North Face Prophecy Trail Shoes (Review)

I have been considering taking up trail running as part of my training. Last night we are up near REI, and I broke down and got a pair of shoes. I tried on a few in the store ran around a few laps. Decided on a size 9 pair of North Face Prophecy shoes. I went with the intention of purchasing the Saloman SpeedCross 2, however my REI does not carry them, and I tried on 2 other pairs of Saloman and they did not feel as good as the North Face shoes did. I paid $80.

 
First Impressions:

I am a forefoot, Newton road shoe guy right now. These felt great at the store and walking around. However when I started running they felt sort of big around the front of my foot. I have flat feet and normally all shoes are tight and my foot ends up wider than the sole of the shoe. I ran fine, the shoes felt good my I think I may need to go down a size (thank you REI and 100% satisfaction guarantee). The laces are very thin, and they came untied before I even started running. I double knotted them at that point.

I ran for 30minutes, out one trail until it was completely flooded over, then back to another which just dead-ended nowhere. At some point around here I hit my first puddle I couldn't avoid. It was small, and my foot got wet. One thing I will say about this is, that while my feet easily got wet they dried very quick. They were dry before I even noticed. I had run for about 10minutes at this point, I got back in my car drove to another area, got out and started running. I ran a big loop around a lake. It was a great trail, however I hot a puddle again and my foot/feet were wet. Again they dried super quick. I was wearing DeFeet socks. They were dry again before I finished the remainder of the run.

 
Other shoe stuff:
The tread is very aggressive, every time I was on a rock even if it was moss covered there was no slippage. It was wet out and I think they handled the trail great. The rubber around the sole on the sides already shoes wear. All sorts of  'frown' lines have started to appear. If it was not for the ease in which my feet got wet I would love these shoes.

 
I really want to try something else out, but when I say local REI I mean close to 35-40min away depending on traffic. Ideally I would like to get a pair of something else, and go down a size in these, or get a waterproof version. Looking at the North Face website most of their more expensive trail shoes seem to have tread patterns closer to what I would use of the street. These trails are rock and root strewn, not to mention wet (it did rain yesterday).