Shoes, shoes and more shoes

Now that Gabs is walking, quite well actually, it has become necessary to buy her more shoes. Her sweet little pairs of bunny and lion robeez shoes are cute and all, but they are moccassins - i.e. not meant for outdoor play on a muddy spring day.

So, off we go to the StrideRite store in the Park City outlet mall in an attempt to measure our dear Little Bit's little feet so that she can be properly attired when playing out with the big kids in the Creepy Crawler class. And being the gluttons for punishment that we are, we choose to embark on this adventure on a Saturday of all days. See, there are three things one should ALWAYS try to avoid on a Saturday in Utah:

1. Any Costco location - the Mormons and non-Mormons alike come out in droves for the free samples on Saturdays...literally it is a zoo with an especially large number of primates, bovines, and boars.
2. The entire downtown area during LDS conference - aside from shiny, happy people walking around - which is annoying enough as it is - there is never any parking.
3. The Park City outlet mall, especially during LDS conference - for those sinners who escape the valley and go shopping.

Before I get started describing the utter exhaustion Saturday became, let me just say that I adore the outlet mall in Park City. It has some great outlet stores for kids clothes, and for Mom and Dad too (Carters, Gap, Banana Republic, OshKosh, The Children's Place, Old Navy, Nike, Calvin Klein...even Coach). But, as it has grown over the years so has the number of people who shop there. Holy cow! And being that it is on the outskirts of Park City, you tend to see all types of people there. The "look at me" teenager crowd, the "I'll have my people call your people and we'll do lunch" crowd, the "park city high society just got my botox injection" crowd, the "wanna-be native skiboarder but am really a tourist from Encino" crowd, the "subburban-soccer Moms and Dads" crowd, the "pushy international tourist with lots of spending cash so get out of my way" crowd and the "OH MY GOD GET ME THE HELL OUT OF HERE CROWD."

We started out as the soccer Mom-Dad crowd and quickly became the OMG crowd as the day progressed.

It all began with the parking situation. Not what we had hoped for, but the sky was blue, the sun was shining and the stroller was in the back of the car so walking actually sounded kind of nice.

Then we hit the StrideRite store.

Two people were working. One who was older then Moses and the other who was very nice but clearly having to over-compensate for her co-worker. This particular clerk was all smiles as she explained what type of shoe to look for, how they should fit, what made one brand better then the other, etc. I almost felt like I was looking for a new car as she began explaining tread, shock absorbancy, safety features. Good grief. They are just shoes for cryin' out loud!

Then it came time to measure Gabby's foot. Gabby FREAKED. A scream that echoed through each and every store, bounced off of each parked car, shattered store windows and made the dogs at the Furburbia Pet adoption store howl (a great place and organization by the way...both Bella and Allie were at one point or another Furburbia dogs). In fairness to Gabby, I remember hating to do this as a child too...what is it with that scary looking measuring apparatus anyway??? It is always cold and always managed to hurt somehow even though it really shouldn't. Somebody should really invent a better, less scary way to measure kids feet.

Suffice it to say, it was a struggle but it was determined that Little Bit's foot is a size 5. SIZE 5??? No way. She is tiny. Her gargantuan cousins are a size 6-7. This can't be right. So, we tried on a size 5 sandal and Gabby literally screamed bloody murder all over again, although I don't think the dogs howled quite as loud this time around.

After the ringing in her ears ceased, the clerk said we should change that size to a size 5 WIDE!!! No way. Gabby is little and has hardly any breadth to her wee little feet. Her cousins have wide feet, but hers are tiny just like the rest of her. Then again, she was screaming and I did want to get out of there and figured wider means her foot will have some wiggle room and maybe she will be able to wear the shoes longer, right??? Works for me.

We picked out some sandals and two pairs of closed-toe keds, one in the next size up to spare us from this experience in the near future. Then we waited in line. And waited. And waited. And...you get the idea.

Turns out that the nice clerk was helping another child try on shoes while the ancient one was trying to straighten out boxes of shoes high up on a shelf towards the back of the store. Very efficient, don't ya think?

After leaving StrideRite ions later, we headed to Carters. Big mistake. No way a stroller was going to fit in those aisles, not with all the unattended children running around as their mothers pushed one another for the 70% off rack. Needless to say, we didn't spend much time at the outlet. But, Gabby does have some nifty shoes that are actually quite cute on her - and the collection is growing. Her PaPAAAAA bought her another pair Sunday just because, and when that is added on to the pair that came with an outfit I bought her last week she is now up to 7 pairs of shoes - 3 robeez, 2 keds, 1 striderite and 1 walmart. Let the shoe obsession begin - and let it be known that while her mother LOVES shoes, she doesn't own nearly half as many has her father does!!!!