Camelback Resort Snow Tubing

What comes to mind when you first think of winter? Snow, cold, days off school? If you live in Pennsylvania, your winter thoughts include sledding, ice skating, hockey, skiing, snowboarding and snow tubing just to name a few! Even though we haven’t had much of a winter down where we live, my sister and brother-in-law bought my children and myself snow tubing tickets for Christmas and this month we headed up to Camelback Mountain Resort in the Pocono Mountains to have some fun.

Camelback Mountain Resort offers skiing, snowboarding, a gorgeous resort and even an indoor water area called Aquatopia! But that’s for another time (as much as I wanted to go). You can find their website at http://www.camelback.com to check out everything they have to offer and to purchase tickets. Their snow tubing section is as soon as you turn into the resort at the bottom of the hill with parking there on the right. Their hours change with the seasons and also with the weather so it’s always good to check before you head out there. If you’re at the resort for other fun and decide to go snow tubing, there are shuttles that will take you down. The tickets do sell out fast on busy days so make sure to purchase them ahead of time and they are only good for 3 hour sessions. You’ll have to sign a waiver once you get there as well for each adult and you can include any children on the form you fill out.

They offer two different hills, one for slower rides and one for faster rides. Each section has 20 lanes so the wait goes by fast. And it’s so awesome that they have a magic carpet (moving sidewalk) to get to the top of each section. My 6 year old was a little scared stepping on the carpet the first time but he slowly got the hang of it. He was a pro by the time we left for the day. You can ride down solo or you can ride in a group by holding onto each other’s ropes that are on the tubes. Our first trip down, he was a little scared and had me hold the rope to ride down together. He screamed the whole way down but jumped up at the bottom and yelled that he loved it and let’s go again. After the third time down, he got brave enough to go by himself and that was it, he was loving it.

If you need a break from the tubes, they do have a small lounge area with bathrooms, a small shop and a small café that sells hot drinks and some food. It’s a good place to sit and warm up before going back out. 3 hours might not seem like a long time but believe me, you will be glad they have the lounge area. Even though it was a Sunday, we were the first session and thankfully wasn’t too busy. The kids lasted about 2 hours in before they were ready to leave. We finished out our fun day with lunch, thanks to my sister and brother-in-law for the treat, and were ready to head home. It was such a peaceful drive home as all the kids fell asleep. If you’re looking for a great winter activity, I highly recommend Camelback Mountain Resort. We definitely will be going back again!

CRPS Awareness Day

Today’s blog post is going to be a little different than our usual traveling and having fun posts but it deals with being a mom and with November 4th. My son Jason is 15 years old and is a typical teenager with the attitude and not wanting to hang out with his mom. But he is also a very strong and brave person. He’s been diagnosed with Asthma, Costochondritis and Hemiplegic Migraine Syndrome along with one more condition. The last condition he was diagnosed with is the most painful chronic pain condition known to man. Jason was diagnosed almost 2 years ago with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome I or CRPS. Just looking at him, you would never think that anything is wrong with him or that he spent months in horrible pain and now has severe weakness in his left hand. November 4^th is CRPS Awareness and Wear Orange Day to bring awareness to this little known condition.

 

Complex Regional Pain Syndrome can develop from illness or injury but there is no known answer to why some people get this and some people don’t from the same illnesses or injuries. Type 1 is from an injury or illness that didn’t directly damage the nerves in your limb. Type 2 is from direct never damage. It is also known as the suicide condition as there is no known cure for it and many treatments to help the pain and other symptoms don’t help for long. Some sufferers have also willingly amputated their limbs to get some relief. CRPS affects the nervous system through the entire body, it can start in one part of your body and spread without rhyme or reason to any other part of the body. While medical documents state that the average age of diagnosis is 42, many are children and the youngest that has been diagnosed was just 18 months old. CRPS is also known as Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy Syndrome (RDS), Reflex Neurovascular Dystrophy (RND) and Amplified Musculoskeletal Pain Syndrome (AMPS).

Some of the symptoms for CRPS are burning or throbbing pain in the affected area, sensitivity to touch or temperature, swelling, changes in skin color and texture, joint stiffness, muscle spasms and weakness, decreased ability to move or use the affected area, muscle atrophy, nail and hair changes including loss of, and changing in how you process the temperature for instance Jason feels cold when the rest of us are saying it’s hot inside. He has the skin color change, muscle weakness, sensitivity to touch and burning/throbbing pain in his left wrist and hand. Symptoms change from person to person and no two people will be affected the same way.

