Winter Wonderland

In Brenden's weekly newsletter it said that if it is snowing, the kids are required to wear snow pants, snow boots, coats, gloves or mittens and a hat on at recess (they have to wear them to lunch because recess is after lunch - poor kids).  I was not expecting the snow to stay around so soon.  I thought maybe it would snow off an on for a little while like Idaho, but no, the snow seems to be here to stay - no online shopping this year.  So after I picked Brenden up at the bus stop yesterday, we made the trek in to town to search for boots and pants.  Keep in mind that we probably only have 2 stores as options.   We spent FIVE, yes five, count them one, two, three, four, FIVE hours looking for these items.  Our shopping spree was successful and overwhelming, but Brenden is nice and warm today in the snow.  

Along the way we also met a lady whose 2 year old son was named Nolan.

The following is my ranting and raving about shopping.  Feel free to pass it over, but I have considered my blog as somewhat of a public journal, so the record is a little more detailed than you might normally see in a blog or even enjoy. 

We have a few snow suits that Doug's mom gave us and I went through them.  They are 12 months (too small for Ethan), a 2 (too small for Nolan and too big for Ethan) and a 4 (too small for Brenden and too big for Nolan).  Maybe next year.

We stopped by Sweeny's, a little family owned store.  I found the perfect boots in the perfect size on clearance.  I was ready to go.  Brenden insisted that they, for some reason, had something wrong with them.  So, we found a salesperson who of course showed us the snow boots that were $60.  Brenden fell in love.  They are camouflage.  In the end, we tried on probably 20 pair of boots.  For some reason the lining in them was all bunched up or poorly made so it did not fit properly.  

The store has no shopping carts.  I was trying to hold Ethan while shuffling through a rack of snow pants and snow suits and he was also shuffling them - to the floor.  Nolan was running around like a maniac, no matter how many times I asked him to stay right by me.  I asked Brenden to hold Ethan for just a second and turned back to the rack.  When I turned back around I said, "Where's Ethan?"  Brenden shrugged.  Luckily the store is very small, so he wasn't far, but that store needs some shopping carts.  I guess I know better now and will take a stroller if we head in there again.  Brenden had to go to the bathroom, so I sent him while I stayed with Nolan and Ethan.  Of course then Nolan had to go because Brenden went.  Brenden came back and I asked him to take Nolan because I didn't know what I was supposed to do with Ethan while in the bathroom.

A man went to find me snow pants that would fit Brenden, Nolan, and Ethan.  I told him Nolan needed at 3T, Brenden needed a 5 or 6 and Ethan needed 18 months.  He returned with a snow bibs in 4T for Brenden, a 2 for Nolan, and nothing for Ethan.  Obviously he did not have children.    Besides that, the snow pants were $55!  

So, after two painful hours at Sweeny's, we went to Fred Meyer.  We always go in the door closest to the garden center and sporting goods because there are always parking spots there.  The boys' department is also nearest that door.  We found Brenden snow bibs (which is what he wanted instead of snow pants) and they were 50% off.  We went to the toddler section and they had a bunch of pink and blue, but I was looking for black to go with Nolan's red and black coat.  I final resigned myself to the only pair of 3T blue and threw them into the shopping cart.  As far as Ethan goes, the only options were like a snow "dress" looking thing or snow bibs that also came with a coat.  We decided against the dress.  We went on a search for boots.  

In the shoe department, they had some that looked much less quality, but they were buy one get one half off.  I didn't need two pair.  Nolan has Brenden's old ones and they don't come in Ethan size.  Now we were about 2 hours into being in Fred Meyer.  I was ready to go and Brenden suddenly needed to go to the bathroom.  It must have been very productive because I swear he was in there for 20 minutes.  By this time, it was 9:00 and the boys hadn't eaten dinner.  We went to the deli and found a sandwich for them to eat in the car and a bagel for Ethan.  I also bought milk and a sippy cup.  As we wandered, Ethan found the sippy cup, removed the cardboard around the top and started sucking the life out of it and screaming when the fruits of his labors were unproductive.  We went back to the sporting goods checkout stand.  The cashier rang up the cup and milk very first  

As the cashier was ringing up my last item, I ran into a woman in our ward.  In her shopping cart she had snow boots the same expensive brand as the ones at Sweeny's, but for a much better price.  She made me feel better about not buying the clearance ones at Sweeny's.  She says that kind gets soaked and the kids are miserable. I asked her where she found the boots in her cart.  By the main entrance, of course.  I never go in that door because the parking lot there is so full and I don't enjoy cramming my Suburban between 2 cars, but I always forget that is the door they always put the most important items by.  We finished paying and went to that door.  They had the boots just like the camo ones, but brown instead of camo.  I bought a pair for this year and one for next since they were buy one get one half off.  Then, right as I am paying, I look up and there are 3 racks of black snow bibs.  No wonder they only had pink in the toddler section!  I was not about to go get them after everything else we had just been through.  It was almost 10:00, I hadn't done my lesson, Brenden hadn't done his homework, and my kids were tired and grumpy.

I got home before Doug even left Safeway.  They close at 7:00.  Brenden did his homework and was sent off to brush his teeth and get in his PJ's.  I showed Doug my purchases only to discover the security tag still on Ethan's snow bibs/coat.  I guess Nolan may get black bibs after-all since I have to go back and have the security tag removed and return the boots.  Doug agreed that the camo boots were much cooler, so Brenden won and is wearing them today. I found Brenden on top of his covers, half undressed.  He was not fond of getting up and brushing his teeth and going to the bathroom, but he did it anyway.