Smell the aroma

This weekend, we decided to go on a little trip-a shopping trip to be exact-to a mall in Coralville, Iowa which is an hour away from us. It had been awhile since I've been there and they really don't have any different stores then our mall, but it's still nice to go to a different mall for a change. I went with my two daughters and my mom. Wasn't a trip that the boys wanted to go on, so they stayed home.

(This is what happens when your kids have a camera in the back seat with them.)

We finally made it to the mall.

When we went inside, we saw that they had a carousal at their food court and at first my youngest, who had never been on one was all like, I'm NOT going on that. Then, she decided that she would go on it but we would have to sit on the bench. I was all like, you are NOT sitting on the bench. The bench is no fun. Just try one of the horses-one time. Of course she said NO WAY! but, after we got on and I showed her how the little girl behind us was brave enough to go on the horse, she finally agreed.

After it started, she was totally in love with the carousal and we then spent $40,000 in carousal rides before we left. I fear that I've created a carousal monster and unfortunately, we don't have any in our dang town. So, I think I will have to hide when she wakes up and says, I WANT TO GO ON THE CAROUSAL AGAIN, MOM!!!

They also had a play area that was filled with a bunch of kids. As I watched her get bounced around amongst the crowd of kids, all I could think of was the game Pong from my Atari days.

We had fun and with all the walking we did, I probably burned about a zillion calories so I didn't feel guilty about the scoop of mint chocolate meltaway ice cream, cotton candy, and a Subway sandwich during our stay there.

Speaking of walking, I have to warn you that if you don't like tailgators while driving your car, you probably do not want to shop at this mall. What does that have to do with walking, you ask? Well the people that live there, or at least the ones at the mall, are tailgator walkers. Yes, there is such a thing. It was really freaking me out and then it started to piss me off. How dare these people invade my space? Don't they know that everyone has their safety zone and that they aren't allow to invade that? My oldest daughter was getting pretty annoyed too and it happened so much to us that it became the main topic of conversation. I felt like we were in a New York subway station at rush hour. You could literally feel their hot breath on your neck. Jessica actually had someone step on her heel. I don't know about you but I HATE THAT.
So, we kept saying that we were just going to stop dead in our tracks and let them run right into us. But with my luck, they would be holding a hot cup of coffee or if these people are rude enough to walk up your bleep bleep, they'd probably sue us for damages to their Prada bag or something.

Am I ever going to go back? Why of course I will. But I'm going to eat a big ole' can of baked beans first and walk real slow...