Three hours of shopping and only 1 pair of socks?

While we were in Reno, we went shopping at various places that we don't have at home. The top two on my list were Trader Joe's and Sierra Trading Post. We hit Trader Joe's first, well actually I went with my sister-in-law and left all the kiddos with Erik. I love that store. It was really hard to limit myself to shelf stable things to haul home--it would be wonderful if I could try some of the produce, refrigerated and frozen goods. Oh well, I loaded up on enough dried fruit, jerky and nuts to last us quite a while. We did end up visiting the Sierra Trading Post the day before we left and found a few things to bring home. It wasn't as fruitful (ha ha) as Trader's though, I guess it's kind of a hit or miss type place. Oh well.

But the one place we shopped that definitely takes the cake, would have to be Scheels. It's a sporting good store that is seriously HUGE! Not only did they have every sporting good you could possibly need, but they also had a coffee/goodie shop, both freshwater and a salt water fish tanks (HUGE ONES), a kids play area (structure similar to at McD's with ladders, slides and tubes to crawl through) complete with kiddie climbing wall....

But that's not all. There is also a ferris wheel in the middle of the store. 

Yeah, you heard me right, a full-sized ferris wheel! 

The expression on my SIL's face is hilarious. She wasn't actually scared, she's just a ham.

We spent THREE hours at this store, at least. Browsing, shopping, trying on, and just letting the kids play. The last thing we did was go on the ferris wheel. 

Everyone (but me, I don't do heights) had a good enough time on it the first ride, that they did it again.

See how tall it is?!

It was the most interesting and unique shopping experience that I've ever had, and the funny thing is the only thing I bought was a pair of socks!

Big Girl

I made my first "big girl" purchase a while back. Remember back when I re-did my laundry room?

the laundry room after the re-do and the chair.

It wasn't too long after I finished that project that we noticed the wall behind the chair was getting banged up. Every time the girls sat down in it, or put stuff in it, it was rubbing paint off the wall. So, we decided to get an actual bench would be a smart thing. I thought I would just go to Shopko or Walmart or Target and get something inexpensive, but Erik stopped me in my tracks. He wanted something nice. He wanted something made out of real wood.

So I stopped in at the local furniture store back in September and found the perfect bench. I needed something that...

 1. would fit in our laundry area.

2. would have some sort of storage, either for shoes or backpacks or mittens or one of the other thousand items that usually ends up landing in the laundry area.

3. I wanted it to be simple and sort of rustic.

4. I wanted a lighter colored wood.

5. I didn't want to spend an arm and a leg....which brings me to the explanation of why this is was a "big girl" purchase.

Erik and I are blessed to have parents living near us. Parents who have worked hard their whole lives and made a pretty nice nest for themselves. Parents who have needed to get rid of various pieces of furniture over the years. Parents who have almost single-handedly furnished our entire home. Before I purchased this bench the only other furniture Erik and I had bought were a small cheap side table from Target, a rocking chair and a crib (a cheapo one from Walmart). All our other furniture is hand-me-down's. I'm not complaining--our parents each took great care of their furniture and so our hand-me-downs are in better condition than some new furniture for sure. So, I was a little nervous about spending a larger amount on a piece of real furniture.

But, I found the perfect bench and I was so excited! I had to wait until last week to get the thing, but I have it and now my laundry room is just perfect! I made my first "big girl" furniture purchase successfully! :-)

I love how much better the bench looks than the chair and that cheapo metal shoe holder. We have much less shoe storage, so we'll have to be purposeful about returning shoes to our rooms when we aren't wearing them, but that's okay. I love the fact that the bench opens and we can throw all the hats, gloves and other random things in there!

Girls' Weekend Getaway

The gals in my family very rarely get a chance to hang out just us, and so my Mom planned a girls weekend getaway for this past weekend. On Saturday morning Mom, my sister Rosie, my brother's girlfriend Tanya and I drove about 3 hours west of here to stay here for the night. But, before actually arriving at the hotel, we stopped and shopped at several places. Shopping in Spokane is way superior to shopping in Missoula for many reasons, three of which being Kohls, Macy's and Nordstroms. ;-) Oh and we also got to eat lunch at P.F. Changs, which is one of my all-time favorite places. After one bite of my chicken lettuce wraps I said that I was happy and could go home--the trip was complete. Hee hee!

