Finally!

Part of what the kids got from Gramma and Grampa Miff was giftcards to Red Robin. RED ROBIN!!!???!?! Heck yes. Man, but we're too broke to take them.

Never fear, the best grandma/mom/mom-in-law in the world considered the financial plight of the parents whose children got said gift cards. When was the last time your kids' meals were $20 a pop? They weren't. No, Grandma (or Super Grandma as we're calling her today) made sure there was enough for the parental figures to go, too.

We had a failed attempt to get to Spokane on Monday and decided, on the sly, at the last minute so the weather fairy didn't have time to react (ha ha!!) to try again on Tuesday. We made it. (neener neener!)

Lest you think we are so dumb, first, Christmas break is over after this week and the kids would be back in school and Aiden at work (I have another week!) thus inhibiting our "let's just go NOW" process for tricking the weather fairy, and second, we had to exchange some gifts from the other gramma. There's a K-mart closer to us but NO Red Robin. The Whiskey River BBQ Burger was calling loud and clear "Holly.... Aiden.... It will be JULY before the weather gets nice again.... Come EAT ME!!!!". How do we deny the wishes of the burger? We don't/couldn't.

The exchanging gifts was hindered by an aunt and uncle (of Brandon's origin) lying about WHERE they bought the kids' clothes by wrapping them in JC Penney's boxes but purchasing them at Wal-Mart. We figured out most of this and exchanged it the night before but then I got to stand in the long returns line at Penney's only to be told with utter disdain and only her finger nails touching the lowly fabric lest it infect her or her precious fetus somehow "we don't carry THIS here. I don't recognize it". She went on to suggest I should check Target. Or Shop-ko.

I can't express the way she did how great it would be if these articles happened to come from those shops but I can tell you she would have had a coronary or stroked out had she been told something she was TOUCHING came from Wal-Mart. Shhhhh!!!!

We decided to not brave the Spokane Wally World and it's inherent parking lot and figured the kids will grow into the offensive clothing.

A little bit of backing up here: when we were sure we'd get to Spokane this time we called Gramma Laura and told her we were coming. She's been sick with an awful cold but apparently was feeling better. Enough to venture back to Sam and Dom's, her bar of choice. We reached her right after she got there so of course she wasn't ready to come meet us at her house to get the receipts for K-Mart. She told us it would be an hour until she was ready to leave (uh huh). Hence the Penney's part of the day first.

Being done at Penney's we called to see if she was heading home. She had come up with another plan. "Come down to the bar, get the key to the house, I'll tell you where the receipts are and you can bring the key back here". Sure, the roads are nice and pleasant and I WANT to come to the bar. But K-Mart is nasty about returns even with a receipt. I didn't see a way out of this one.

Luckily, there's a K-Mart on the way and Aiden decided we should just try since it wouldn't cost us anything extra to make the stop. We got the only K-Mart employee with a heart and she said they could do it but it would be the lowest price in the last 12 weeks. This was the deterrent as she saw it but little did she know it was the best news all day. We took it.

There was NO WAY we were going to continue being the proud owners of the hot pink pants with BRATZ written down the side. (I tried to find a picture as I was not smart enough to take one while the pants were in my possession. They are so bad there is no published picture of them on the internet that I could find.) These things screamed "I am to be worn by migrant workers in the berry fields". Or maybe that's just my take since the only place I have ever seen red, green, or any fluorescent colored jeans was on migrant workers in middle school.

Laura called in the middle of the exchange process to inform us that rather than sticking to the plan she was heading home and would meet us there. I told her the new plan on our side. She wanted to make sure SHE wasn't losing money on the deal. Uh, no. See, even if the actual monetary difference was a loss on her side, this way we are getting clothes they will actually wear. Isn't that the biggest trade? I mean, talk about losing money: buy clothes the kids won't wear.

In case you talk to her we traded straight across for different sizes.

Okay, now for the good part: Red Robin for dinner. The gift cards covered all three kids, two adults, dessert, and half the tip! Gramma, you rock! is the quote given by Annie.

The waitress was really nice. We hadn't eaten anything since noon and by 5 were very hungry. She brought out two baskets of fries as our appetizer (bottomless fries don't have to wait until your burger, did you know? So much for paying for mozzarella sticks!). Then when the dessert was decided on we explained they would be splitting the hot fudge sundae. I asked if we could have extra cookie straws (otherwise these smiling faces would have had messed up hair and tear streaks over the cookie straw fight. I know these children). She went one better and made each kid their own sundae with cookie straws and cherries for each. I love her.

Aiden and I shared a mile high mud pie. We'd never had that before. Have you seen this thing? I didn't get a picture up front but you get the idea.

Every person decided the best part of their day was dinner except Alex who said the whole day. We had a lot of fun over the whole deal.