A trip to the mall

Yesterday I spent the day with a good friend, two teenagers and two almost teenagers. Even though I hate shopping, especially mall shopping, we had a great time. There was some whining (mostly me!) and a lot of laughing. A LOT of laughing. Alex and his friend, Amberly, had decided that they really wanted to go to the Short Pump Mall, which is over an hour from our house. I agreed to take them and prayed that Renee, Amberly's mom and my friend, would agree to go, as well. Lucky for me, she was happy to go.

This was my first trip to Short Pump and I was impressed with the mall. It is an outdoor mall, which I normally don't like in the summer. I think the designers really took the climate into account and made the mall with lots of overhangs and shady areas, so the heat really wasn't too much of an issue. At one point, I did start to feel a little sick. I think it was from going in and out of the air conditioned stores. Once I sat outside in the shade for a few minutes, I felt fine.

Alex, Amberly, and Renee

Amberly, the back of Renee, Me, Hannah, and Shauna behind the bag.

I hate some of the stores there. Is it really necessary to have stores that smell so strongly of cologne that it is overpowering? It must be blown in somehow because it permeates the entire store. It isn't air freshener, it smells like men's cologne. Also, the music is so loud! Talk about a headache waiting to happen. Amberly and Shauna both got headaches. Then the lighting is so dark. I've never been in stores like that before and I hope never to be, again!

The shopping itself, was a little stressful, but not too bad. Hannah is much better at shopping and doesn't melt down every time I say no to something. The kids each were given $30 to spend. They were very good about going straight to the clearance racks, Mommy has taught them well!

After we were all shopped out (which was about 10 minutes into it for me!), we headed to Cici's for dinner. We had a good dinner and a ton of laughs there. The kids wanted to pretend that we were lesbian parents and kept calling us their two moms. I'm not quite sure where that came from! At one point, Amberly was laughing hysterically about something (I never did find out what) and Alex kept pretending to give her the Heimlich maneuver. The problem was that he had been eating a sticky bun and had sticky goo all over his hands. He put his hand in her hair and left a big clump of goo. Poor Amberly! I think she might have been questioning her friendship with Alex at that moment.

This is how Alex and Amberly play air hockey. First they played with their hands, since there were no paddles. Then I saw them lying across the table, just enjoying the air! This picture was not posed.

Mad Shauna because she didn't get a prize

Hannah playing a game

When we pulled up to Renee's house and the kids opened the back door to let Amberly out, a huge bug flew in and landed right behind my head. Even though the kids claimed it wasn't that big, they couldn't really see it and it was really huge. It was at least two inches long and anything over ant-size is huge for a bug! I was trying to get out of the van to get away from it when the stupid thing decided to land on my head! Let's just say there was a bit of screaming. Enough to scare their huge dog away from the car. I was able to get the window or door open (I was so scared I don't remember which) and the bug flew out, thank goodness. So, we had one last laugh before Renee and Amber headed inside. On the way home, I realized that I was exhausted, more from the laughing than anything else, but it was a very fun day.