Saturday is our family day and yesterday it was rare treat to have sunshine so late in the year. I was hoping to get a family hike in, but the thing about kids is that they don’t always do as you expect. My girls rejected the idea of hiking and instead fixated on going to the mall. My ten-year-old-going-on-Forever-21 was the instigator and the four-year-old backed her up in a stunning reversal of her usually contrary position. So, after lunch and dance practice, we went to the Washington Center Mall; on the Saturday before Christmas; like insane people.
Keeping track of three other family members along with the entire population of Beaverton is not my idea of a good time, but there we were. The first stop was Bath & Body Works where the girls sampled bath products that smelled like candy and cake and positive vibes. The last time I was into that place was when I was in college and the trending smells were vanilla, cucumber and cantaloupe. I am still working my way through the last bottle of body lotion.
At some point, we ended up in the kids section of H&M and Eliana wanted to try on clothes. Ivy, who normally fixates on the candy store, also wanted to try on clothes like her big sister. To their credit, the workers were patient with my kids as they took what felt like days. Ivy insisted that I stand outside her dressing room and there was some drama involving the security tags attaching a top to a bottom. Tim took one for the team by taking a spot in the line to the register that snaked around the entire accessory section. Finally, we found something suitable and gave Tim the outfits to check out while we ate a greasy bag of Pretzel Bitz while huddled near a bench.
Some woman whom I had never seen in my life said “hello” to us enthusiastically. After some sleuthing we decided it was one of Eliana’s teachers that I had only ever seen either behind a mask or as a thumbnail on Google Classroom. The pandemic was a weird time. Finally, after a trip to Claires with every tween in the entire galaxy, and a stop over to a the candy store where the prices didn’t seem too terrible until you realize that it’s per 1/4 of a pound, our outing was declared complete, and we were allowed to leave.
Thank goodness we had had the foresight to drop a pin at our minivan parked half a county away. At least I got all my steps in.
