"Arctic Blast 2008" ...and catching up

What is up with the news? Come on - are we gonna have an epic proportion snow storm, blizzard-like, "Arctic Blast" weather event, or not? I don't know about you, but I'm getting a little weary of all the weather-hype and no action. We're ready for that blizzard now, so bring it on!

As promised, following are some pics from our first-ever Black Friday experience. We are definitely NOT your typical "consumer-minded" folks. More than anything, we just went along for the fun of watching all the crazies come out before the sun's up just to fight over electronics and socks. But we managed to score a few cool things, while we were at it, too.

Thursday night, we set our alarm for 4:30 am, planning to meet up with our "crew" outside the Miller house at 4:45 am. Well, Shawn had to get up to go potty (I know, too much information) at 2:15 am and decided we should just get up and hit Best Buy - because maybe we'd get a shot at one of their laptop deals. Ha ha.

Here he is outside our front door, sporting some of our coupons, at 2:25 am:

And, here's what we found when we pulled up to Best Buy at 2:30 am, this was the end of the line wrapped around the side of the store...

So, we stood out there for about and hour and a half, then realized the futility of what we were doing, and left. I can think of other things I would have rather been doing at 3:00 in the morning, namely SLEEPING, but it was an exciting start to the morning.

Next, it was off to Kohl's. We got there a little before 5:00 am. Here's part of our group waiting in the line that wrapped around the entire interior of the store:

Here's a little video clip of Andy (and a whole bunch of people standing in line, looking really irritated with Shawn for video-taping them at 5:00 in the morning...)

We scored a set of Crayola markers for 2.99 at Kohl's. Big spenders, I know.

Next it was on to Fred Meyer for free coffee and donuts:

And...let's see...we bought...nothing, at Fred Meyers. But the coffee was good. :) And the people-watching was even better.

Next stop for Shawn and I was Office Depot, where we were actually able to get in on a laptop deal - which is what I'm using right now to post, and it's AWESOME. :) Stood in line for over 2 hours to get it, but it was worth it.

Next stop, IKEA:

And more free food:

And we got the bed we were already planning on getting anyways, for half the price.

Here it is getting all loaded up in the car for the ride home - yes!

Some pics from tree-hunting with the Miller clan. Here's Ellie and baby Viola:

Ellie and Charlie hunting for sticks:

Charlie picked out a sparkly reindeer ornament:

This is the only shot I got of Charlie and Shawn checking out the geese - because I was too afraid of them to get any closer. Those guys are MEAN.

Blake and Ellie enjoying hot chocolate and cookies:

The whole group:

Making peanut butter balls for various holiday parties, etc:

Aren't they cute? I think they look like little bitty caramel apples:

Success on the potty, finally!!!

Hanging out by the window, enjoying the snow outside:

Putting the snow tires on the car - let's get this blizzard going!