Visalia for the 4th

OK, so I wasn't able to update while I was there, so here's the trip!

Tuesday, July 3rd
After a 4:30 a.m. wake up, one cup of spilled coffee on the carpet, and a quick save from the blue crayon being scribbled all over Nana's kitchen wall; we weren't off to the greatest start. Holden calmed down a bit when his cousins woke up. He liked sitting like a big boy with Mackenzie.
Thank goodness, he went down for an early nap around 10:30. My mom and I were able to run errands. Soon after we returned Holden was up. We went in the pool, and he didn't want to get in his little raft that we got him. Trey had to do some "ground school" with him before he'd get in it in the water.



We were hoping that Holden would be so tired that he'd go down for an afternoon nap, but we're talking about Holden here. No dice. We took him to the park and he played with his first Craftsman power tool, a weed-wacker.
When we returned back home, we had a major dance session. It was probably the cutest thing I'd ever seen. Holden stomp-stomped around and Mackenzie, Tabatha, Nana Judy, and I boogied along with him. I didn't have the camera with me to share the fun with you. But I have the fondest memory in my mind of pure and absolute joy.

Holden went to bed around 6:45. We stayed up to watch tv and hang out with my family. We enjoyed a delicious steak dinner. When it was time for bed, we had to come up with a new sleeping arrangement because I hardly slept at all the night before, and I don't know which is worse a sleep deprived toddler or a sleep deprived me. I was a cranky pain in the ass all day, so Trey slept in the room with Holden while I slept downstairs on the couch. I had a great night sleep, but poor Trey didn't. Holden woke up around 2:00, Trey brought him to bed with him, and then he tossed and turned in bed with Trey until around 5:30.

Wednesday, July 4th
Holden had the privilege of eating Nana's famous waffles for breakfast. Of course, he loved them. We were in the pool by 10:00. Then the kids played with the new water table Nana bought them.


After another dip in the pool, Nana brought out Mertle the Turtle for a bath and a delicious Romaine lettuce lunch.


Lunch and a nap followed, while I floated in the pool reading my book and Trey caught up on his missed sleep the night before. Around 6:00 pm we headed to the Visalia Country Club for a big picnic. It was a lot of fun. Holden went into a bounce house for the first time.

He also loved seeing the ducks, playing with his cousins (they were so good, and didn't mind Holden scribbling all over their masterpieces), seeing the truck, sharing daddy's ice cream cone, and exploring with Papa.




Holden's energy lasted long enough to see about half of the fireworks show.
I slept in the room with Holden that night and it was a repeat of the previous two nights. We flew home Thursday morning. Holden was cranky for the first half of the flight, but fell asleep for the second half. Once we were home, he took a two and half hour nap from 3:30 to 6:00. He played a little bit, had dinner and a bath and went back down at 7:30. He slept through the night with no wakings. Whew!