Quebec bound

We left for Quebec today! In my words, the land of french! I dont have any pictures to share from today but i promise you didnt miss much.
From where we live it takes about 7 hours to get here. Its not too bad when you consider the fact that we stopped every 2-3 hours to strech our legs, change diapers, get snacks, etc.
We left home at 11am and we drove until about 1pm to stop for lunch and give Zander some running around time. Once we finished up we went back on the road where Zander struggled to fall asleep. He eventually did but not only did he cry, he only slept for about 15 min. After his nap he was a total crankasaurous!! Nothing kept him happy. He was throwing toys, he didnt want to watch movies, he didnt know what to do with himself. Around 5:30 we stopped and bought some snacks and drinks. I set the dvd player up and filled his cup holders in his car seat full of popcorn. Lets just say he was a happy boy the rest of the trip.
At 7pm we finally arrived at the great grandparents house. Not only were we all done with being in the car, but when Zander seen all the free space he was able to freely run around in, he made a run for it! I got some stinkin cute pictures on my canon rebel that i may just have to share with you at a later date :)
Anyways, we ate amazing Quebec pizza made with the best cheese around and real bacon. Dinner wasnt much of a deal for Zander since he was stuffed with popcorn, but he did have a ton of fun running around the house making himself at home.
Finally bedtime came along at 8:30 and Zander was pooped! Since he doesnt sleep in a crib anymore, we didnt expect him to sleep in a playpen here. So we are co-sleeping for the weekend and let me tell you, it takes Zander about an hour to get to sleep. We have to lay with him and pretend we are sleeping as well. Its such a long process but he is passed right out and will sleep until morning.
So that about wrapps up our day. We spent most of it in the car and we are all looking forward to a car free day tomorrow.
What are your "must haves" when traveling with your toddler?

Happy Birthday "Ampa"

Today was Brads Dads Birthday. We went over to his parents house yesterday where we celebrated a day early with all the kids. By kids I mean Brad, his sister Bri, Tim (Bri's boyfriend), myself, Zander, and of course their mom. It was a great get together. We laughed, shared some stories and had cake and ice cream. But today was his actual birthday and since we planned on making another visit, I wanted Zander to give his Grandpa something special. So we sat down at the table and made Grandpa a homemade birthday card. Zander was sooo proud. I had explained to him that it was for Grandpa and he was walking around with it afterwards saying "Ampa! Ampa! Ampa!". The cutest thing of life.
After making his card we took a quick snack break where he had some apple chunks and water. It's been so hot here than anything else sounded unappetizing. We finished snack and then got to work on his gift. A plack with a dragonfly that you could paint. Grandparents go crazy over homemade stuff since it comes straight from the heart, so I knew he would love it.
Once Brad got home from work we left for his parents house. Thankfully their place is air conditioned so it's always so nice to be there in the summer. Zander held Grandpas gift from the car all the way till we found him. They both were so proud and of course Grandpa loved it!
The rest of the evening pretty much consisted of chinese food, toddler talk, and watching an episode of Barney over, and over, and over again.
Around 7pm we headed out to my moms place to ask her if she could cat sit this weekend. We are going to Quebec to visit Brads Grandparents, so my mom agreed if we brought the cat to her place that she would watch her :).
We headed home about 8pm and Zander and Brad were in bed by 8:30pm. Brad has to get up at 4:30am for work on the weekdays so I always have the evenings to myself. It's kid of nice but some nights it would be nice to have him up for some company. It also doesnt help that I'm a night time cleaner and that when I want to clean our room I can't because Brad is sleeping. So tonight I settled on feeding my sweet kitty (shes actually 11yrs old), doing the dishes and mopping the kitchen floor. I have the H2O mop by Rubbermaid but I'm not totally happy with it. We have half tile floors and half hardwood and I feel like it just doesn't get our tiles clean. What mop do you use?