So, we’re working on planning Earley Summer Vacation Extravaganza 2010, and that required a trip to do some shopping.  Me and the boys.  For hiking boots.  Whoopee.

I softened them up with McDonald’s.  Don’t judge me.

Oh, and a trip to the music store to retrieve Will’s repaired sax, and they got to pick out a book of solos for their lessons, for something fun.

Then it was off to the shoe store.  Will liked the first pair he tried on (oh, not true, he had to move up from the 8 to the 8.5).  And then he was happy.  I did make him try on a different brand to be sure.  I told them we weren’t buying unless they were 100% sure they felt good.

Joe was OK with the pair he tried on, and then proceeded to try on about 4 others that were either too tight or not as comfortable or whatever.  He’s wearing a 9 these days.

Their feet are HUGE, I tell ya.

We decided to think about the ones he had on and went to the sporting goods store, because I was looking for Keens for myself.  He did find a pair there that he liked, and was 100% OK with, so that was done.

They are so literal.
“So, if we only liked them 99.999% would you take them back, or would that be ok?”
“Um, yeah.  I think we could pretty reasonably round that up to 100%.”
“What about 99%?  Or 95%?”
See what I put up with??

I did find a pair of Keen’s that I *think* I like.  I’m not at 100% yet.  My right arch has gotten really sensitive.  Some shoes push on it too hard, and once it gets irritated it is good and irritated, even for quite awhile after I take the offending shoe off, the only pair of shoes that is working for me right now is the ones I got from soleheaven.  I think it was a different pair of boots that I tried on that bothered it, but I need to wait until it has calmed down before I can make the final determination on these lovely things:

I love the color names they come up with.  These colors are Laurel Oak and Peppercorn.  I suppose the Laurel Oak is the brown?

To make our day even more complete, I needed to swimsuit shop.

Lord, have mercy.

I had a coupon at Kohl’s, so I started there.  I need two pieces — but there’s not a chance in that very hot place that I’m wearing a bikini.  I do not need the world to see my stretch marks.  So, a tankini top it is.  Only, none of them seemed to have ANY support.  Or were cut down to my navel.  The sporting goods store was even worse for selection.  Mostly bikinis, which, as I’m mentioned, are a no-go.

But good old Target?  Target came through for me with a tankini top that has SUPPORT, and the design seems to be fairly slimming, plus it’s a black and white zebra print.

I could probably wear these shoes with it:

OK, not really, but I still love those shoes and am waiting for the universe to send me a pair.

We got the boots NOW, so that we can all start getting them a little broken in, so we don’t end up with blisters our first day out.

Now that that’s out of the way, I’m in the market for a waterproof/rugged digital camera.

And then I’ll start going a little bit wackier* every day as we get closer to the start of Earley Summer Vacation Extravaganza 2010.

*note that I used “wackier” as opposed to “wacky” since I’m already pretty far along the wackiness scale.