Black Friday

After Thanksgiving festivities wrapped up in Pocatello, we headed to Tremonton to spend the rest of the weekend. Josh's cousin was getting married and we wanted to go to her reception on Friday evening. Friday was a busy day for us, starting with shopping super early that morning!

Black Friday has its share of memories in my mind. The first year I tried it was 2000. We lived in Chubbuck, and I was determined to save a little money by going to get some deals. Josh stayed home in bed to take care of Ammon and I was out of the house after 5:00am, which is strange and rare for me. I was inexperienced and had no idea what I was doing. I had five different stores to go to for various things. Little did I know what to expect!!! It was overwhelming, and the amount of people were crazy. Out of the five stores that I went to with a list of six things to get, I succeeded with only obtaining two things from my list. I went home a little disappointed and resolved to never do it again.

But in 2004, things changed. Every year, we rotate between spending Thanksgiving and Christmas with the Tolman family and the Perkins family. Thanksgiving 2004 was with the Perkins'. Josh and I were in the market for a new TV, and there was some great deals advertised for Black Friday. So, learning from my mistake before, we went TOGETHER and had a REAL game plan: we separated in the stores, we had different items to individually get, we had different stores to go to in a certain order. It worked. We came home with a TV and a stereo, and many other gifts for ourselves and gifts for Christmas. It was a real success!!! After that, we were hooked!!! Now, whenever we go to Utah for Thanksgiving, we do Black Friday because my mom is willing to babysit the kids in the wee hours of the morning.

2004 was the year that the lady passed out and got trampled on in Wal-Mart.

2006 was the year we set Tawna up on an early morning blind-date with John. He slept in, then she fell asleep. But at least the breakfast at I-Hop in Ogden was good.

2008 was the year we ate breakfast in Logan at I-Hop in between the madness, waiting for our last stop Hastings to open.

And 2009 was the year that we got our flat screen TV, spent an hour in the line at Wal-Mart, went to 3 ShopKo's looking for the camera I wanted but never could find.

After the madness, we went to the Ogden temple together at 7:00am, and enjoyed a breakfast at Denny's after. It was nice to spend some quiet time alone together, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was a crazy morning, and by the time we got back to Tremonton, we were exhausted. But for some reason, we decided to drive to Logan and do a little more regular shopping. Which is a crazy day to do regular shopping because there's SO many people!!! We woke up at 4:00am that morning to get started, and finally by 3:00 we were done shopping! I'm so grateful for my parents who are willing to watch my boys, because we could never achieve all that we needed to do with children in tow!

They played games, did puzzles, watched the Lord of the Rings movies, and decorated cookies in our absence. And they loved every minute of it!!!That evening, Josh and I went to his cousin's beautiful reception. It was nice to meet Stephanie's husband and to visit with Glade and Debbie, who we both love. Afterwards, my sisters and I tried to carry on last year's tradition by going to the movies together. And even though Trina had already seen New Moon, I hadn't, so she came along with me to that one. It was awesome and I'm so glad she came with me!

The next morning, we headed for home. It was a wonderful holiday weekend being able to spend time with both families and creating wonderful memories! (But I'll admit that I was also happy to sleep in my own bed again!)