SEAN VISIT, April 2011

I am over amonth late in posting informationon this trip.

Thursday 4/28/2011

We saw Sean in September when we visited in Reno. We had not seen him since he was accepted in a treatment center in West Jordan, Utah. We planned and did drive to the Salt Lake City area on one day. Our route was from Las Vegas to Sandy, Utah on I-15, about 420 miles or seven hours driving.

We arrived in Sandy during the mid-afternoon and got checked into the Comfort Inn. We had not been north on I-15 past the Hurricane turnoff for several years and were surprised at the growth in the communities along the Interstate. After checking in to the motel I did a nearby cache, it was less than 400’ away. For supper we went to a Mexican restaurant that was recommended by the desk clerk. La Frontera was an ok restaurant but nothing to write home about.

Friday 4/29/2011

We had arraigned ahead of time to visit Sean on what would have normally been a school day. Sean had asked for Star Wars Lego sets. Beside the set of Lego we bought we had a set from Sean’s Aunt Kim to give him. I had also had bought a Dungeons and Dragons starter set that Sean had asked for and a starter set of Dungeons and Dragons type trading cards.

When we got up and started we had snow flurries and considerable snowfall on the way to the Copper Hills facility. Copper Hills is in West Jordan, Utah on the way to mountains on the west, so the elevation was higher than Sandy.

Visiting hours were 10 AM to 8 PM. We arrived before 10 and signed in and ready for our visit. Sean arrived with a staff member and a plastic bin of Lego’s. I hadn’t seen this many Lego’s since Curtis was Sean’s age. One disappointment was that on the way to Utah, I realized I had forgotten to bring the hard drive that runs my World of War Craft game. Sean doesn’t have internet access and hasn’t played WoW since coming to Utah, so he was disappointed.

Sean and I put together Lego’s and played some games he made up while Gerri checked out her FaceBook games. We had lunch with Sean in the dining room, pretty good food and good portions. Sean and I checked out the Dungeons and Dragons game. The board game was the genesis of on line games like World of War Craft, but much harder to play.

In mid afternoon Sean was scheduled for a family therapy session with his father, we were invited to sit in. The session started ok but when the therapist wanted Sean to tell his dad about disciplinary matters during the previous week, the session started to fall apart. Sean didn’t want to talk about it and said he just wanted to visit with us. The session was scheduled for an hour. We went back to the visitation area and Paul the therapist accompanied us to complete the time. Sean insisted that Paul leave and let him visit with us.

Sean and I tried to figure out the Dungeons and Dragons game. After some success we had some disagreement on the meaning of the instructions and he became quite irate.

At about 5PM we decided we all needed a break and declined to go to supper with Sean. We went to a nearby Joe’s Crab shack and had supper. After the disagreement over Dungeons and Dragons we went back to the Lego set for the rest of our visit. We left for the motel at about 8 PM. We had to take the trading card game with us. The facility wouldn’t allow trading games, we assumed because of possible disagreement on the value of trades. Sean also requested that we bring him some of his favorite candies.

After getting back to the Comfort Inn, I realized I was coming down with one of my notorious colds. I took what medications I had and hoped for the best.

Saturday 4/30/2011

My cold was worse when we got up and there were about 4” of snow on the car. We had planned to visit with Sean for about four hours, but had to settle for an hour or so including photos in the lobby of Copper Hills. We had stopped on the way to Copper Hils to fill his candy requests and he was excited to get the gummy worms and other candy.

I slept for most of the way back to Las Vegas and spent 4 more days in bed.

All in all we had a good visit with Sean, but realize there is a lot of hard work ahead for him. We are praying for progress backed up by more progress.

There are some photos of our visit in Gerri’s Face Book albums.