"Old-New" Friends

I know I have mentioned more than once how much I absolutely LOVE my Instagram friends. If you missed the earlier mentions here:

My Instagram account is not only first name and no location, but it is also private. 95% of my followers and the people I follow there are other autism parents and CharityMiles friends. Quite honestly, they are all wonderful people. There I see compassion, camaraderie and the support of each other, that I really don’t see anywhere else. We all seem to have different opinions, but we all seem to embrace our differences instead of attacking each other”.

or here:
 
(no offence, Al*)

I will say it again…… I LOVE my instagram friends!

One of the highlights of our recent vacation was to have the opportunity to spend some time with a family that I have been friends with for a couple of years now, via Instagram. “Pinky” is a friend that has been with me from almost the beginning. I’ve looked at hundreds of photos of her kids and she in turn has had to look at hundreds of photos of DC. I can never see too many pictures of her kids – they are both gorgeous, happy and always seem to be doing something or going somewhere fun and fabulous (and she doesn’t seem to mind checking out all of DC’s exploits).

When I happened to mention to “Pinky” that we would be heading in her direction during our Christmas vacation,  she messaged me to text her when we arrived.

Our vacation plan was to spend Christmas Day through the following Tuesday in Orlando and move on to FT. Lauderdale/Miami on Tuesday morning through New Years Day. As you all know, the plans we make and what actually happens are often 2 very different things.

DC got sick on Sunday night. He was up every half hour. He said he felt better on Monday morning but rested a good portion of the day until he insisted he felt well enough to go out. I could see that it was a battle for him to be out and when he fell asleep in a restaurant at dinner, I knew that it was time for him to get back to bed and rest. He didn’t argue.

Our plan (there’s that word again) was to leave the hotel early Tuesday morning and head for FT. Lauderdale, but DC – though feeling better, was still just exhausted. We left Orlando quite a few hours later than we had planned.

We arrived so much later in the day than we originally thought we would, we opted to meet for lunch the following day, instead of Santa’s Enchanted Forest that night. DC would have just loved that, but we just couldn’t do it.

We met at Dave and Busters, Wednesday at noon. Although DC’s photos are everywhere on Instagram, photos of myself are few and far between – I felt it necessary to text her that I’d be the one with “six days eating in restaurants, too much salt, swollen face syndrome” – she found us right away :)

We had a wonderful lunch, we talked as if we’d known each other for years – and technically we have.  “Super Kenny” who doesn’t like to have his picture taken by anyone but his Mom, even let me take a few shots.

After lunch we were off to the game room.



Motorcycle racing, goldfish bowl bopping, pacman (or something like it) – they ran around for quite some time trying out many of the games.

DC got a little bit obsessed with the fishbowl game and it was hard to pull him away from it – he did pretty well at it, though. I was impressed, and as DC explained to me, I was very proud of him.  :)

We all had a blast. I am so happy to have been able to meet, in real life – one of my favorite instagram friends.
I so hope we have the opportunity to get together again one day.

The following photo of Kenny and DC, I absolutely love! (I’ve stolen Pinky’s version – it came out better than mine) – I’m sure DC will remember his visit with Kenny for quite some time. He even mentioned Kenny a few times afterwards, which is not always the case with DC, no matter how much fun he’s had.  He will usually tell me what he’s done, but very rarely will he mention the name of anyone that was with him without prompting (except for his friend, BB). I did wonder, because he did mention him more than once,  if DC was aware in some way, of the connection that they share.

" Look at these two #handsome #youngmen. Kenny and DC. It is so wonderful when family meets family. New England to Florida, my son was blessed to have met such a wonderful young man. Thank You, Vickie” ~ Pinky

Thank YOU, “Pinky” for taking time out of your day to meet and hang out with us! Please make sure you let us know when or if you are ever in our area!!!! It was an honor to meet you and your family – or should I say, it was a honor to spend time with “Autism Royalty” as another friend referred to you guys in one of my photos. In either case, it was an honor  and we all had a great time.