Earlier this week my sister Ranna told me that she was planning to take our niece Anna downtown to try on a shirt she wanted to get for her for her upcoming birthday. She works at the Gateway JCrew and had the shirt on hold. I started thinking. Steve was going to be working on Friday night, which meant he would be sleeping all day. I could go too. AND, my niece Jade could come down and go with because Anna has been asking me when we could get together with Jade.
A little background side note there. Anna is my brothers "step-daughter" (this is a technicality). Jade is Steve's brothers "step-daughter". They are a year apart in age and a few years ago I thought it would be fun for them to both have a sleepover at my house and meet. They hit it off very quickly and get along very well. They actually have a lot in common, including having two dads. So occasionally I arrange for them to hang out.
Back to the story. We decided we wouldn't let Anna know that Jade and I were coming too. So Jade came down Friday night for a sleepover with me while Steve was at work and Ranna picked us up on Saturday morning to go surprise Anna. A few minutes before we left, we learned that Anna didn't even know that Ranna was coming. Her mom, Sarina, had kept it a surprise. Even better! We showed up and it took her a minute to realize really what was going on. And, it seemed that she really was most excited to see Jade, she got a much more enthusiastic "hi" than Ranna and I did.
We decided to take Trax because it was snowing and we didn't know how ugly it would get throughout the day. To do this, we had to stop at the bank for some cash. So we found an ATM and then stopped for drinks to break the $20s because the machine for Trax won't take anything larger than a $10. This was probably a sad site. We each had our own money and bought our own drinks. Anna and Jade bought the same thing. Sadly, Ranna and I matched each other as well. What a site, the "big girls" with one drink and the "little girls" with another.
We got the Trax station in very good timing. We only waited for about 5 minutes. It was a great way to travel downtown. It's easy and actually pretty fun. Plus, you can actually talk instead of stressing about driving. Our stop put us not far from the store, which was very good since it had started snowing harder while we were on the train and got pretty cold. We went in, Anna tried on the shirt and she loved it. Ranna let us use the staff bathrooms in the back and this is what the girls did...
Guarding the hangers
They were having fun in Ranna's workspace and being quite imaginative. We finished up at JCrew and wandered around Gateway making a few stops, including Lane Bryant, a picture booth and finally Jason's Deli for lunch. By this time it was 1:30 and we decided to head back to the car, but not before some fun before getting on Trax.
Enjoying an after lunch airhead in the cold
A cool sculpture at the Trax station we hopped on to head home.
After reaching the car, we headed to Hobby Lobby. I had some yarn to pick up to finish a project and Ranna had a gift card she still needed to use. She hadn't ever been. Hobby Lobby is a very fun store and you can find almost anything there for crafts or for decor. Ranna and I both found what we needed/wanted and we even found a frog for my mom's garden that was 50% off and the last one available. We couldn't pass it up because it just fit so well.
Jade had some money left from what her dad gave her to spend and she and Anna decided they wanted something that matched from their day together (other than the pictures we already did). After searching the store, they decided on some Valentine's Day stuffed puppies (40% off is a beautiful thing). The cashier was very good with Jade as she paid for their gifts and she got on her eye level as she counted out her change. Ranna and I were very impressed, especially considering the lines were getting longer and crazier by the minute.
Later, when Jade's parents came to pick her up, I had a cookie thief.
He was quite sneaky...
I think he had two whole cookies by himself.
Overall, our day was just a lot of fun.
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