We did the most fun thing this week: we camped out at Chick-fil-A!! Kind of crazy...really fun....great memories!
So here's the deal: every time a new Chick-fil-A opens, they put on this big event called the First 100 Event. They let 100 people come and set up tents and camp out at the restaurant so that they can be the first 100 people at the new restaurant. The camp-out starts the morning before the opening at 6am. Once 100 people are on a list, they cut it off. Once you are on the list, you can't leave, or you're out. You have to stay until 6am on the morning of the opening, and if you make it til then, they give each of the 100 people free Chick-fil-A for a year (52 coupons for a number one meal)!
We had heard of this before - Randy's cousin Jeremy and his family did it at an opening in Ft. Worth. They had told us about how much fun it was...how they feed you all day, have a dj, lots of games and activities and just tons of cool things to do. So when we found out our Chick-fil-A was closing and being torn down to be rebuilt bigger, we wondered if they would do the Grand Opening event. We found out a while back that they were and joked about maybe camping out. Well, Thursday was the opening date, and Wednesday morning Chick-fil-A tweeted that they still had 60 spots left! Randy told me to go get the details. The girls and I went up there and found out all the rules. I called Randy and said, "Let's do it!!" He took a half day off work and we started packing up to camp out. So.much.fun!!
We got there around 1:00 and found out they were just in the sixties. We debated driving around for awhile or going ahead and getting on the list. We didn't want to wait too long, but we also wanted to wait as long as we could before being stuck. Eventually we decided to go ahead and set up camp...we didn't want to risk not being in the 100 after loading up the van and Randy taking off work. And the girls were so excited! Kendall has been asking for a long time now to go camping...it doesn't get much better than combining camping and Chick-fil-A!
We were numbers 63 and 64. We set up our tent and Kendall's hippo tent. We put lots of toys in the hippo tent for the girls and set up cots and our stuff in the big tent. You would have thought the girls were at Disney World. They were having so much fun! They kept running back and forth between the two tents, playing on the beds, riding the car and the tricycle, and just laughing and smiling. It was so fun to watch them and made all the work of doing it worth it!
Playing in the tents!
We didn't even try to put Kendall down for a nap, but Cooper started getting sleepy around 4. We put her in the stroller and just made laps around the building! She fell asleep for awhile and got a little thirty minute nap.
I told Randy that I thought I might have been more excited about the actual event than what we would be getting at the end. They really made it very fun. They had a dj, and every hour or so they came out and would have some kind of new activity. One of them was a marshmallow war, and one that Kendall loved was building gingerbread houses!
Totally interesting bit of info: Randy talked to a lot of the other people who were doing this and there were very few locals there. Us, some friends from church next to us, and one other couple from Brazoria. Everyone else we met were from other parts of the state...people actually travel around to these things and do this a lot! We met one lady who this was her 17th opening and one couple who it was their 52nd!! Now those are the real crazies....I mean, we love Chick-fil-A, but that's a lot of free chicken! :)
We had a lot of visitors come see us throughout the evening and night! It was fun to get to see friends and to break up the time hanging out. Laurie and Tony came, and even went to the store and brought Kendall back some fruit snacks...
the Beams and Mitterlings came and all the kids played for awhile....
Ronnie and Cory came and brought Randy some tacos...
the Pickerings came to say hi (and we got a picture with Vicki who was camped out next to us with her girls Dominique and Marissa, friends from church)...
and Gayle and Tamara came by. We had fun seeing everyone! I just can't even explain how much fun Kendall and Cooper were having. They were so cute!
Chick-fil-A fed us lunch, brownies and cheesecake in the afternoon, dinner, and then they had ice cream sundaes at 9:30. Here are Cooper and I waiting to go in for ice cream. :)
Staying up late, getting to see lots of friends, sleeping in a tent, being at Chick-fil-A, and eating ice cream at 9:30...best camping trip ever! :)
We put on a movie to try and wind down around 10:30 and Randy walked Cooper around in the stroller until she fell asleep (it took about 10 minutes!). Kendall fell asleep around 11, so we each had a girl with us on a cot. They slept from about 11-4, but Randy and I didn't get that much sleep. People were up talking, playing 4square, and some of the "pros" started packing up their tents around 3:30. At 5:00 they started getting everyone stirring, packing up, and ready to get in line. We all got in number order in line and they passed out Chick-fil-A shirts and hats. At around 5:45 they started ringing bells and banging pots and pans and we went in the store and got our coupons!
Then we threw everything in the van and got out of the way because the restaurant was open for business at 6! We loaded up, and made it home just in time for the rain to start! I gave both the girls a bath and put them to bed and they were out...it didn't take them long at all to fall asleep!
Our prize! 104 free number ones! :) It was so much fun to be spontaneous, do something different, take Kendall camping, and have fun at Chick-fil-A! Pretty crazy, but that's how we roll!
We were out shopping yesterday around lunch, so we grabbed some coupons and stopped there to eat. We were walking across the parking lot and Kendall said, "Here's where we camped! In the street!" Ha! It will be so fun to hear what she remembers about this. So thankful for my fun family!
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