Our First Black Friday in a City with Malls

Wow..where has the week gone? We've gone to dr appts (t is fine) and watched too many movies. I've worked out and we've swam in the pool, played in the huge wonderful hot tub and ate. That's all I can remember from the week!
Thursday we were sad, missing the boys and our puppy has practically adopted the Hladicks LOL...they sent 16 pictures of her with them! They suggested picking ourselves up a new puppy! Jr has been watching her, but between school and work he needs help. I really think he'll never have kids after this week!
AKGlitterQueen and crew picked me up THUR we hit Old Navy as they were about the only open place. Then later T was kind enough to take me to Michael's which opened @ 5pm. We got a lot for Mandy's class. For the family they adopted for Christmas (Unalaskans as always have come through more than EVER expected and this family of 5 are going to have an AMAZING Christmas!)
We were going to hit ToysR Us at 12am...but couldn't justify it. We just didn't have much to get there. 4 am at Sears or was it  JC Penny's?? We just didn't NEED anything enough to get up.
BUT 6am at Sportsman's Warehouse, THAT's Worth waking up at 5am, getting there by 5:30--whatever!

 

My big purchases...a clearance sweater, matching scarf and some glove-mittens.

My view for quit awhile:

These piles don't include the copious amounts of ammo

and 3 sleds....

It took until 7:30 we spent soooo much $$$ omg... it was very cute, some people were selling coffee and muffins while we were in line, they'd been up all night going to the lines all over town.
Back at the hotel, breakfast with a 100 happy hungry people (some kids' hockey tournament happening this weekend, good weekend for Alaskans from all over to come to ANC!) then back to the mall to let Manderzz spend HER $$$, She's been patient. 2 stores and she was satisfied. T ran into one of his best friend from growing up in Kodiak, that was very fun! Maybe he'll talk Mark into coming to Unalaska this summer!
A quick trip to Costco..then I demanded to come back to sleep. We should've been bowling with AKGlitterQueen and kids, but ...no sleep was needed.
We did try to pick up our Nutcracker tickets..that was a cold, wet failure, I hope we can get them tomorrow.
T and Manderzz are at a fast food resturant (yuk!) I had half a bagel, peanut butter and some pineapple. Sick of eating. We are meeting my step brother and family for dinner tonight at Benihana's. We've never been, I hear it's wonderful!!
CB was appalled that I wasn't into Black Friday, omg it's too much for my brain, all the crowds, all the lines...no Wal Mart, no Best Buy EVER....but the calm stores we went to were nice. I purposly chose "nice" places.

Malls are Boring, Pools Are Much Better

Manderzz back in the pool for a late-night swim!
The wheat free cake.
My cousin is a chef, she's got tons of fun stuff to play with!
Jr. is still smiling, even though he's been ganged up on.
DG and Dills hammering Jr.
By day a professor, by night a 14 year old, how fun is that? Poor IG our 15 year old cousin was sound asleep, just not feeling well at all.

The girls were loving the mall a lot more then the rest of us!
Poor kid was really out.
Really CB... This place is awfully fancy for simple folk from the Aleutians!
What's a trip to the mall without a treat?? I had a jalapeno pretzel that was very tasty! No Cinnabuns CB those are way too intense.
Here's a new shot -- boys playing Halo 3 like zombies!
Manderzz got the cake made while KG was in school, I'm so glad we get as early as we do! Some of these school have to go until almost the end of June, no fun at all!

We relaxed most of the day, I even re-read a chapter in my Health Information Law textbook...but then Miss Mandeezz who had $250 of her own money to spend really wanted to go to the mall, we did, it was boring! It's so much easier to just shop online! The salesperson at Justice (was Limited Too before?) was friendly, the rest not so much. And CB's suggestions were sweet, but really, $1100 for a jacket?! I got my group of 3 teens and 2 tweens out of that store QUICKLY!
The evening was swimming & more swimming with hamburgers on bagels (so much better than buns BTW) and a very good wheat-free cake for dessert. It's not really Dyl's b-day, but the girls wanted to decorate it for something!
Jr drove 2 different Lexuses...how scary is that? One is a SUV and still smells new --eeek! Both vehicles survived (thank goodness!!)
We've had a great visit and I'm sure we'll be back. The kids have a lot of fun with this set of cousins! Horses at the first set,a pool here, all fun things that they don't have at home!
We're going to go check out the University of Washington this morning, that got posponed as one of the cousins was sick with a sinus infection and needed to go to the doctor yesterday. Then off to meet my sister at the Great Wolf Lodge!

Mother's Day Pt. 1 (another trip coming later today)

ahhhhhh, so cute!! I LOVE homemade cards.

Most of the family anyway.....Here's another family member who was hard at work...dad is at sea, but left a nice card for me and called 1st thing this am.

Jeff made my omelet, and I never eat giant hunks of meat....but still proud of him, it was so hot in the room where the food was today, OMG I'd have passed out!

We got a visit from CB while we were enjoying brunch.

My perfect desserts, it was so hard to choose, but I love creme brulee, truffles and cream puffs. hmmm how silly, really my kid makes all 3 of these at home, I should've chosen some NEW treats!! Oh there is a strawberry cheesecake smoothie....I admit that was my 2nd serving, soooooo yummy!!! I heard there was 'cheesecake on a stick' I thought that sounded cute --like kabobs maybe? Oh my, it was deep fried. Probably delicious, but I couldn't go there!
Dills' first serving of dessert --
And his second serving....ohh to be 13 with a 6 pack...
A bit blurry....but the hugest shrimp I've ever had!!! YUMMMMMM Sorry I teased y'all about the lack of ceviche! All in good fun...I had plenty of shrimp and smoked salmon & halibut!!

The lime green ones are on the way Happy Mother's Day to me! It was a hard choice, I want them all.
These are coming too. Fun & summery!

Mother's Day is like all minor holidays, I have learned to 'deal 'wif it' My husband's boat is usually gone (poor guy misses Father's Day and his birthday too, so I can't complain tooo much. Jr made me a candle in art class, Manderzz made me a giant 2-sided card & I think the other one forgot, but that's OK.

The Shirt Right off His Back

Showing Sonia who has only been here a couple of weeks that for a price you can have just about ANY fruit or vegetable your heart desires, just have to be brave and march into the cooler at Alaska Ship Supply!


We visited our super-happy Story Corps ladies so MM could tell HER story before leaving us and going back to "the real world"EVERYONE needs to go see Kristine and Sharon, I mean where else in town are the folks THIS HAPPY???!!!!!!!
He-whose-name-shall-not-be-mentioned (see Alena!'s blog from awhile back..ugly t-shirt guy) is a friend of MM's. He saw her in my car, pinned us in with a grater while she was taking pictures of birds or boats or something on the spit. She loved his hoodie, he literally gave her the shirt off his back. If you read this...find me I have gifts for you from her R.
My kids hate it, but I love sale food! I have to have more parties and make more dip I guess, that's a lot of cream cheese.
Had to get souvenirs! Alaska Ship had the best, except there was a print at the Grand Gift shop that she'd had her eye on since she lived here (for real!) and got a SMOKIN' deal on it...

She also got crab from Unisea and a fancy box from Aleutian Fresh Seafoods, shipped it at Ace Cargo...all that took just 30 min. all the folks that helped with her kids will have a delicous party and see her pics of the her trip. A home movie from my husband's boat too which makes me totally seasick.

She's made it to Chicago now, almost home. I was so tired last night I went to bed at 9pm. I'm totally fighting a cold, but more on that later!