All Good Things...

Uncle Buck had asked how the Sonata was holding up. It's doing well, but needs breaks as it's approaching 70k on the originals. Ray comments that he could do the work, but the price for parts is ridiculous. Uncle Buck buys a few car parts from time to time (ha, ha, ha) and gets what probably amounts to a ridiculously frequent buyer (non-dealer) discount at a local auto parts store. He places a call, and comes up with a price for our parts that is about $120 less than we would have to pay at home. So we order them, and they were in quickly. So Uncle Buck (bless him!) tells Ray to bring the car over, and starts changing out all four break pads and rotors on my car. He also tells Ray it's a one person job, hands him the keys to the Chevy SSR and tells Ray to take it for a spin. So Ray comes to camp, and we are told to leave the kids there with Nana and Grandpa and Aunt Tara and go for a ride.

I think was the first time I've been away from both kids at the same time. We had a nice time, it was a beautiful night! And, thanks to Uncle Buck, we saved a boatload on this job!

But all good things (including wonderful vacations) must come to an end.... The final Saturday of our trip was HOT and Humid and Sticky. It was also Rachael's 15th birthday. So cake and ice cream cake were on the docket for just after lunch. I was scheduled to make fajitas for lunch... but between packing and having a few children demanding my attention, lunch ended up coming after dessert. Oh well. Life's short, right?

Nana and Maia

Aaron kisses Maia

Aaron and Parker

Grandpa and Parker

Parker gnaws on his fingers.

Maia is so sweaty, her hair is curling. However, she seems unperturbed.

We hit the road mid-afternoon with a 6 hour drive (minus stops for feeding and diaper changes) ahead of us before we arrived at the hotel in London, Ontario. We didn't let Maia nap before we left, so it wasn't long before she drifted off to sleep.

Parker Travels contentedly

Maia did much better on this car ride. Quieter, more content, and extremely interested in going to Ol' McDonoll's to get som theeen to eat! Yes, during this trip, my child really started to like Chicken McNuggets - a food she was a little iffy on before. She even showed some pre-reading skills by seeing the McDonald's M and asking going to eat now? when we stopped at one for a potty/diaper break.

We arrived at our hotel around 10 p.m, where they had upgraded us to a King sized bed (instead of 2 queens) and with a hide-away bed, which worked just fine. We were able to put in play some of the valuable lessons we'd learned to help get Maia settled down within about an hour, instead of 3 or 4.

• small snack
• cold water
• a little time watching her video
• the rest of her normal routine: diaper change, tooth brushing, bedtime books

I laid down with Maia, talked with her quietly, rubbed her back and various other tricks to reign her in. Then I turned my back to her and let her cuddle up next to me. Again, with her audience removed, she settled much more quickly, and I think all 4 of us were asleep by 11:30. Parker woke about 5ish, nursed, got a diaper change and back to sleep. The alarm went off, but neither kid was awake, so we chose to ignore it.

We hit the road in the morning with the hope to be home by maybe 1 pm. Then we got stuck at the border (and on the Blue Water Bridge) for an hour. Sigh. Ray decided to ask the border guard about the Nexus program he was so frustrated!

Back in the U S... Back in the U S... Back in the U S of A!

I think Maia was very glad to be home. She settled back into her regular routine (including 7:00 bedtimes and 2 hour naps after lunch) easily and without argument. The only thing we heard a little more about was wanting to sleep on mommy-daddy, mommy-daddy's bed which was her way of indicating both our bed and an "adult" sized bed (also known as grandma's bed).