Shop 'til you Drop (or 'til the baby lets you know she's HAD IT!)

I just got back from our Annual Park City Shopping Trip, a.k.a. "The Lakeland Ward Reunion." This is a group of friends I met 12 years ago from where I used to live. At that time, Ryan was only 9 months old and he was my only child. The rest of us had one or none or REALLY YOUNG children way back then, but our families & children have all grown through the years (we now have a combined 58+ children and a couple of them are GRANDMAS!) it's been fun to stay in contact all these years. In fact, only one person in this group is still living in our old neighborhood - all the rest of us have moved other places.

We start out on Friday morning at 10:00 when the Outlet stores open and we don't come home until Saturday evening! We stay at two condos that are next door to each other, but don't sleep much! We shop (duh!), go out to eat together, do a "Show & Tell" the first night...then we all go out shopping the next day and buy what everyone else bought that we loved! For the real DIE HARDS who can stay awake, they end the weekend with dinner & a movie in Layton (I rarely make it that far!)

While in Park City, we usually always go to Ruby Tuesdays and get this big back room...Here we are...(clockwise from the bottom left) Tera, Mandy, Robyn, Jamie, Kayelani, Jenny, Kay, Lauri, Kylie, Diane, Julene, Melanie, Cindy (w/ baby Lindsey) & Me (baby Brookelle was cut out of the photo!). We missed Tish, Kim & Julie this year.

Brookelle REALLY was very good considering what I was putting her through - she got to know her stroller VERY well and I appreciated all the other "Mommies" there to help me. But the interruptions to her eating and sleeping schedule took it's toll and she let me know about it at times...usually while I was half-dressed in the fitting room and couldn't escape quickly! Then she would finally "conk out!"

I always save my birthday money from Sept. and spend it here - Thanks Mom & Dad Fowers & Brenchley. I also get a start on Christmas. Well, I did manage to fill my trunk up. Just one problem...where should I put my stroller now? I even would say I "held back" a little bit more than usual thanks to the Economy being the way it is & all! :)

Thanks to my SIL, Nicole, for giving me a "Friends & Family" discount for GAP/Old Navy/Banana Republic, I got some great DEALS there and I used multiple coupons practically every else too, of course!

Here are some of the favorite purchases:

• Bath & Body Works Anti-bacterial soaps 5/$10 - Have you tried Freshwater cucumber? I like it!
• Black dress boots (that can zip up over my calf! a small miracle!) $27.09 - I really thought about getting some brown ones, too, in a different style, but I talked myself out of it thinking it was a "frivolous purchase" (blame that on the Economy, also!)
• A Pizza Stone $6.38
• A silicone scraper thingy (for pan/pizza stone/counter/griddle) $0.99
• Two LONG white "under shirts" (for when one's in the wash) to cure my "problem" mentioned in my prior blog post! $3.50/each
• A butterfly Halloween costume for next year $4.58
• Some things for Christmas that I can't mention by name because my kids read my blog $3-5
• Matt's (& the other husband's) favorite: A "Special Item" from Rue 21 - another part of our annual tradition :) - to compensate for any "pain & suffering" they may have experienced in our absence $0.99
• Not included in my trunk this year: Wrapping paper - The Paper Factory closed since I was there last. DANG! They had good stuff & I always stocked up!
• Matching dresses off the Clearance rack for all three of my girls - what are the chances that they had EVERY single one of the sizes I needed? They're thrilled to be "triplets!" $5.75-6.39

Now I need to RECOVER - Yah, right - like that's gonna happen!