good times

I took Jeremiah to the airport this morning (yes, he's out of town AGAIN!- hunting!), so the kids & I spent the day in Vegas. I really didn't want to spend the day in Vegas w/the kids, but I had a lot of returns I wanted to take care of- the downside of living in Kingman & doing online shopping. Well it turned out to be a GREAT day! First of all, did you know that it doesn't matter how old your return is at Kohl's as long as you have the receipt?! I was stoked since the stuff I was returning was seriously like 6 months old but I couldn't ever find my receipt till like a month or two ago! So I was already in a great mood when I scored this amazing parking spot at the mall! (I'm the red one in the 2nd space!) Obviously I was excited about it - I took a picture from the curb of the mall entrance!


I quickly made my returns & then took the kids to see Santa! I was prepared for a little wait but there was nobody in line! I paid for a dumb picture cause they won't let you take pictures with your own camera unless you also pay for one of theirs. I'd scan the one they took but that would take more effort than I'm willing, so here's the one I took. Although it's really not any better or worse than theirs. In their picture Jack has a super cute huge grin on his face but Callie is close to having those stoned picture eyes. Callie was SO excited to see Santa & tell him what she wants for Christmas, but she wouldn't smile once she was actually on his lap. She was definitely talkative though.




Oh, & I don't know if it's just because he figured my kids are small enough to get away with this, but Santa says loudly over the kids' heads, "She wants a doll, mom." Is that weird? I thought it was.

We went to Costco because I needed to get a few things so I'd told the kids we'd eat lunch there. We were getting out of the car & Callie goes, "I'm so freakin' hungry mom!" Oh my gosh! Where does she hear that stuff? Certainly not from me! The kids had done really well so far with the running around, but Callie had a bit of a meltdown when Jack took a bite of her hotdog! She actually said she had to have a new one! Yeah well she didn't get a new one! She sat & whined about it for at least 5 minutes though. I got an ice cream bar for us to share & I told her she couldn't have any until she ate more food so she shoved TONS of hotdog in her mouth, pulled about half of it back out, & still ended up spitting the first half onto the table after trying to chew for a minute & not making any progress. Then while eating some of the ice cream bar she said, "This crap is good!" Okay, that one is all Jeremiah! He's always saying it's good crap! :) Things were going okay again till Jeremiah's dad called. I was pushing the kids around Costco & they were getting antsy so Jer's dad told me to tell Callie that if she was naughty Santa wouldn't bring her anything for Christmas. That didn't phase her - she said she'd seen Santa & already asked for a doll. So he said (since we'll be at his house for Christmas) that if she's not good he'll take her presents from Santa & throw them in the fire! Okay, you're probably thinking is this guy psycho? But I'm laughing as I'm typing this - you have to know Jeremiah's dad! Well that did it for her - she started BAWLING! It was comical. She calmed down & I think Papa reassured her that he was just kidding.

We shopped & did errands the rest of the afternoon & ended up at McDonald's for dinner since they had a play place. The kids deserved it! 2 huge complaints about my McDonald's experience tonight - one, I had to wait like 10 minutes for my order to be up, but everyone else around me got their food! The girl at the counter felt really bad & had to finish getting my food together because the incompetent kid that was supposed to do it couldn't handle it. Seriously! Have you ever had to wait 10 minutes for food at McDonald's? And when it was said & done the guy had made 6 different Happy Meals! I only ordered 2! And he didn't get MY food either! And my other even bigger complaint is that there was no changing table in the bathroom! Okay, this McDonald's is basically brand new! It's a very nice McDonald's - one of the nicest I've ever been to. You have to ask the people at the counter to press a special button that will buzz you into the bathrooms. How could they not have a changing table?! Jack had pooped while playing on the toys so I had to take him into the handicapped stall where it has its own sink & lay him on the teeny tiny slim part of the counter in front of the basin to try & change him. He cried the whole time & it just happened to be a sticky poop that needed extra care! I was pissed! But what good would it have done to complain to a bunch of teenagers making minimum wage? I'm seriously calling someone. If I think about it during business hours.

On the upside of McDonald's the kids had a great time playing! The play area is separated from the main dining area by a glass window and there was a table of teenagers sitting on the other side of the glass from us. One of the girls had ice cream & would take her spoon & act like she was going to give Jack a bite, putting her spoon up towards the glass. I think he quit opening his mouth after the first couple times, but I was totally laughing! So were they! I wish I'd gotten a picture - it was so funny! I'd also told the kids they had to eat so much before they could go play, so after taking it slow for a while they decided it was time to play & shoveled the last required bites into their mouths! I love my kids!