I'm a Saver

I don't usually blog about good deals, but I'm a thrift store shopper and I just have to say that I LOVE the Savers in Ft. Collins, and if any of you are in the area and for some strange reason haven't gone there for all your thrifty needs, it's great. Here's what I like about it:

• First and foremost: There's a lot of stuff. I hate it when you go to a thrift store and comb the entire store over to find that one skirt that worked for your daughter or one pair of shoes that you ended up paying $10 for instead of the $3 or $4 you were hoping for. I walked in and the first four or five items I saw were in the cart, and the rest was just deciding what I could reasonably fit in the cart (okay, a little exaggeration there, but you get the idea...).
• They have $.99 days instead of 1/2 off days. The ARC does 1/2 off days, which can be nice at times. I like 1/2 off days, but a lot of times I find something there I just love, but still have to pay $4 or $5 for because that particular colored tag on that day was originally double that. Here you pay a buck, no matter how much it was to begin with. I personally think that's a better deal...(DUH!).
  
• The selection there is amazing. They are nice, cared for items. Sure, anyone can buy a faded hideous tee-shirt that's been worn by eleven people before it made it's way to the thrift store, but I would much rather buy a shirt for a buck that STILL HAS THE ORIGINAL TAG ON IT. Saw a lot of those....
• Last but not least, it wasn't swarming with people. I've been to the ARC in Greeley or Savers in Boulder and you have to skip isle after isle because there just isn't room to fit another person filtering through a bazillion shirts in the tiny lanes they have there. Although the Saver's in Ft. Collin's isn't huge, I was able to paruse the toddler girl's section for a good 15 minutes without another soul even peeking around the corner. Not to mention that, but they also placed the toy section ideally in a clearly visible spot from the children's clothing section, so I could let Chloe wander to the end of the isle and poke around without fearing I'd never find her again.
  

So: I purchased 13 items of CUTE clothing for my daughter, who's last year summer wardrobe is rapidly shrinking as her legs are beginning to grow like a beanstock and her tummy pokes out of most of her shirts because her torso is also lengthening, one cute pair of Sunday shoes for Mommy that I couldn't pass up, one electronic game of Battleship that Chloe couldn't put down, but has no idea how to play, and five books for $36. Oh that's the other thing, they're children's book section is ENORMOUS (well, bigger than the one shelf I've been to at the ARC in Greeley) and all books are $.69 a piece! I let Chloe pick out five of them, but I really want to go back and paruse them some more, and they were all in good condition, no crayoned or markered on, no frayed corners of the hard backs, and no ripped covers or pages. Amazing.

Just had to share that with you all. The clothes are in the dryer right now, but I may post some pictures of them on here just so you can see the selection later. Happy thrifting to you other thrifters out there. You know who you are.

Trip to EXIT (in Spanish)

...which means "Salida" in Spanish. Above, here is our descent into Chaffee County. Gotta love those gorgeous mountains. My Grammy Brown flew in from Rhode Island to spend some time with us Coloradans for a couple of weeks. She's been staying with my Uncle Tim and Aunt Casey in Salida, so since they have this big festival every year in Salida called FIBark ("First In Boating the Arkansas, river that is), and it happened to be last weekend, the stars aligned so we all packed up our things and drove the 200 miles to Salida. First "road trip" we've taken with the kids, and all things considered they did fairly well! No puking in the mountains, no scream fits, mostly, and Linus even slept some. It was nice to get away a little bit and visit with my family. I have to apologize because I went through all my pictures the last couple of days and I realized I hardly took any pictures of my family. I have a couple of pictures of the kids, a couple of pictures of Craig, and none of my family! What was I thinking? I don't know. But enjoy what I got, I guess!
Linus smiling at me because I'm looking at him. When I turned around, he wasn't as happy, so I spent a lot of time in the car facing backwards- it was amazing that I didn't puke!Chloe chillin' like a villian.


The first night there we had this AMAZING sunset! I got more pictures, but I loved the colors in this one. We didn't do a whole lot of FIBarking, the kids were ready for bed, and honestly a lot of it was just boozin' and cruisin' and so we would rather have been home enjoying this beautiful scene calmly on the back deck of my family's porch.

I have to say that I LOVED Tim and Casey's house! They built it a few years ago and I just loved every nook and corner of it. Here's the back patio, and Craig and Chloe enjoying themselves...

Chloe was tired. I was playing with my lens. Good times.
Craig is embarrased that I posted this picture, but he's so handsome, isn't he? Best darned tootin' husband a little ol' girl like me could get. Hands down. No fibbin'. Love ya, honey.
Oh yeah, the other part of our adventure was that we decided to go camping! After much deliberation, I just wasn't comfortable doing a real camping trip, so Tim and Casey were gracious enough to let us do it in their backyard. Here are our quarters. It was nice and toasty inside and the kids slept great. I even got some sleep, which I don't do much of on camping trips! Maybe that's cause we weren't "really" camping...You can't park your car in the fire lane, but you can park your kayak.
This was a sickening ride at the festival aptly named "The Tornado!" I didn't go on it. Looking at this picture makes me dizzy enough...
The mighty Arkansas.

It was a great trip all in all, I was glad to see my Grammy and glad to spend some time with some family I haven't seen in a while. It'll be nice when the kids are a bit older and we can go back without having to worry about chasing them down every two seconds. Looking forward to our next "Exit"...
Tune in next time.

Not in a Van, but down by the river...

Poudre river really is a pretty place, especially since it's been raining and everything is so green. I had this vision of bringing my kids down here wearing white and khaki and getting some perfect shots of them together. The reality was a little less so. Individual pictures were slightly more successful, but getting them to BOTH look at the camera AND smile was asking a little too much. Especially since I didn't think about the bugs. Oh my goodness, were there misquitos EVERYWHERE! It kinda freaked Chloe out, as you can see from the last picture, she had had enough of them by the end. Now if these weren't my kids, they would have been perfect, but they are so used to that stinkin' camera in their faces all the time, that trying every trick in the book to get them to laugh was near impossible. Out of the 180 or so shots I took, these were the best of them. But alas, I shall not give up...


Literally THE ONLY shot where both of them were looking at the camera. I'm going to have to experiment with head swapping on photoshop here...
Okay, okay, I admit it, I really like this one. Probably because he is my son, but that's okay. If I enjoy it, that's really all that matters...

And here's where the minor annoyance at the bugs turned into a full-fledged meltdown. I love how Linus is looking at me like "Um...am I supposed to be upset too? What's going on?"