In The Paper!!

A picture of us on the front page of the C section of the Union Tribune

I know it wont come as a big shock to anyone who knows me, but Emma's first picture in the paper was of us Shopping!! It is a huge Leppink family tradition that you got out as early as possible the day after Thanksgiving and get in on all those sales. It's a ton of fun not just shopping but people watching and over all craziness. I love it. So when my mom and sisters all lived in San Diego we would all get together on Thanksgiving each with our own paper and pour over the ads and sales for the next day. We would then plan our attack and hit the stores. We usually were out of the house by 4AM! Last year we were in Colorado for Thanksgiving so I got to do my family tradition there. So when my mom said she was coming out I knew I was going to get to do it with her. I ended up sleeping in a bit and we didn't get a jump on the shops til almost 5:30Am. I left Emma at home snuggled in with a sleepy daddy and we were off. Well not much of a shock that the sales were not very good this year. We hardly purchased anything. We were out of the mall by 8 Am, and back home to collect Emma and Daddy. We decided to try the Carlsbad Company Outlet stores to see if they had anything good going on. That was the place to be. As you can see from the sign behind my head in the picture, EVERYTHING in Banana Republic was 50% off the last marked price!! We finally got in on some great deals and had a photographer from the Union Tribune following us all over the store. She asked us a bunch of questions about our shopping and just kept taking pictures of Emma mostly. As much as it started really making me feel uncomfortable, I couldn't blame her because I go crazy with the camera too when it's pointing at Emma. We ended up with a lot of great purchases from a few of the shops running unbelievable one day sales at that shopping center. It was great fun!!

Our picture got published about a week later. Donald's parents called first thing in the morning to say they saw us. Donald was so excited about his girls being in the paper he went out to buy up some copies. But it was no surprise as he would say that it was hard finding a few papers left to purchase since we were in it. Then he called his good friend Susan that still works at the paper to get 2 press plates. He said that over time the paper would fade and discolor, but the press plates would last forever. So I sent a copy of the paper to my mom and a press plate and have the other ones for Emma.