The Arctic & Black Friday

Connor & Rylie, standing in my parents driveway. This was the new snow they received from the "big" storm that hit Utah.
The temperature of Wellsville the morning we arrived on Wednesday, November 24th.
Mike is infamous for finding any which way to get some sleep in. This is another prime example.

Freezing while waiting in line at Kohl's. It was 2am and we waited for an hour. I think it was around 10 degrees?

More "cold" pictures at Kohl's. We were trying to think of ways to stay warm and entertain ourselves.

I had to go potty in the worst way and threatened to go in the trees outside of Kohl's!

Stacey attempting to look happy to be outside. Either that or she was delirious at that point.
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We headed to Wellsville on Tuesday, November 23rd, to have Thanksgiving weekend. We had heard there was going to be a huge storm that day but, couldn't leave until later in the morning because Mike had to be in court in Fillmore at 2pm. So, we headed out and made it to Fillmore with no sign of a storm, just a ton of wind. After he finished up in court, around 3pm, we were on our way again. My Dad and brother continually kept us posted on the weather so we knew what to expect as we got closer. At around 4pm, my Dad let us know that the storm had hit Cache Valley and was pretty bad. We continued on our merry way. No storm, even sunshine, and the wind had seemed to calm down a bit. That all changed once we passed downtown SLC. It started to snow like crazy and my Dad informed me that they weren't letting anyone through Sardine Canyon, except those with 4-wheel-drive and chains. We didn't want to take Valley View because of the accidents we heard about. Luckily we had many places we could go for the night. So, we headed to my brother's house to spend the night. When we got off the freeway we discovered that it was safer on the freeway, rather than off. Kind of strange. The next morning we headed out to go to my parents. It was FREEZING and quite different than the weather we get here in St. George!!!!

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This year was my first time experiencing Black Friday. My sister and I decided we'd go together while our hubbies stayed home with the kids. We made a list of places we wanted to go and items to buy. We had somewhere to be at 12am, 3am, and 5am. Mike kept telling me to go to bed before I headed out but, I kept blowing him off. I wanted to keep playing games with the family and stay up. That was my first mistake. So, we headed to Wal-Mart to start out our big sale hunt. We got there and had to part behind Wal-Mart because there were no other spots. Wal-Mart was actually our quickest shopping spot that. We didn't get everything we planned but, that's ok. After that we were heading to Old Navy, which also opened at 12am. However, when I saw the amount of people in the parking lot, we changed our mind and headed straight to Kohl's. Good thing because there was already 50 people in line, at least. So, at around 1:50am we got in line in 10 degree weather to wait over an hour. That was my 2nd mistake! Brrrrrr! SO! DANG! COLD! Luckily my coat was warm but, we had no gloves nor hats! So, we finally got into Kohl's, found everything we wanted and more. We got in line to pay for our goods and what a line it was!!!! Holy cow!!!! We were in line for 2 1/2 hours!!!! On top of that, I had braxton hicks or contractions for a big chunk of the time. I wish I had chair or water with me!!! However, did save $196.00 at Kohl's. We were supposed to be at Shopko by 4:30am to get in line. We could see that wasn't going to happen so, my sister left money with me and I stayed in line at Kohl's. My sister then took my list and hers and headed over to Shopko. She had to wait in line outside also, poor thing! The sad thing was she went to Shopko, waited in line, shopped, waited in line to pay, and was all finished before I was even done and paid for at Kohl's!!!! After that we headed over to Shoe Carnival. We were exhausted by this point and almost tears! I was honestly so afraid of having my baby right there in the store!!! I found the shoes we wanted quickly, paid 30 min. later, and decided to go get breakfast. We were so exhausted and sleepy that we could barely eat breakfast. So, we headed home to zonk out! So, we left at 11:45pm and got home around 7:30 am! NUTSO!!!!! I will never go to Black Friday again when I am 3 weeks away from delivery of my baby!!!! DUMB! DUMB! DUMB!!!! With all the craziness, we did have some definite fun moments and was something I'm glad I FINALLY got to take part in. Does that mean I'll do it again? Probably not but, we shall see.