Casey gets his 'live' Beatles fix

Casey has been looking forward to going to the Champlain Valley Fair all summer long--"The Ten Best Days of Summer." (which is actually the symbolic end of the summer since it's the end of August/beginning of September.)  Nurse Julie and he made an unofficial date to go together.  He mentioned it almost every day.  There was to be a Beatles tribute band show and he loves the Beatles so he was excited!

The day finally came.  He has 3 Beatles shirts to choose to wear.  He picked one for day time and one to wear to the show later.

I haven't been to the fair since I went with Colin which was a few years before he died.  I don't think we went in 2014 as there was no good show that year.  Anyway, I can't quite bring myself to go without him.  I have a few of those places/events that I can't bring myself to go to/attend.  I stayed home and binge watched season 2 of Mindhunter and hanging out with Jaxon, Moxie and Nuggie.

Got Casey all duded up and in his chair.  Put his hands in a 'bin-din-do' (Kathy's term for the fabric Velcro straps that can hold his hands in place) and strapped his chair in the front position in the van,and then he and Gene were off. Nurse Julie parked in the Mazza's stand spot and caught their attention as they drove by.  /She followed them in to the fair, so that was good.

Nurse Julie sent me lots of photos so I could keep apprise of their exploration. They met up with Bill and Mrs Wetherbee.  Seems like they were able to do quite a bit before the show started.  Julie had been worried that the handicap area (covered box area) would be full but they had no problem.  They stayed for the whole show, which is pretty good for Casey.  Usually he'd be wanting to go walking around.  I guess all the summer concerts we went to prepared him for staying put and enjoying.

The band was pretty good.  Trevor Contois and Friends, from what I gather, have only been playing the Beatles together for a month or so (I could be wrong) in preparation for this show.  They had all sorts of instruments and a great play list.

Sorry! The pictures are out of order (the ones from home should have been first) but I don't want to mess with the blog too much because I am out of practice and don't want to mess up what I've done.

SMA Awareness Day 15: Nobby Reed at Westford Green

• Couple of things to mention that are mention-worthy.

• Julie tried on all of Casey's pants/jeans/lounge wear and we ruled out three pairs and tagged three pair to be re-evaluated in December :)

• I made brownies with chocolate chips and vanilla chips.

• Gene made some sort of green/yellow bean with bacon and potato soup.  I guess it's something his mom used to make.  No one seemed to have a recipe so he wung it and it was really good!

• We broke out Julie's sewing machine.  Months ago I bought a bunch of fabric squares and some terry cloth to make Casey new 'spitters.'  (Spitters are cloths that we use mostly when the boys are up in their chairs to catch their--you guessed it--spit.  Casey's go on on his chest, under his chin.  It saves a bunch of suctioning because his spit comes out and we can wipe his mouth).  I had planned on doing a 'Tom Sawyer' with Julia because I have no clue about sewing.  I figured that if Julia (not to be confused with Julie) came and saw us having fun, yet struggling, she'd jump in and finish the job for us.  Turns out Nurse Julie knows what she's doing and did some herself.  When Julia came she helped, too, but out of kindness, not out of 'trying to get in on the action.'  So we have 8 new spitters.  

We had plans to go to see Nobby Reed at the Westford Green with Kathy and David Day, so we had stuff to get ready.  No one was motivated to make a picnic supper but I packed some brownies.

Casey snuggled in his new hoodie

 It was pretty chilly so we dressed accordingly and brought blankets for the boys.  We headed out with the boys, and Aunt Chris.  Julie followed in her vehicle and we met David and Kathy there. 

When we first got there, we saw a woman and two pygmy goats.  The goats were adorable!!  Spent a bit of time talking with her and petting the goats.  Both the boys liked them, although one of them put his whole muzzle into Casey's mouth!  I guess I was with the lady and her goats for a while because lots of people were coming up and chatting and then leaving and one man gave one goat back to me and said, "Go back to your mommy."  Ha ha.  She gave us her card and said she'd love for us to visit her barn.  She brings her goats to nursing homes and hospitals as therapy.  She also has people visit at her barn.  For some dumb reason, I didn't take any goat pictures!

Casey had a grand time tooling around in his power chair.  We only had him on speed one, or two at times, so he could be cautious.  Sometimes he's get stuck because the ground was soft but we'd just yank on his chair and it would go.  He really thought he was hot stuff.  He was duded out in his new sweatshirt, hanging with Julie and Kathy (and me) and listening to one of his favorite bands, feelin' fine  :)  When we went around the back of the stage, Eric (drummer) and Ray (bass player) all gave a wave to Casey, which he loved.  

Me and Kathy dancing with Casey

Cool duo

This is the only pic of the band that I took and it was getting dark...

We all had a good time.  Aunt Chris got some food that she liked from a vendor that had a mini deli.  I shared my brownies.  Lots of chatting and catching up going on.

It started raining right as we were heading for the van so timing was good.

We had the boys over night so we got them ready for bed, I read some Wonder, and then we all snuggled down.  I put an extra quilt on the boys because it was pretty cool out.