September 23

Today began with me noticing that my car's front tires were more worn that I thought they should be. (As in 'hey, isn't there supposed to be tread on these things?' worn down. Yeah.) After dinner, we headed over to Costco en masse to have them check it out, and after the tech confirmed that they could do the job, we opted to have them replaced right then and there. Well, not exactly; they told Adam it would be an hour or two, so he paid for the tires and we spent a memorable evening traipsing around the store looking at just about everything.

There were the sample sound systems and the keyboard that lit up when you touched the keys. (This was quite popular.) There were the Halloween costumes and the seven-foot tall inflatable bear Christmas lawn ornament. And there was the 53-inch teddy bear that Brady lobbied for with his entire little heart. He dragged it down the aisle, hugging its giant head, and then tearfully protested 'but it's just a little bit bigger than me!' as Adam tossed it back into its bin (and out of reach).

When we left, we had two pairs of pajamas, a Christmas dress, and a Waterpik in tow (because dude, it was on sale and I've wanted one of those things for years! Weird, I know. But sometimes totally lame things make me happy). And, ironically, no new tires: we discovered when we were finally called back to pick up the car that they'd sold us the wrong tires and actually didn't have what we needed in stock. D'oh! So I'll have to go back later next week.

But end-of-night frustration aside, we had an unusual and mostly amusing night together as a family. And that's something to treasure.