This past weekend we had the amazing opportunity to camp at Ironwood Springs Christian Ranch and attend their first ever Autism Family Retreat. Let me start by saying, we needed this. My family really needed this weekend together. We were able to take the weekend to enjoy each other, relax and have tons of fun. When our daily life is generally stressful and full of therapies, we needed this break from every day life.
We chose to bring our camper and stay in their campground. We know Charlie is comfortable in our camper and we would have a familiar place to go if he were having a hard time. Overall the weekend went well! We definitely dealt with a handful of meltdowns, that was expected....but the nice thing....we didn't have anyone staring, wondering what was going on, or why our child was having a catastrophic tantrum. Because everyone we were surrounded by knew exactly what we were going through. Meltdowns are their normal too!
Kuddos to Ironwood Springs. This was their first time putting on this event and it couldn't have gone smoother. They had a day packed full of activities for all the families and if you didn't want to attend a certain activity, you didn't need to feel like you HAD to. They had alternate activities to choose from or you could simply have quiet time in your room or anywhere on the grounds that you chose.
They had archery, BB gun shooting, horse riding, tractor rides, horse painting (yes, you read correctly, we painted actual horses) and even zipline! The boys loved ALL of it! They had gatherings at their fire pits in the evening for families to come together if they chose. They even had a resident camel, named Clyde- Clyde is a camel after this mama's heart as he LOVES coffee!
Archery and BB Guns were our first activity of the day and the boys could have spent all day there. They were all pretty good!!
Spending time with the horses was easily another favorite. They all got a turn to ride a horse around the arena. This was their first time horse riding! They also had horses outside in the pasture that would come up to the fence and love all the snuggles the boys would bring.
You read correctly....the boys got to paint horses too! We've never heard of such a thing, but they had so much fun doing it. You guys, these horses were amazing. They were the most patient and gentle horses I've ever met. They stood still the entire time- barely moving and let all the kids paint all over them. All of our boys were entertained by this for quite some time, but I've never seen Charlie so calm, still and occupied for such a long period of time (almost 40 minutes)! He absolutely loved it.
We took a tractor ride to their petting zoo where they had Llamas, goats, tons of rabbits (yay *she says sarcastically), deer, and peacocks! They had some of the rabbits on the tractor ride for the kiddos to hold.
Easton and Charlie (as well as mom and dad) had fun with the zipline too! We have some video of that, but have a hard time loading them there. Both boys got suited up and hopped on the zipline without any hesitation. They truly amaze me every day.
This event was run so well. They definitely put a lot of thought into everything they did. They had noise canceling ear muffs at each station for those kiddos with noise sensitivities. They even had a sensory room inside the lodge where kiddos could retreat to for a break if needed. I wish we had heard about that. For some reason we missed the memo on the sensory room and didn't get to see it, but from what we heard- they did a great job with it. Meals were provided throughout the weekend and they did a great job accommodating special diets. They had tons of gluten free options and even had almond milk available for those who are dairy free. Amazing really. Anyone staying in the rooms in the lodge also had their own mini fridges for those who still needed to bring any other special dietary needs or had any medications that needed refrigeration.
At the end of the weekend they had a Q&A session for the parents to talk with the organizers of the event. Overall consensus was that everything went well, but gave suggestions on what they could do a little differently to make it even better. It sounds like Ironwood Springs wants to do this again or even provide other gatherings throughout the year for Autism families. We are so grateful we had the opportunity to take part in this. We haven't had the opportunity to socialize much with other autism families and this was perfect. I think we found our tribe.
