4th of July or July 4th if your Canadian, eh!

I had this brilliant idea to take a trip south of the border to see one of Glenn's really good friends.

They have just recently starting working together again (they started Left Coast together in the 90's) and Dean has been asking Glenn to come and see him for awhile.

So five beating hearts left our farm at 6am Thursday morning (the cat stayed home) and arrived in a suburb outside of Seattle at 10am. The boys were great on the trip down, Gavin slept part of the way and Riley watched movies on the portable DVD player (thanks Airmiles!!!).

Shortly after we arrived Glenn and Dean left us at the house with Dean's girlfriend Georgia. None of us had ever met Georgia before (we haven't seen Dean in over two years) and she got me, 20 month old twins and a dog dumped on her.

Georgia jumped right in as the boys were exploring everything. Dean's son Kyle is 14and Georgia's daughter Jessica is 23, so the house was not toddler proof, soon to be rectified though.

The boys got a taste of what suburban living is all about as Dean's lives at the end of a cul-de-sac.









Being a new place naps were not easy as well as the fact that we only had one playpen. Gavin would not nap at all - crying and screaming (I was actually quite embarrassed as they normally sleep so well), so I aborted his so that Riley could at least sleep.

Georgia had an appointment so that left me with one sleeping toddler and one awake toddler. After she left I laid down on the couch with Gavin who ended up falling asleep on me. I took him upstairs only to hear Riley crying, so I swapped them out.

Gavin slept for a short time and then we went outside to play (above pictures).

Bedtime came and the boys were up about an hour past when they normally hit the sack, so off they went.

Long story short, Gavin again refused to sleep and cried and screamed and it came down to me forcing Glenn to take them for a drive, which zonked Riley out, but not Gavin. I went to bed at 11:30 with Gavin laying beside me and Riley in the playpen.

Since Thursday was a late night, Friday mid day brought naps for everyone (except Georgia I think). Gavin again screamed at nap time, so he and I slept on the couch, while Glenn was upstairs with my angel Riley.

I eventually got up, but left Gavin behind!


Mid afternoon brought out the fireworks. OMG I have never been in the US of A on the 4th of July, WOW, the noise level just goes UP!!!

Since Dean and Georgia live on the edge of the cul-de-sac, everyone congregates down there. I can't even give you pictures that will do it justice.

This is the street covered in debris about 2 hours into it, with another probably 4 to go.



Dean, Gavin, Georgia and the fireworks for ONE household!


Once the fireworks started the boys FREAKED!!!! I tried getting them to wear their earmuffs for the track, Riley refused, but Gavin did ok.

Georgia and I ended up taking the boys inside as Riley was just not going to enjoy it. After a bit Gavin went back outside with the boys.

Gavin with Dean enjoying the show.


Riley never did get into it and would rather stay inside and wear his earmuffs. He just felt safer inside.


This is what we got when he was outside.


We were supposed to stay down until today, but between Gavin not sleeping and the fireworks turning our dog into a bowl of quivering mush, we, well in reality, I aborted our vacation at about 9:30 last night.

Gavin ended up having the same hissy fit when we got home and ended up sleeping with Glenn in the upstairs bedroom last night. I wasn't going to let him figure it out at 1am.

We fixed him today though, it only took about an hour of crying (it broke my frickin' heart to hear it) and then I had to wake him up after a 3 1/2 hour nap. Tonight he only cried for about 15 minutes and then he was out!

Even with the sleeping problem, it was nice to get away and was even nicer for Glenn to catch up in person with Dean, instead of via email and phone. There was even a girl's trip to the mall where I dumped $100US in Helly Hanson! It's a shame that we didn't get to stay and enjoy the fireworks a little more, but I had to think about my sleep deprived children and my stress level!

Boy cousins are AWESOME

After the ladder incident (and climbing the scaffolding as well) I got to thinking about an offer we had from one of Glenn's sisters.

Our nephew had two sets of "gym" stuff that she had offered us awhile ago. I had no idea where I would put it, so I had actually forgotten she had offered it to us.

Sunday morning I gave her a call to let her know we were interested in it if she hadn't already gotten rid of it.

I figured since I was on holidays this week I would go sometime this week to pick it up. Deb was on her way her way out and I told her it was no rush....she called me back a few hours later to let me know it was in her driveway.

I made the call at about 10:30am and the boys were playing on it by 2pm!!!

Gavin likes it as well, but I only have pictures of Riley so far.







There is another box of parts which I am in the processing of trying to put together (you have to really think about it, even with directions)! I've also realized you can't do it with 2 almost 20 month old boys around, they tend to steal your parts!!!

Happy Canada Day!

Everybody out of the pool

I posted the other day that Glenn had set up our pool....with the weather being over 30 every day it's been nice. The boys love the pool and the floating seats that Uncle Tom and Auntie Linda got them last year still fit. Barely.

Last years pictures




Gavin likes to float around and it's getting really good and kicking his feet and will swing his legs back and forth under the water. They can also stand in the pool and walk along the bottom. Riley seems to still be a little stiff but we are working on it.

They love being swung around in the water and don't seem to mind the splashing.

On Saturday, the day of the ladder incident, Glenn was swinging them around and we were playing with them and teaching them the joys of the pool. I had gotten out for a break but the boys were back in their seats in the pool with Glenn.

"Um, honey, have you fed them lately?" Glenn asked. "There seems to be food floating in the pool."

"I haven't fed them recently and I don't think they had any food on them." I replied.

"I was skimming off the debris and thought I had it all, but there is tonnes in here now." Note, Glenn spends most of his time in the pool with a net and you are NOT ALLOWED in the pool if you haven't washed your feet!

I didn't have a response to that when all of a sudden Glenn realized - POOP!!!

I started laughing when he removed Riley from the seat and he swim diaper was BROWN!

Although I was laughing so hard I had stitches in my side, I rescued Riley from his very upset Dad. When I removed the diaper there wasn't much left in it. I then remember while he was swinging Riley around his diaper had started to slip off!

By this time Glenn had jumped out of the pool and was swearing as the pool had only been up for three days!

The pool has since been partially drained and Glenn spent a good portion of yesterday afternoon vacuuming everything out.

By the way, if you don't feel like swimming in our pool now we are fine with that!