Cruise Shopping!

It all started when Mary got this bright idea to go on a cruise and invited us all to come. The next thing you know, we're in Salt Lake City shopping! You know us women: we'll use any excuse to get to town and SHOP!

Saturday morning found us on the road by 6:45 a.m., much to Mary's dismay. We had to do some talking to get her to agree to the early departure, and she really doesn't look too bad for the early hour.

Mary (left) and April got the back seat of Vicki's spacious Mazda CX9. I have the shortest legs and should have been in the back, but nobody wanted to trade with me. Not that I argued too much; Vicki's car has bun warmers.

I don't look too bad for the early hour, either. I was going to crop more out of this photo, but if you look in the rearview mirror, you can see April taking my picture. But don't look too closely at this photo because --GASP -- I can see wrinkles around my eyes. I'm only 35!

But back to business. This is a shopping excursion, after all. We got down to business at the South Towne Mall. I actually made the first purchase of the day.

Not that you can tell in the picture above, but this little black velvet dress will be perfect for the more formal captain's dinner on the cruise; I just need some sexy little high-heeled black sandals to go with it. Then it was off to shop for April and Mary.

We put Vicki to work picking out clothes for April. We were at the mall and there was a lot to choose from. Unfortunately, there were a lot of No's at the beginning. But then lunch got into our blood stream and we frequented a certain soft-porn store (for April) and it was all downhill from there!

So on this particular day, panties were on sale 3 for $30. Frankly, that's outrageous! Ten bucks for a string? But that's beside the point. Check out April and bra-sales lady trying to make some decisions. After April had decided what she THOUGHT she wanted, we stepped in and changed her mind.

Who knew there were so many possibilites? All in white, no less. I tried to talk April into a color - ANY color - but I failed. At this soft-porn store, they had the rainbow!

They also had bras with pockets so you could choose the level of "support" you wanted. Who knew?

They also had great benches in the dressing rooms and wonderfully large mirrors (see still another white bra?). Since April was mostly covered while she tried on new levels of support, we just took our front row seats and gave plenty of opinions. I hope Robert doesn't mind the modifications to April's wardrobe.

At one store, Vicki and I got both Mary and April trying on clothes. Vicki and I were runners and opinion-givers. The sales ladies at this particular store (I don't remember the name of the store) were outstanding. There were a lot of No's at this store, but I think Mary and April tried on the whole store.

There were some to take home, though.

And some more to take home.

And eventually, the back of Vicki's car looked like this. We all have bags in there; those aren't just Mary and April's. It should be noted that I had the camera and couldn't really take pictures of myself shopping. Dang it all. I'm really broken up over that.

Evening found us at the beautiful home of my aunt and uncle. This photo (taken Sunday morning) is the foyer. We visited for a few minutes and then we were off to dinner at the Olive Garden and then The Forgotten Carols. Sunday morning we attended church with my aunt and then hit the road for home.

We had to make a pit-stop, of course. The car needed refueling. Can you believe how good Vicki looks just putting gas in the car? I believe it was Robert who said that Vicki can even make a school bus look good. (It should be noted that Vicki is just as beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside.)

The car was not the only thing needing refueling. Mary stole my camera and look what she did! She took my picture! But not before I got a picture of one of my favorite places:

Guess who's behind the door? (I think that's why she confiscated my camera.) Four children has left me with an itty-bitty bladder and I don't think anyone on this trip visited these convenient places more than me.

And living in Nevada, you learn to take those rooms when you can get them. This landscape doesn't allow for squatting behind a bush.

Because there aren't any.



And then after a few hours of this landscape, you get bored enough to take pictures of someone's polka-dot socks. Cute, aren't they?


We had a great weekend but I think we were all ready to be home and be with our families again.

Okay, so maybe I was the only one ready to be home.