RIT Trip to Rochester NY

I almost forgot!!  I need to add pictures from NY!  Rhett and I went to NY because he was asked to attend a science fair.  He had a project on flat worms and magnets.  His experiment was to see if the flat worms would regenerate faster with magnets then without.  It was hard work in order to go since I was going as Rhett's nurse.  We went to Rochester NY Friday March 22nd, so right before Rhett's surgery.  We had to leave early in the morning.  We were only there until Sunday March 24th.

Rhett was asked to attend this science fair for the deaf at RIT.  Little did I know at the time was that it was in Rochester NY!  Holy cow are you kidding!!!  Now to try to think of a way he can go.  I had to contact IHC home care and told them that I needed a portable concentrator to see what I needed to do in order for him to go.  They were going to give us the same portable concentrator that we have at home.  So we just used the one we have, and either 2 or 3 extra batteries.  I picked them all up the day before we had to leave made sure they were all charged and ready.

So we needed to be at the airport around 6 am.  We were the last to arrive but the first to the security gates since Rhett was in his wheelchair and we had all his medical equipment that we were going to need for the whole duration of the flight.  But even though we were first to security we were the last to get through because of the machines beeping saying that his machine and batteries were not safe.  Rhett signed to me as we were sitting there waiting for them to allow us through, and told me that he was not a bomb.  HA HA HA!!!  I couldn't help but laugh. :)  They had to bring a special person to look over Rhett's equipment to make sure that it was safe.  He deemed they were safe and we went on our way.  We got to the gate and were only there for 15 minutes before we were able to board the plane.  We were the first to board since it was going to take us longer to board then others.  Between him having special needs and being a "child" it made it nice.  It was great because we were able to sit in first class for the first leg of the flight.  We had enough room between Rhett and I for the the portable concentrator, the batteries and the pulse oximeter.  It was AWESOME!!!  I made sure Rhett had the window seat so he could see things and enjoy the view. :)  I was able to get a video of Rhett during take off and landing.  It was cool to see his face. :)  He did fly once before when he was 2 years old when we went out NIH.  I am not sure why he cannot remember that. :D  Hee hee hee.....

We took a ton of pictures and had a long trip.

At the airport finally.

Security is so much fun!

Just standing by waiting while they all discuss us in the background.  LOL!

There is his teacher and friends.  Yes we were waiting that long. :)

Look our plane!

Glad that we are through security!  Can't wait to load and have an adventure.

Loading luggage and getting ready to load. :)

Glad that isn't me out there.

Oh yeah loaded and waiting!  Love this first class thing going on here. :)

Just kicking back and enjoying electronics before take off.

Look at those clouds!  This is awesome!!  We are OFF!!!!

Perfect weather for traveling.

Above the clouds cruisin'.

Guess we are almost at our first stop.

Ok not close enough.

Game time again.

Are we almost there yet?

Nope.  Time to eat!

Breakfast in first class!  Awesome!!

That looks cool.  I see circles. :)

It looks like we are closer to the ground.

Maybe we are almost there.

Looking out and enjoying the view.

I think we are to the first stop.

Waiting can be so hard.

Waiting again.

More waiting.  LOL!

Say Cheese!

Why are we not there yet?

Cheesey Smile. :)

Looks soft and fluffy.

Wish there was more to see then clouds.

Look the ground!  Yeah not cloud!

So close and yet so far away.

Time to get off?

Oh yeah not in the plane but in the train an airport.  This guy was funny pushing Rhett around and trying to get from one place to the other before anyone else.

This was a huge tunnel under the runway a the airport.  LOVED IT!!!  Yes we were going so fast everything blurred by us.  I wish we would have gone slower.

Smaller plane means front seats and hopefully a small flight.

And we are in the air again.

Turn and don't fall out of the plane.

Going up.

More clouds.

Even higher then us!

Making faces to buy some time.

Oh boy!

Yep the faces keep coming.

Tired of being on the planes.

Thoughtful thinking.  I guess there is always time to reflect.

At least it is still day light.

Looking down and you still can't see a thing.

*Sigh*

NO WAY!!!  There is ground!!!

Is that snow?  Oh man it is going to be cold.

Does this mean we are there or close to being there?

I think so.  But it is getting darker. :(

Getting lower now.

We are totally there, just on the approach.

Look we are really close to landing now.

There is a river right next to the campus.

A beautiful wall at the Rochester airport.

We got our bags and are finally waiting for the shuttle.  That was along flight.  But because Rhett has a wheelchair everyone was jealous and they decided to borrow some chairs to play with while we waited.

Three chairs, four kids, and one teacher.  Maybe we will be able to go to the hotel soon

First day after a long night.  He looks ready huh?

