Dare I bring up a topic that most of you will probably skip over? I dare, and I hope that you stick around long enough to get the important message that is being addressed, as This is not your ordinary exercise article. I’m talking about exercise, but not in the traditional sense that we all assume. I am talking about exercise as it relates to our kids with Autism.

It didn't take long before Luke and Sam caught on to the fact that our family loves new adventures. Whether it is hiking in the mountains, exploring a beach town, or finding the next perfect photography shoot location in our home town, we like exploring the new and the old. Olivia is quickly catching on and the boys love when she joins in the fun.

The twisted joy of watching America's Funniest Home Videos, the new Bobb'e show, and the genius of despair.com brings viewers back time and time again. Is it sharing in the universal language of "suffering caused by stupidity" at someone's expense, is it the calm we get from thanking our lucky stars it was not us caught on tape doing the same thing, or is it just plain fun to enjoy a good laugh now and then that brings us back?

Angie and I spent last week in New York City. This was a much needed break from the madness of start-up life and the daily adventures of a family living with autism. We have been married for twelve and a half years. A good portion of the first five years was spent traveling to some very fun places. When you have a child with autism, travel often just flies out the window like the rest of your "planned life." Depending on circumstances, everything you knew prior to autism may seem like it vanishes into thin air.

Angie is in Houston this weekend assisting her mom as she recovers from a half knee replacement. I'm not really sure whether that means that they left the other half of the knee on the operating table and sent her home partially fixed up or if that just means only half needed to be replaced. Either way...it sounds very painful and is a difficult recovery. Our good friend Mr. A had a full knee replacement 5 weeks ago but instead of replacing half...the doctors made it a whole and were kind enough to toss in some additional work.

Father's Day is not a time that we typically plan big events. We learned early on that large family or group events often meant more stress and fatigue on Sam and on us. He had difficulty with noise (i.e. the diagnosis at age two of Sensory Integration Dysfunction) and when lots of people were around it created a significant level of stress for him. When your child is stressed and hurting, you too hurt. It was hard on the extended family at first to understand that no matter how "accepting" they were of his needs, it made no difference to him.

5/17/08 Sam and I had a blast at Challenge Air once again!

It's almost here...