MPS Family Day at the Zoo 2021
Welcome to our MPS Family Day at Brookfield Zoo this year! It’s been 3 years since we were here last, we had one less little family member and it didn’t rain on us this time.
If you are new here to our blog or to our story, our son Owen has MPSIIIA, also known as Sanfilippo Syndrome which is a childhood Alzheimers. It is a degenerative and terminal genetic disease. There is no treatment for his diagnosis and there is no cure. They host an event here yearly and have created this day for MPS families to gather and meet as well as listen to/meet doctors and pharmaceutical companies etc. We are blessed to have this event within a few hours of us and for this opportunity to share Owen’s Story with others.
This trip is special to us because we try and be all together and make family time out of it. This year we were blessed to have all the kids together with us and thankful that Nana and Aunt Haley came alone to learn more about MPS and experience the fun zoo day with us!
As a mama living through this journey I try my best to always capture our story through photos as they are truly a moment in time that I never want to forget. I hope you can enjoy these memories with us through these pictures and others I share through other blog posts and our story.
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So, here we go!
We decided this time instead of driving up the morning of and coming home after that we were going to make a weekend family trip out of it. Again, the kids are getting older and it’s rare that we are able to have them all together like this so we take this time very seriously and want to make as many memories as we can when we are all together.
All 8 of us (baby girl in my tummy) + 2 strollers packed comfortably in one van and we had a 3.5 hour drive to Chicago for this trip. We settled into our hotel the night before and was able to be more prepared and awake for the zoo day extravaganza the next day. It was enjoyable to know we were making a weekend trip out of this one.
Once we arrive at the zoo, we check in, make our name tags and visit in the main lobby for a bit. The morning consists of listening to doctors and guest speakers about stories, updates, any trials that may be going on for the different types of MPS and home videos and memories of loved ones. It’s educational, but also sad, especially when your son lives with the only type of MPS that has no treatment to help him. I cried at the last ones, I cried this time… it’s hard on the heart hearing some of the stuff they talk about.
The kids got settled into the kids room where they are able to color pictures, play games, make crafts, etc. There are volunteers in there with them and it’s connected right next to our conference room. We are able to go in and out as needed and the kids really enjoy having this space so they don’t have to sit and listen if they don’t want to.
Once the first couple speakers are done we get to enjoy a buffet style lunch with everyone before heading out to the zoo. The weather was a little warm but there was such a nice breeze this time, it made for a good day! Let’s relive some zoo memories!
This is one of the families we got to meet in person this trip. They lost their sweet boy Logan on November 30, 2018 to MPS. He was 26 years old. We are so blessed for the connections we are able to make and have through our journey but meeting in person does something to your heart. I wish so bad that we lived by others to be able to visit more often. Thanks for spending time with us Melissa + Andre! xx
Life is all about the little moments + the memories, friends.
Soak it in.
Every little thing.
I added in a few pool and cuddle time pictures here just so you can get a feel of our full weekend but really, it’s just one I’ll never forget. I loved this time of having us all together. Thank you so much for being here with us in our journey. It means the world.
xx