And the explaining starts.

Answering questions and going over everything.

It is a good thing that I have a great zoom.  Explaining more about his project.

Not as zoomed in. :)  Yep they are all looking at his project. :)

Almost done explaining for a while.

Done and now doing science!  

He loves science!

Chemical Reaction.

Blur

Going to find out what happened.

Look it GLOWS!

Even more glowing!  This is awesome!

The whole group on tour.

Wow this looks cool from here!

Excited to answer questions asked.

Explaining how and why he thinks this way.

The professor is asking more questions and only a few are not paying attention. LOL!

The second day of explaining.  He was tired and slept hard so he was ready for a new day.

Explaining his project more.  Look at that cute face.  LOL!

The facial expressions just kill me.  HA HA HA!!

And what Rhett?

What a great picture!!  Chatting about science is so much fun for him.

Questions asked and questions answered.

AC is one of Rhett's friends that made it to NY.

Now pictures all around that room.

Yes Rhett was only a table away from the wall.

More and more kids and projects.

The whole room has now been accounted for in the photos.

Yes often they signed fast.  God thing that he was able to understand it all as such a fast pace.

Another of Rhett's friends that made it to NY.

AC and Jojo and there project.

Rhett explaining again and answering  questions.

Honestly this room isn't that big.  It just looks big.

And now time to view how everything looks and what is going to happen.

What is happening. (Honestly I have no idea who took this picture if it was me or Rhett but I am not sure why anyone took this picture.)  Ha ha!

Again not sure why this photo was taken but this is explaining the judging.

He was quite funny. :)

Told about the day and what was going to happen that day.

Trying to pay attention.  It is hard when you cannot see over the boards.

And the judging starts.

After judging time it is lunch time.

All of Rhett's friends were still showing their projects so he was with me .

He was having fun chatting with the interrupters.  LOL!

After lunch was a grand tour.  Rhett and I had a contest to see who could take the most pictures.

We had fun walking around seeing everything.

Had a elevator ride in a very old elevator.  Hee hee...

It was freezing cold out side and we were so not prepared.

Even with all the snow it looked amazing and was so quiet.

Dorms.

Where the elevator was and the building we just came from.

And the walking starts.

Cool sculptures.

We missed our group so we went with the other group.

Super cool horse.

Both sides were painted but this one didn't turn out as much as the other one. :(

Yep looks like a college.

It was very peaceful and quiet, even walking around.

RIT glad they have directions.

This was like a huge bow in the middle of the walk way.  Very weird.  LOL not sure what it is for.

Science symbol.

Trying to get a shot of the trees and this guy thinks I was taking a picture of him.  LOL!  So not wanting to take a picture of you dude but those trees were cool.

It started to rain as we got a little closer to this.

A huge gym.  I think there were four of those fabric walls.

This was the gym and we were able to tour.

Just a normal studio.

Not sure what they are doing in here but it was cool to watch.

Seriously a indoor track?  Cool!

Trying to take more pictures then me. :)

My personal favorite! :)  Love the water!!!

Look open space!  Sweet!

Our group and others.

More campus.

Come to find out that we were here during Comic Con, go figure.

It was interesting to see so many people dressed up.

One of my favorites.  Rhett was just surprised to see this.  Ha ha ha

So may people and so many costumes.  This is a cool place right between two buildings.

This was right in the middle of an open space.  Cool!

Totally missed Link.  Ha ha ha

Rise of the guardians.  Interesting!

This was super cool to see all these flags

There is a line for something during this Comic Con

OK.  Not sure what these are.

Cool walk way.

Ha ha...... A tree!

Now we are having different classes while the judges finish judging.

Rhett was a little helper.

He knew all the answers so he made a good helper.

I cannot remember what she talked about, because I was tired after pushing Rhett everyone.

Experiments are awesome!

Chemistry.  Everyone needs safety glasses.

He hated being at the back but we needed to be by an outlet.

Ready for action!  I like science!

So, she was funny!

Explaining about heat and metal.

Balloon and liquid nitrogen.  Nice and cold!

Don't get too close.

Everyone gets to feel the cold balloon.

Closer!

Often I wish people would understand that Rhett is short and cannot see when they stand in front of him.  So instead of  asking people to move he decided  to stand on his chair.  Ha ha...  There is more then one way to get around people.

Ready with our cute glasses.  I look dorky but Rhett looks cute. :)

Now it is on to genetics.  Rhett and I are pros at this compared to many others that were there in his group.

Kicking back watching. :)

Waiting and charging at the same time.

I think he is telling those he was working with how to do the lab.  LOL!