We were seriously impressed with our hotel. It just opened in like Dec09 so it was in great condition and very clean. It was really nice. The casino part was typical of a casino, we ate at a greasy sports bar with a HUGE television playing football. The food was good there but nowhere near healthy. After dinner we retired to our room for a brief respite. Mom decided to go to bed and Rosie & Tanya wanted to go down and get a drink. I wasn't exactly ready for bed so I figured I'd go with the girls and hang out for a little bit. We sat at this bar across from one of the entrances, the bar had these large windows as walls so we just sat and people watched for a little while. There was a concert at the place that night so the variety of folks was quite wide. It was seriously entertaining. Tanya wanted to watch some Karaoke, but we found out from the waitress they only did it on Tuesdays or something like that, but that there was a dance club across the gaming floor. So, we decided to check it out.

We arrived at the dance club and it was fairly empty, the DJ was playing techno and no one was dancing. We thought it was kind of lame, but thought we'd wait around just in case. We were also waiting for Tanya's sister to get off work and join us. I'm so glad we waited. After a bit the DJ started to play some current pop music and more people started to arrive. Later he played some classic 80's/90's and even some Michael Jackson and so the dancing got good. The dance floor was pretty full most the time after that.

I don't really ever go out. I would honestly just rather cuddle up in my pj's with a good book or watch a movie with Erik, so I don't think I've gone out dancing since I was in college. Which would've been about eleven years ago. So to say that I was hesitant to actually dance would be the truth. I'm not exactly coordinated to begin with, you know. But the gals I was with all got out there and I realized that everyone that was dancing (remember the wide variety of people coming in? That wide variety was on the dance floor too--folks both older and younger than me, as well as smaller and larger, it kind of reminded me of the beach in Mexico) and that who cares if i dance like a dork, I wanted to get out there. So I did!

Tanya, Rosie, me and Dawn (Tanya's sister)

It was a ton of fun. I guess dancing hasn't changed that much in 11 years because I don't think I stuck out too badly. And towards the end of the evening I was having fun just dancing to all these songs I liked and Rosie was saying she was ready to go, and I kept asking that we stay for one more song. It was like I had a 2nd wind or something, I wasn't tired at all. It was funny and so unlike the early to bed me. I guess I had forgotten how much I enjoy dancing.

We look super dorky dancing here, it cracks me up.

This picture CRACKS me up. No, I wasn't sleeping on the dance floor, Rosie just caught me with my eyes closed. This was one of the "just one more song" dances. Maybe I was more tired than I thought!?

We finally called it a night around midnight, I think. The next morning my Mom treated us all to spa treatments--Mom, Tanya and I got pedicures while Rosie had a massage (her first ever). The spa was really cool and relaxing. After that we checked out, went downtown to do some more shopping and eat lunch and headed home. It was a fast weekend, but it was so fun to just get out with the girls, eat some great food, do some shopping and burn some calories on the dance floor. I'm glad my Mom planned it. I am seriously blessed to have these gals in my family. I love them!

Love?

I was finally able to leave the house today, it was wonderful. Kera and I went to the bank, the grocery store and one of my favorite stores of all time.....REI. Where I spent my dividend (a whopping $3.02) and used my 20% off member coupon on this pink lovely you see here. I needed something for water on my long runs--besides holding a water bottle in my hand, which drives me crazy- and I didn't like the idea of the waist packs with the little bottles attached. I figure that this could do double duty, not only for long runs but also for hikes. I cannot wait to try it out on Sunday when the girls and I tackle the hill again. I will let you know how I like it!

Spring Break & Easter

Well, I took a bit of a break from blogging last week during the girls' spring break, although it wasn't planned nor did I do so purposely. It turns out that I got some yucky cold bug and so I ended up not doing much of anything. A few days I ventured out and here's what we did....

