Our holiday in Saskatoon went far better than we could have expected. Brayden even performed well on the plane — he kept himself happy looking at books, playing with a truck and sleeping, so we had no complaints. Aside from a tough first night, both boys actually slept more at Grandma’s than they normally do at home, possibly because a high percentage of their waking minutes were filled with entertaining a never-ending parade of relatives. They also had a blast at the Fun Factory (a very cool indoor playground), the waterpark, the zoo and of course Grandma and Grandpa’s backyard. Even I found the trip relaxing, since I had lots of help with the child care and I wasn’t the one trying to plan meals and wash towels and clean dishes (thanks Mom!) Chris and I took advantage of the live-in babysitting and went out for dinner and a movie to celebrate our anniversary, which was fantastic. So lots of fun was had by all.

Still, it’s always nice to get back to normal. Brayden was so happy to be home that he giggled and ran around the house until well past his bedtime last night. Chris took today off because we figured I might need help getting the kids back on schedule, but the post-holiday transition has actually gone pretty well. What a change from last year’s trip, when we had a two-year-old who was teething but not talking and a newborn who still had to be fed at night, and it took three or four days to get everyone settled down. All’s well this time around. And now back to routine…

OK, technically it’s in the air, not on the road, but whatever. We’re off to Saskatoon tomorrow for a six-day visit with family. Justin is super excited about the trip and likes to tell everyone that he’s going on an airplane to Grandma’s house. I’m still worried that Brayden will be hard to control on the plane, since he never sits still, but I’m fairly confident that he’ll sleep all right while we’re away. Both boys went down for a nap today despite the clamor right over their heads (we’re getting our roof redone) so that’s a good sign. I’m getting better at just going with the flow, but it’ll never be my strong suit — I like the routine we’re in with the kids and it’s tough when that gets disrupted. But we’ll see how it goes…

The calendar says summer is approaching, and that means it’s once again time to take the kids to Saskatoon to see the Kingwell relatives. Last year’s trip went pretty well overall, if you ignore the fact that it took five days for Justin to settle into a decent sleeping routine. He’s older and wiser now, and I’m not too worried about how he’ll do. His brother, however, is another story. On last year’s trip, Brayden was an immobile newborn who was content to spend most of his time eating and sleeping. Now, however, he’s a full-fledged toddler who runs around everywhere and hates to sit still for more than 0.002 seconds, so God only knows how we’re going to keep him happy on the plane (never mind the problem of how we’ll get him to sleep in a new place and a strange bed). I shudder just thinking about it.

I do have something to look forward to, though: an actual vacation! Chris and I are going to San Diego for the Thanksgiving weekend. We haven’t been away together since before Brayden was born, so I am very very very excited about this. Three whole nights without the kids should be a good way to recharge the ol’ batteries (which are especially low today since Justin skipped his nap and Brayden woke up early from his). Can’t wait!

We’re now back from our road trip to Saskatoon, and Justin proved to be a better traveller than Chris or I could ever have hoped for. We ended up driving all the way to Hanna the first day, which meant we were on the road for 12 hours, but Justin didn’t mind at all. It took us a few minutes to get him to sleep that night (that’s the first time we’ve ever shared a room with him, so he was busy watching us), but he did sleep all night. I was getting frustrated with him during feedings cause he was forever pushing the bottle away — eventually we realized he won’t take it if it’s too cold. That meant we had to get creative about warming bottles while on the road, but we did figure it out (lesson for next time: always take the thermos!) So his first trip to Grandma and Grandpa Kingwell’s house was good.