What a basement.  This was a back way since Rhett was in this chair s we got to take the back way.

Awards ceremony!  Finally the judging is over!!!  We are ready and waiting.

Here is all our group without the teacher right in the front row!

Can wait to see who gets what.

Lots of these are going to look the same but I was trying to get everything for Rhett to remember.

He got his award!

Everyone got an award!

Meaning all those that participated.

Huh?  What?

After the awards for everyone.

Finally the ones that really won!

Third place Junior High individual is from New York!  Great Job!!!

Second place Junior High individual is from Massachusetts!  Great Job!!!

First place Junior High individual is from UTAH!!  What!!  Rhett won!!!  Oh my gosh!!  Can you say excited!  He was so excited, I couldn't get any pictures since I was wheeling him up there.

Here he is the first place winner!!  He was so excited!

Everyone of these were judges and they loved talking to Rhett and seeing how smart he is and how much he can explain his project.  While we were out getting the pictures  They did the team winners for Junior High and then did the High School individual and team winners.

The High School team winners are from UTAH!  Yeah they are friends of Rhett.  Great Job AC and Jojo!!!

He was so happy for him and his friends. :)

Very cool wall.

Our hotel room.

He got souvenirs for his siblings and his daddy and of course him

Waiting to get headed out the very next day.  After playing the night before they were tired.

Can we say not awake yet.

This was something I don't remember when we arrived, but it is cool.  Tunnel to the airport. 

Almost to the airport to come home.

Wow this airport is small!

But I guess it is big enough for an airplane to be in the building. :)

That is a cool window!

Another plane.  It was nice to get through security fast enough to have time to take pictures.

They had this cool fountain with this weird rock things.  LOL!  Wow my English is good.  HA HA HA!!

We are headed home but the flight attendant refused to let us have the concentrator by our feet and so they had to jump a pilot and move me to a different seat and buckle his concentrator into my seat.  Rhett was sad that I couldn't sit with him, but hey at least we were able to come home.

This is the coolest tunnel that I have ever seen!

There was music playing and as the music played the colors would change.

This is the tunnel that is under the runway at our layover.

This time we didn't have someone pushing Rhett so we could take our time enjoying the tunnel.

Ok I want this in my house!!

It was friendly and relaxing, made the trip so much better!

Rhett took a video of this very cool tunnel.

I think Nikole and Gavin and Dylan would have loved this!

We made it through the tunnel before the rest of his class and that was us walking slow too.  HA HA HA!

I think all airports should have this calming tunnel.

I will have ot see if I can upload the video that Rhett took.

In this airport between stores and a cool tunnel they even have a train!

On top of all that they have a fountain too.  HA HA!

Very cool!

A chocolate store.

Seriously chocolate shoes?  I don't know if I would be able to even eat those.  LOL!

Don't they look yummy?  :)

This is a huge airport compared to the one we were just in.  This is just one hall.  You can't even see the end. 

There were stores in the airport, like real stores.  Crazy!  LOL!!

By the gate eating lunch.  He was happy to have some food.  LOL!

I went and got a hat and earrings.  Rhett loved it!  So we had a self portrait. :)

On the plane headed home.  Not first class which did make it hard with the concentrator but nothing we can do about that.  He just loves taking pictures with me.  LOL!

Like I said, he is a cutie!

Love him so much!

This was a weird circle on our window.  For a little bit I thought it was a hole.  LOL!

I think those are the rocky mountains.  Almost home!

Love the view!

Rhett had fun taking pictures of the beautiful scenery.

Got to soon be home right?  Not being in first class sucks!  LOL!

The view towards the front of the plane from our seats.

The view towards the back of the plane from our seats.  Yeah we were at the back.  HA HA HA!

My sleepy boy, yep that oxygen isn't in his nose.  Hee hee hee

A better view. :)  Yeah I know he didn't sleep well the night before.

After he woke up he decided to take more photos. :D

There are the mountains!!  We are almost home!!

Missed those mountains!

Approaching the airport. 

Is that our house? :)  LOL

We are home!

Finally on the ground, oh I need to stretch!

He is a cutie!  Waiting to get off the plane.

Finally home and posing with his papers.  Best Explanations!  The only one to  get that, so proud!

His first place plaque and check.  Wait he gets money?  I want some of that too! :)

Speaks for itself.  First place baby!!  Great Job Rhett!!!

The only one that could explain everything to everybody.  Hee hee hee.

That about sums up our quick trip nicely.  We had a lot of fun meeting people from all over and Rhett really enjoyed seeing other kids projects.  There were some that he actually told me he really liked.  He was really nice to everyone there.  Glad that he had this chance to be able to do something that he likes.