black friday

This year, Ty decided we needed to go all out for Black Friday. He usually doesn't like shopping, but for some reason he felt an urgency to wake up at the crack of dawn and get some killer deals. I once considered myself quite the shopper, but after seeing these crazy people out shopping at 3am....I now know I am an amateur. I have never participated in Black Friday before in fear of being trampled and killed my a mob of furious bargain-hunters, but this year we figured we'd take our chances. Ty, my sister Maren, her husband Logan, and I started our morning at 3:18 when we woke up and headed to Target. I had no idea what to expect and was astonished to see the massive line of people waiting out in the 10 degree weather. People were sprinting to get in line first, yelling, and going crazy with competitive excitement. Just as I took this picture laughing at all of the crazy, stupid people waiting out in the cold... I realized I was one of them. People were just SO serious about this. Like they had planned out exactly what they were gonna get and had mapped out their shopping route to make sure they all of the best deals first. Fascinating. We made a couple of purchases at Target and then headed to Wal Mart, which opened at 5am. Ty and Logan headed back to the electronics while Maren and I picked up a Microwave and an electric razor for like 50 cents. Never have I seen so many people crammed into one store! Apparently the store opened at midnight, but the registers didn't open until 5 so people had literally been waiting in line to pay for their stuff for 5 HOURS!!! Sea of crabby people. We saw 2 fights. I was already getting tired at this point and decided I would never be participating in such an event ever again. Maren waiting in line with her Wal Mart friends and looking fresh as a daisy at 5am. After Wal Mart we headed to the Gateway Mall because we heard Banana Republic was opening at 6am with 40% of everything. I was so disappointed when we got there and it was pitch black and definitely not opening at 6. We found out it opened at 9. A logical thinker would say, "Well that's 3 hours away and it's freezing outside so let's just call it a day." Not the Baldwins!!!! We decided to hang out at the Gateway Mall for 3 hours wandering around and going into other random stores that were open waiting for Banana Republic to open!!! Stupid. We did make one rest stop to Denny's to get some breakfast. We are quite the classy bunch aren't we? We ended up getting some good deals and gifts for our family. Was it worth it you ask? I don't know but it was hilarious and something you gotta do at least once!