Morgan's Wonderland

Nathan's PPCD class took a field trip to a special park last week. Morgan's Wonderland is the first park of it's kind in the country - it's a park where everyone can play. And they mean everyone. Regardless of age, size, or disability - they have completely designed their park to be accessible to everyone. And it's the neatest place I've ever been! 

The park opened shortly after we moved to Texas and I never thought we'd go... I thought it was for handicap kids. But was I ever wrong - it is for everyone! If you live near San Antonio, you've got to check it out! It's a simple place, but it's so clean, well built and full of loving volunteers & staff! Everything they offer we've seen in other parks and children's museums, but not on this scale... they've taken it all up not just one notch, ten notches. It's awesome! And 1 year olds will have as much fun as 101 year olds! Everyone can do it all!

Nathan & Faith, excited to ride the carousel. 

Looks like a normal carousel, right??  Wrong.

Some animals have high back supports for people who have trouble sitting upright. And the platform is level with the walkway - so those who have trouble walking won't trip. And wheelchairs can roll right on. Yes, wheelchairs on a carousel.

See this kid? He's in a special wheelchair dragon - his chair straps in and then the dragon moves up & down as the carousel goes round & round! I love it!

Here's Nathan's "best friend", Cameryn. And his mom, Emilee. 

The kids & I - it was already a very hot day at 10am!

But we weren't going to let that stop our fun :)

There's a sensory village that has different rooms inside.

Faith was in awe of the common area - there were twinkly lights in the ceiling, meant to look like stars. All she wanted to do was watch the stars. :)  

Inside, there was a room where you could build a digital car and race it. There was a room where you could interact with lights and watch them respond to you. There was a room with a green screen - so kids could be weather people on the news.

Then there was a very nicely done HEB grocery store.

Nathan liked learning about the scale. I tried to teach him how to weigh things.

And Faith? She just wanted to shop ;)

When it came time to checkout, Nathan was the cashier and did a great job pressing the correct numbers as he called them out. 

There was another room in the sensory village that was all about cowboys, complete with horses that anyone could ride safely.

Back outside were three of the biggest, nicest playgrounds I've ever seen!!

We only had time to explore one of them since we had to stay with our group.

The kids liked the see-saw. But there were other see-saws designed so that anyone could ride - ones wheelchairs could roll into, etc.

And there were swings for everyone, too.
Infant swings, regular swings, swings with high backsupports...

And even swings for wheelchairs!

Nathan's favorite part of the playground was the roller slide.

He went down it a few dozen times!

And Faith's favorite? One of the rocking see-saw type rides.

One of Nathan's friend's dads was willing to help Faith rock it :)

And Nathan just kept going down that roller slide!

He'd usually find a new way to climb up the playscape, and then find his way back to this slide. Here he is going down with his friend, Cameryn.

Faith enjoyed the slide too, but it was a bit too fast for her (which I found funny... she's usually a little dare devil), so Faith went down on her belly.

Here's Nathan's other good friend from school, Yaseen.

And behind him is Kendra. Nathan has just recently begun saying his friends names when he's home. Cameryn & Yaseen are his favorite friends from school! And they're very good boys, too. Which makes this mommy happy :)

After the playground, we had lunch as a group and then headed off to the jeep rides. The jeeps drive themselves and go around a track in the park. Half the jeeps have two bench seats. The other half are handicap accessible for wheelchairs - and they have a nifty contraption that easily lifts chairs into the jeep.

Cameryn was a great driver as Emilee, Ruth & I rode in the back seat. Good thing the jeeps really drive themselves ;)

Back on the playground we went after the jeeps - we had to catch up with the rest of Nathan's class. We spent a lot of time waiting for the rest of the group, or trying to find them. We only got to explore half the park. One day it'd be fun to go back and see/do it all!

The designers of Morgan's Wonderland are amazing! Seeing all the ways they made everything handicap accessible was awesome. They even made a horizontal jungle gym so that kids who can't walk could still "climb" it. Kids can lay on rollers and pull themselves "up" the jungle gym.

Faith wasn't quite tall or strong enough.

But Nathan enjoyed it, too. 

There was a large water table - biggest, nicest table I've ever seen!!

And I thought McKenna's Children's museum had a nice one... 

I didn't take many pictures of the table - you can't see the vast majority of it.

Because I spent more than half the time there trying to convince Faith that it was OK to touch the water. Again, the little tom boy / dare devil was afraid of water? She was having a rough day.....

When she finally got the nerve to touch the water, a gust of wind blew....

And she got wet! LOL

Then it took her another 5 minutes to warm back up to the idea of playing in water :)

Once she did, she was having a great time with Nathan and his friends!

And had zero trouble splashing in it and getting other people wet.... go figure.

Here's Nathan playing with his friends, Yaseen, Faith & Cameryn.

 Our last stop of the day was the train ride. While we waited in line, the kids played with some musical chimes set up in a sitting area.

There were all times of chimes and pipes to play with - but this one was the only one close enough to the train line.

It was a long line for the train, there were a number of school groups there that day.

So while the kids waited, they found ways to entertain themselves :)

Waving hello to the engineer as the train pulled into the station.

Ready to ride around the park!! 

Every time the engineer blew the train's whistle, the kids would pretend to blow the whistle, too!

(Notice their hands, they're pulling that whistle) 

Before we knew it, it was time to head back to school. Nathan was excited to ride the bus again - and we watched as he got on, then followed the bus back to school. If you ask Nathan was the best part of his day was, he'll be quick to tell you it was the bus ride!!! lol  

Morgan's Wonderland is a true wonderland. We'll definitely be back one day!