Black Friday

So I decided for the first time ever, I was going to brave Black Friday, and man was it an adventure!

We got home from Thanksgiving festivities @ 9pm. I tried to get Grace to nap, but had no luck. I decided to shower and get ready for our adventure. Toys R Us opened at midnight, our plan was for Cole to drive and stay in the car with Grace while she slept. Grace will only sleep with me or in the car so we decided she's get her best sleep in the car. I packed lots of snacks and blankets, with the intentions of sleeping between Toys R Us and Kohl's.

We left our house @1030pm and gassed up and I grabbed a coffee. We were pulling off the highway @11pm heading to TRU. Now I've never done this, so I just thought that maybe there would be a few people outside TRU...oh I was so wrong. We pull off the highway and hit TRU traffic, I hop out of the car and tell Cole to circle back @ 1am to find me. I get in line an hour before the store opens and I'm probably a good 2,000 people deep! yikes! This is not what I expected at all! I was very unprepared for this, my hair was soaked and here I am standing outside in the freezing cold with just a fleece jacket on!

Fortunately the people around me in line were very nice and we had lots of laughs to pass the time. The doors finally opened at 12am and they let everyone in at once, oh my! I basically get pushed through the store and manage to grab a few things on the endcaps before I realize I'm in the check out line. The good thing is that there wasn't anything I had to have. I leave the store at 1230am and start to wander the parking lot looking for Cole, luckily he happened to be circling as I was walking out so I found him immediately.

I get in the car and I can't stop laughing at the craziness of it all! I filled Cole in on it all. We were planning on heading to Old Navy next, but got lost and decided to just head to Kohl's instead. Here's where our night gets really interesting!

We were about 0.5 miles from the off ramp for the Kohl's exit, when our mini-van starts to make a funny noise. Next we know our wheel is flying down the highway! Sparks are flying as Cole tries to stop the van with only 3 wheels. Cole manages to get us safely to the side of the highway. Fortunatley it was 1am so there were no other cars around. Cole called his Dad to see if he could come get us. I called my Dad who happened to be working that night (he's a cop, incase you were wondering.) He tells me to call 911 to get a cruiser and tow there to prevent us from being hit on the highway. Through this all we managed to stay calm.

Because of all the phone calls Grace woke up. We didn't want to take her out of her carseat just in case we were to get hit. Luckily I had just bought her a doll at Toys R Us. I took it out of the package and she was very happy playing with her new doll.

The police and tow truck got there immediatley and stayed with us until our ride got there. Cole's Dad arrived and we put everything in his car, installed the carseat, and then got it. He drove us back to Cole's Mom's house where his van was. Grace had just fallen asleeep and we decided we didn't want to wake her up again, so we took the car and headed back to Kohls.

I stopped for another coffee and then got to Kohls and was 4th in line! Haha! After all that and I still was 4th! Unfortunately it started to rain, cold, cold rain! Luckily again there was more nice people to pass the time. The employees of Kohl's were super nice! Three of them stood outside in the rain with us and went up and down the line asking what people were looking for and telling them exactly where in the store to find it. The doors opened at 4am and I managed to get everything I came for!

After Kohl's we headed to the mall and I hit JCP, Old Navy, Sears, and Target. Finally at 7am we were done! We headed home and managed to transfer Grace to bed with me. Cole got up and played football in the mud and rain. Grace and I slept until 11am! (Yes Grace slept from 1030p-11am, only waking for 20 minutes when we were broken down!)

All-in-all it was a crazy, adventuous experience, but kind of fun! We managed to fiinish almost all of our Christmas shopping.

Fortunately the tow company broke our car door while backing it off the tow truck, so the aren't charging us for the tow or the storage. The are also going to fix our door and wheel for free.