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!