A Toy Story

A few weeks ago we decided to go 'out' as a family. But where should we go? We didn't really want to spend a lot of money, and we had already hit the Columbian malls, parks were getting dull, and neither Tamy nor I were up to swimming... If only there was a ToysRus, but alas, we had already searched for a ToysRus during Dec. To our dismay, there used to be a ToysRus but it had sinced closed. Well, the months rolled by and we had given up hope in finding one around our area. Then, one day, Tamy was chatting with her friend who revealed the most startling news, a ToysRus did exist! It was just on the other side of Columbia.

Why, you ask, were we so interested in a ToysRus? Especially when we already had a Walmart. Well, lets get the obvious out, it is a toy store and we have two kids who love toys. Another reason we were interested though, was because we were (and still are) looking for a swing set for the backyard. The one we found just happens to reside at ToysRus.

Before you know it, we had arrived at the fabled store with 3 anxious kids (Evie, Joesph, and me). The first thing we did was look at swing sets, and as luck would have it, it had been "discontinued from that store." Not quite sure what that means, but we are looking for a loophole. Still our spirits were up because we had come to play.

The Unreachable Star!
Evie and Joseph loved it! It was a challenge to keep up with Evelynn as she darted from one pink toy to the other. Tamy found 'the' bedding for Lizzy. You see, she had been searching high and low for a theme to put on Lizzy's side of the room. I say side, because she and Joesph share a room- Lizzy's wall is blue, and Joseph's wall is green. Josesph has a safari theme with lions, tigers and monkeys, and Lizzy, well, she didn't have anything. In fact Tamy had become quite frustrated and discouraged about Lizzy's side. That is until she spotted the fish bedding at ToysRus. Oh how she lit up when she saw those fish! But just like my reserved wife, it didn't even cross her mind to ask if we could buy them. Instead she sighed saying, "This would be wonderful to have for Lizzy's room." Then she placed the product back on it's shelf and began to walk away. I thought to myself, wait a minute, she has scrapped the four corners of the earth looking for a theme and now she passes on one she says would be 'wonderful!' I stopped her and said, "Tamy, why don't we buy the bedding if you like it so much." She froze in place and her eyes started to sparkle and big smile emerged from her lips. "Really!" she said. With that Tamy's quest for a theme had finally come to an end, and I had a happy wife for the rest of the day.

If The Shoe Fits...
Another reason we went to ToysRus was to commandeer new shoes for Joesph. A few months ago one of Joseph's shoes 'ran away from home' and never returned. We had heard that ToysRus had the shoes we were looking for. Surely enough, we found a great pair of shoes for Joseph and some black church shoes as well.

Cars
We went through every inch of that store and its toys. We looked at princess, barbies, Tinkerbell, buses, cars, shopping carts and play food, toys from their favorite cartoons, dolls, animals, and even Cabbage Patch Kids. Evie and Tamy played with hula hoops and Joesph and Daddy played with nerf balls and swords! Finally, we stumbled upon electric cars and jeeps. They were charged, and kids were riding in them. Evie immediately wanted to try one out, Joesph followed closely behind Evie and I really wanted to see them in an electric car. There were two vehicles working. One was a red car, the other was a jeep that looked like it belonged in a Mad Max movie. They got to ride both- Evie drove and Joseph sat with a big grin on his face! After about 15 minutes of the kids riding we decided to make our way to the exit.

We Think We Can
Before we could make it we were cut off by a giant train track. Joseph took one side of the tracks and Evie took the other. Evie's trains went everywhere. Joseph's trains seem to make down through a tunnel and that was about it. He would push it down the ramp and then pick it up after it got through the tunnel and do it again. Tamy & I resovled that nothing esle would stop us from leaving it was time. We made it to the lines, but not before TinkerBell II ended up in our basket. All in all we spent almost 4 hours in that store.

An Undiscovered Land

While we were checking our items out Tamy learned of a hidden secret. Just across the road was a Once Upon A Child! For those of you who don't know what this is, it is a store where you can buy cheap discounted kids clothes, toys, and appliances.  Spokane had a few of these stores and Tamy shopped at them regularly. Upon learning of this great news, we decided that we still had enough in us for one more store. I unleashed Tamy and waited with the kids- execpt Evie who accompanied mom. Twenty minutes later Tamy came out under budget with a bunch of new clothes. All in all we had a great time!!!