After much research Friday evening, Matt decided to go out and look at a van for us in Langley. We had found the same vehicle for cheaper in Vancouver, but we hoped they'd be willing to price match it for us so that we could avoid the distance. Besides, we liked the colour of this one a lot more haha. Matt managed to do some excellent haggling and got the price down to our exact budget, took it for a few test drives and worked out a warranty and a few things we wanted fixed. We ended up buying it! It's a 2007 Dodge Grand Caravan in a darker blue colour (yes... our third blue vehicle. Don't know how that keeps happening haha.)
The space we have now is unreal! It has stow and go seats both in the back and the middle and the leg/head room is luxurious. I always knew I'd want a mini van but it has taken a few years to get to this point for my husband. But even he loves it now! As 'cool' as an SUV may be, it's just not practical for an expanding family. Maybe if we planned on stopping at two kids we would have gone that route. Anyways, we all love it! Including Noah :)
We were suppose to spend the weekend in Arlington visiting friends. We left Saturday afternoon, made really good time and had settled in for the evening. We got together with some friends and I did a little cloth diaper demo since a few were interested in making the switch. Bed time came and went but Noah still seemed to be having fun and didn't end up being put down until closer to 8pm (he is usually in bed around 6:30.) We checked on him an hour later and he was still awake. Not crying or upset, just awake. Two hour later we came to bed and he was still awake. Oh dear, this was not good. We figured he'd eventually tire himself and pass out, but all night long he was talking and playing around in the pack n play. Needless to say, we were awake for all this too trying everything we could to settle him down. 6am rolls around and he finally passed out for all of two hours. I couldn't believe it! How could a one year old only sleep for two hours!?
I was in near tears (probably due to exhaustion) and trying to figure out what to do with him. We were suppose to spend the morning at church and the rest of the afternoon catching up with more friends we hadn't seen in a while. But I knew on this little sleep things were not going to go well.
So, begrudgingly, we packed up our van and headed back towards Canada in hopes that Noah would fall asleep in the van. He didn't, so we stopped and had a delicious breakfast at Ihop and hit up Walmart for a few needed items. Toddler bedding, breast pump, bottles and soothers, we got everything we needed at way cheaper prices then up here.
We put Noah to bed as soon as we got home but he was so overtired that he still didn't sleep. It wasn't until 2:30pm that he finally fell asleep for two hours. By 8pm that night, the entire Bechard household were tucked into our beds and out for the night. Ugh... so not what we envisioned for our weekend. We are slowly learning that sometimes that's just life with kids! He wasn't being 'bad' or misbehaving in anyway, he was just thrown off and it wasn't his fault.
I am hoping we can head back down to visit those friends a little more by doing a Saturday day trip in the next few weeks, but we'll see. It's sure a more comfortable drive with our new swagger wagon ;)
