again and so we did. This time a butterfly landed on daddy while he was holding her and that was about it for the butterfly house. 

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All she wanted was to sit on this butterfly bench

turtle ride

Great ride with the smallest pony I have ever seen

Fastest turtles in history!!

We left and decided to go to the hotel for check in and some dinner. Our biggest surprise was in the evening. Dutch Wonderland offers people the opportunity to arrive the day before your ticket for a preview. 3 hours to play and enjoy the parks for free. We arrived about 6:30 and she was in awe of the castle as we arrived. She could not contain her excitement. We went in the office to get Anna her wrist band, one given to special needs children so they do not have to wait in lines. Of course I wore it since that would have freaked her out. That band made our entire trip possible. I was self conscious at first, I felt guilty skipping all the people in line. I soon realized that without that band our entire trip would have consisted of meltdowns and tears instead of smiles and happy moments I will never forget. Just waiting for a ride to stop sometimes was hard on her, if we had to wait a half hour even it would have been over for us. So, I smiled at people and wore my "this is for my child face" and held my head high. We walked over the the exit of the rides and the attendant would put Anna and whoever was riding with her on first. The band allows up to four family members to ride with your child by the way, if anyone is interested in getting one for yourselves.

little help from Amanda

Boat ride

on the boat!

Digging...and found a huge dinosaur fossil footprint!

So, our first evening we traveled around the park going from ride to ride and just letting Anna pick what she wanted to do. It was so exciting for her!! There was a little train that you made go by pedaling with your arms, a little difficult for Anna so her sister and later her daddy pushed her on the ride. She rode that one both days. We even went down to the dinosaur dig and she got to see and hear some big dinosaurs! That night she left without a fight, knowing she had such a fun time. The next day we arrived around 11 and the park was packed. This was where our wrist band really helped our journey. Again she picked her rides and some of them truly were favorites for her. She loved the merry go round and choo choo train, a spinning turtle and riding a live pony! We had planned on going over to the water park side, yes they have a water park too, but after 4 hours in the park Anna had found her limit. We were happy with that. I was concerned the water park might be a little overwhelming to her anyways and maybe something better when she is a little older. We still need to go back and experience the water flume and small roller-coaster some time. They also have a larger roller coaster and larger water flume on the other side. 

in the airplane ride, mommy didn't like this too much

Ohhh scary!

What a great day!

Rode the rocket backwards...

Driving Daddy in the big truck!

Princess and Daddy king (she said)

Merry go round with Amanda and mommy. Cowgirl hat on!

Look at him!!

Choo choo train ride around the park

rode it forwards! I think she was happier this way

Princess one and two...

She loved this slide!

Skipping through town

Little cowgirl!

Of course she had to meet the princess of DW. Princess Brooke, and tried to take her tiara

Digging for dinosaurs

Her favorite I think!

I really cannot say enough good things about Dutch Wonderland and this vacation we had, the only negative was I wish her brother could have come too. Guess we have to plan another one really soon so he can go too! Watching Anna having so much fun, pure joy, warms our hearts. 
We came back from the vacation feeling really happy and accomplished. What we felt like Anna would never be able to do, she did and had an amazing time. So did mommy, daddy and Amanda! Our little miracle girl, nothing will be out of her reach...the stars are the limit.