The girls took turns staying up at their Papa & Grandma's, so while Lindsay was gone, Kera and I joined a couple girlfriends and their kids for a "hike" around a local walking trail by the river. It was rather cool out, so after our almost mile walk (in fact it was rain/snowing on us a couple times) we were ready to get home and warm up. But it was very fun despite the weather.

Kera and our little friend Kylee.

Kera found a leaf in the river.

All the little hikers.

At the end, once the kids realized we'd done a big circle and were heading right back to where we started, there was no slowing them down. This is a picture of Kera and the other 5 year old, Jacob, sitting on the fence waiting for us mom's to catch up. I thought it was so cute, but wish I could've had a better/closer shot of them.

One day we ventured out to Bed,Bath and Beyond and got some bedding. Kera needed a full-sized comforter, so I let her pick out the whole bed-in-a bag type thing. She loves it. I also got some new bedding this week, which is kind of the catalyst to my master bedroom re-do, which I will show you soon! Kera actually took this picture of her bedding.

We did some clothes shopping too.

Kera took this picture, too. Not too shabby!

Easter with my girls. We had a yummy breakfast, then dinner/lunch at my folks with all the family and then church. It was a full and good day. Unfortunately between lunch/dinner and church we brought Erik home and he went to nap on thecouch--turns out he caught the cold that I had all week! Bummer.

Erik and his girls.

A Modern Day Rite of Passage

Today, Kera & I ended up having a small mother-daughter date. It started off with me fulfilling my promise to take her to the mall to get some new tights. But then it took forever to get out of the house this morning--the floor needed mopping, the laundry started, I desperately needed to work out and just when I was ready to jump in the shower Erik called to come unlock his van as he'd locked his keys in there at an onsite job. So across town I drove in my stinky, sweaty workout wear and unwashed hair to rescue him. Go, Kendra Go!

By the time we got home again and I finally showered it was almost one, so our tight errand turned into lunch. Then somewhere between working out this morning and getting to the mall, Kera had asked for earrings. Now, this wasn't the first time and the last time she asked I told her about how you had to get your ears pierced first, but today she just kept asking. So, we got to the mall, had a balanced lunch of a pretzel with cheese and a bag of Doritos for Kera and a turkey sub for me. After that we checked in to see what time to return to Claire's, picked up the promised tights and even had time to swing by VS's for me to check out a couple of bras. Then we headed back over to Claires. Kera was great getting her ears wiped and then marked, and she was even great while we waited for both gals to be free enough to to the piercing. And when they put those little guns up to her ears, she was still great. I would say that "great" turned to very angry at the same moment those guns were done piercing. Then the tears came and the crying reached screaming pitches. I was afraid for a moment that she'd crack the glass, her cry was soo high pitched. She stopped crying after a moment or two, but she wouldn't cave to promises of ice cream or any amount of praise about bravery, she insisted on being mad at me and anyone else that tried to talk to her.

I did buy her these in an attempt to make her happy. It kind of worked. In the car on the way home she said she didn't want earrings and that she was going to take them out. Then at home when I was taking her picture, she told me that she didn't want to get her ears pierced ever again. I told her she wouldn't have to! :-)

While we were waiting for her to get them pierced, I had a chat with a friend on the phone and she'd mentioned that she'd seen an article on being prepared for getting your daughter's ears pierced. She offered to read it, but I figured we were ready. I mean, as long as they have two people to do both ears at once, what more can you really do? Is there anything you can say to prepare your kid for the pain without talking them out of it? I thought I'd mentioned to Kera that it would hurt a little, but I certainly didn't go into detail about how they force the earring post through your ear at a high speed to break through the skin without numbing your poor earlobe. No, I did not explain that to Kera and I didn't explain it to Lindsay back in May when she had hers done. I figure, what they don't know can't hurt them....for too long, anyway.

A blurry close up of Kera's brand new earrings:

All in all, it was a good mother-daughter date. The only tough part was when we got home and Lindsay could see all of Kera's "spoils". Then she got upset that I didn't have any gifts or things for her. The sense of fairness at her age sometimes drives me crazy....so I gave her what was left of the Doritos and explained all the fun things she got when she got her ears pierced and I think she determined it was fair. :-)