Black Friday

So, growing up, my family's tradition was to go shopping the day after Thanksgiving, but since Andersen and I have been married our tradition has been to go and get a Christmas tree which is HIS family's tradition. Well this year we were able to squeeze in both traditions. Bright and early Friday morning we met my family at Northtown Mall and put in a couple hours of serious shopping (well, at least I did. Andersen spent the morning playing with Porter and Campbell and eating Cinnabons). After a nap and some lunch we headed out to Elk, WA to the Camden Ranch Tree Farm to cut down our tree. The boys had a blast and loved the hay ride that took us up to the mature tree lots.
Even though it was freezing and the place was loaded with beautiful trees we were able to narrow it down to the perfect tree.
Here are the boys ready to saw it down. All for one! And one for all!
Luckily Porter could fit in under the tree fairly easily. Look at him go!
It was a great little place and once we had the tree down all we had to do was drag it to the road and they would come by and take it down the hill and shake out any squirrels and spiders that may call it home. They even had complimentary hot apple cider that the boys downed. It was a good thing that it wasn't snowing, though, because I don't think my boys would have been able to resist throwing a few snowballs.
After we had the tree tied to the roof of the van we headed back to Spokane and stopped for pizza at Five Mile Heights Pizza. I think the boys must have died and gone to heaven when we discovered that the place had a huge ball pit. Mason surprised me at how brave he was. He would go completely under and then wiggle his way back to the surface, smiling. I used to love the ball pit as a kid, but now I just cringe at the thought of what germs lie hidden beneath the surface. I'm still waiting to see who gets sick first. Oh well, it was a great day, I'll just enjoy it while it lasts.