Jason broke his wrist during gym class in January 2017. After the 6 weeks of healing and x-rays that showed the bone was healed, he still had horrible pain. We saw our family doctor, a sport medicine specialist, an orthopedist, and finally a rheumatologist between March 2017 and January 2018. The rheumatologist was the one who finally figured out what was wrong with him. While there are many different treatments, Jason’s started with more x-rays and an EMG test (electromyography) which measures the muscle response to the nerve’s stimulation. Thankfully he passed so there is no nerve damage at the moment. He was then send to physical therapy which helped a lot with the pain. He sees a rheumatologist every 6 months to check on his progress. Another great thing that helped with his progress was belonging to a group called the Ferocious Fighters, a group for children and their parents that have been diagnosed with this monster of a condition. They sent him a care package and have sent several more letters since we joined them. Please be sure to check them out on Facebook and at their website https://www.ferociousfighters.org. If you feel moved at all to donate, all donations go to help provide care packages to kids going through this fight so they know they aren’t alone.

While this can be a rehabilitating condition, I’m so thankful that Jason is currently in a remission state. His pain is very minimal but it’s looking as he will never regain the strength in his hand that he once had. We can only hope that it stays this way for a long time but with CRPS, you can never tell. Any small injury can trigger the spread and my son loves playing sports so every line drive and run down between bases makes me catch my breathe. But I love how he won’t let his conditions stop him from living that is the biggest thing. He knows his limits but still tries with 100 percent of his heart. He inspires me.

If any of your children are fighting through a condition or illness, your child is a super star and you are a super star as well. Never give up the fight for answers for your child. CRPS has no known cure and hardly any research done on it as scientists and doctors don’t really understand it. But that doesn’t mean that we will stand by and let it take over our lives. Stand tall and stand proud CRPS fighter, you got this!!

Clip ‘N Climb Courage

Being the youngest of 5 children means my 6 year old son Chase gets to try so many new things and discover new places with his older brothers and sisters. His newest adventure was trying the Clip ‘N Climb at Spooky Nook Sports.

He’s never tried anything like this before but was so excited to try. His older brother was doing an event with the Young Marines at Spooky Nook so Chase and I decided to check it out. They have 10 climbing walls including a Leap of Faith (which he was too scared to try). Some were very hard but he tried, his favorite was this circle one

He made it almost to the top! So proud of my little man. We only did the half hour session but we will definitely be going back to have more fun! If you’re ever in Manheim Pennsylvania, be sure to stop by Spooky Nook Sports at 75 Champ Blvd. They offer so much from climbing, batting cages, a Ninja Warrior course and so much more!

2019 PA Family Expo

On Saturday, my youngest and I decided to check out the2019 PA Family Expo that was being held at Spooky Nook Sports Complex in Manheim Pennsylvania while his brother was participating in Young Marines. The PA Family Expo offered fun activities for the kids with trick or treating, bounce house, face painting and balloon animals; while different vendors and companies had tables set up for the parents ranging from schools and daycares to dentists to small businesses. They even offered giveaways and raffles that you could enter. Each child received a free cinch bag with goodies for coming there and a free ticket for the bounce house.

Chase loved the big bounce house that was set up as soon as you entered. It was sponsored by The Bull Guys.

There was also a table set up with Lego and other building items which Chase didn’t want to leave.

He was constantly on the move, checking out each table and trick or treating along the way; it was so hard to take pictures with him. Some of the other vendors there were King’s Swings in Strasburg, Lapp’s Toys (amazing handmade wooden toys), Tiny Town (if you have little kids you have to check them out!), Usborne Books, Stampin’ Up, Boy Scouts, Michaels, The Property Sisters and so many more. We had a great time, I even won a gift basket! I never win anything so that was awesome. Chase ended up with so many goodies, lots of candy and even made a spider at the Michael’s booth.

They hold this event every year so keep your eyes opened for next year’s announcement and don’t miss out on this amazing free event!

Wishing For Fall

FALL IS HERE!

Or at least that’s what I keep hoping. We had about a week of cooler weather before summer came back. And now Mother Nature can’t make up her mind, sweater weather in the morning and tank top weather in the afternoon. It drives me crazy this time of year. I live for apple picking, sweatshirt weather, falling leaves, bonfires and corn mazes. I’m sure many of you do too. Do you have any fun places to visit in the fall that you love? Leave a comment and maybe I’ll feature them in a post here or on one of our social media pages.