A Visit with a Best Friend and Some Poems

A week and a half ago, Ryan, Grace, Freckles, and I went down to Austin, Texas to visit Fox and his family.  Fox was participating in a 4 day camp with Soma at HALO.  Since one of Ryan’s best friends was in the same country and state as us, it was a no-brainer to make the drive!  I decided to bring Grace too because she is friends with Fox’s sister, Ruby, who was there and since Grace is a great student, I opted for the fun life experience for her and I pulled her out of school early to go with us.

We got there around lunch time and we spent some time hanging out in their hotel before going to Chili’s for lunch.  In the past, I probably would have said that a sit down meal after a 3 hour car ride would not be a great idea for Ryan, but his maturity and his ability to sit for longer periods, combined with his excitement about seeing his best friend, made me think that he could handle it.  He did great.

Here is what Ryan had to say about the day trip to Austin.
DEARLY LOVED IT.  CAN LIKE VISIT MY FRIENDS WHO GO TO HALO.
(I guess that is an open invitation to all of our friends to reach out to us if you are going to a HALO Camp in Austin, and we will try and visit for a day if our schedule allows!)

I asked him about the cool tree that we spent some time at.
THE TREE IS GREAT.  HAPPY THAT I CLIMBED IT.

 

At first, Ryan was just hanging out, sifting through the mulch and dirt, but after a while I prodded him to try and climb the tree and he enjoyed it.

I asked him about seeing Fox in person.
CAN REALLY TALK TO FOX ABOUT ANYTHING.  HE IS BOUND TO UNDERSTAND ME.

I asked Ryan about the long car trips.  We spent almost 7.5 hours in the car driving there and back.  Ryan does so well in the car that trips are relatively stress free for me (Freckles is great in the car too.)  We listened to Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix on the way down and back.
I LOVE CAR TRIPS.  AUDIBLE IS SO AWESOME.  CAN REALLY SAY BOOKS ARE MY FAVORITE HOBBY.

*****

Ryan got this book for Christmas from his Aunt Linda.

 

It is a book that encourages creative thinking by giving you starters to write poetry.  Grace recently had a unit on poetry in school and brought home her poems to share with us.

 

This inspired Ryan to write some of his own.  What I did was, I flipped pages in the book and had Ryan stop me at a random page.  I then told him the two subjects and he got to pick one.  Here are the three poems that he has come up with:

Health
MAKE ME BETTER
CAN’T GET ANY LETTER
I’M STUCK IN BED
WITH COVERS ON MY HEAD
MY TOES ARE COLD
TOTALLY FEELING OLD
WILLING TO GO
BUT MY HEAD SAYS NO
REALLY SICK
MUST GET BETTER QUICK
DOCTORS CAN’T GET ILL!
I MUST GET UP–I WILL!

***

Strength
MY STRENGTH COMES
MY STRENGTH GOES
DETERMINATION
TOTALLY LIFE KNOWS

CARING FOR MYSELF
CARING FOR YOU
IT TAKES ME TIME
THAT MIGHT BE TRUE

MOSTLY BEING FIERCE
MOSTLY BEING STRONG
I WORK HARD
THE ROAD IS LONG.

***

Truth
I KNOW THE TRUTH
SO DO YOU
MY HEART IS HEAVY
I AM FEELING BLUE

I KNOW IT’S TRUE
THIS REALITY IS MINE
CAME TO BELIEVE
IT WILL ALL BE FINE

THIS LIFE IS NOT POOR
HAPPY TO BE ME
LOVE YOURSELF
THE BEST IS YET, YOU’LL SEE.

***

I AM REALLY GOOD AT POETRY, MOM.

I am going to have to agree with Ryan.  I am very proud of him and Grace.