Camping with Narcolepsy

This weekend, we decided to go camping, so we spent about 4 hours gathering stuff up and made it to camp at about 9:30 friday night.  Vand'n slept most of the way up, and was pretty wired when he woke up, so we had to give him his medicine early to help him get to sleep.

At some point in the night, he fell off the table/bed he was sleeping on, so Dee plopped him back on it, and he did pretty good for the rest of the night, but we were wondering if he falls off his bed often at home and gets himself back in, so maybe we will put a camera in there sometime to see.

Since we got to bed late, and slept horribly, of course we were up at 7 a.m. and cooking breakfast.  At least the scenery was good, and the weather perfect.  the kids wanted their guns out while I was cooking breakfast, so I decided since he was in a good mood, there was a smaller chance of him shooting his brother and sister.  So for the rest of the day, they spent every minute - that wasn't eating or riding 4-wheelers -"hunting" (I put it in quotes because they are scaredy cats and wouldn't walk more than 100 ft from the trailer).  They did however assure me that the each shot at least 1 grasshopper, and more than a few ants.  So when the apocalypse happens, I'm looking for hunting partners if anyone is interested.

Once breakfast was cleaned up, we went for our first ride.  We went to my favorite spot. Here is the view from there.

As soon as we pulled up Vand'n informed me that he was tired, so I had him lay on my arm, and he was gone within minutes.  That made for a fun 2 mile ride back.  

Lenix also decided she liked to sleep while riding.  Props to big sister Denim for holding her almost the whole time.

We had lunch and then decided to go on another ride to the pond.  I swear this used to be a 10 minute ride, but apparently it is a 45 minute ride with a kid who falls asleep about 20 minutes in.  This time was a little trickier because there was a steep downhill where I had to keep his face from bouncing off the handlebars.  

Here is a view from the top before the downhill to the pond.

Once we were down there, we started skipping rocks across the water.  This was great until Krosby (Van's 2 yr old brother)  tosses in a huge rock... and it floats...  Well since this is an open range area, the simple math tells us that Kros threw in a cowpie.  Without thinking I say, "Kros, that was poop!"  and next thing we know Vand'n is having a cataplexy attack and almost falls over.  

If you look close, you can see the floating "rock". Also I'm pretty sure Dee is holding his hand to he doesn't fall over.  A common approach we use when he is having Cataplexy.

It seems pretty consistent that any "potty" related humor is what makes him laugh the hardest and have the most aggressive Cataplexy episodes.  As we were leaving, one member of our group had to go number 1, and this made Van laugh again.  I tried to video it (the cataplexy, not the #1), but I was too slow.  The laughing cataplexy is a weird thing to watch, and we have to make sure he doesn't hit his head or smother himself, but it is interesting how he will be telling a joke and have an episode for about 5 seconds, and when he snaps out of it, he will carry on with what he was saying like he never stopped.  

So in closing, we learned that Narcolepsy will slow down your outdoor activities a little, but they are still a blast, and the family can really come together when you don't see anyone else for 24 hours.  These are the blessings that we are grateful for and hope to continue enjoying.