Roadtrip to Ikea!

After returning from Hilton Head despite having a long list of things to do around the house we decided to do something fun on Saturday. We had been wanting to make a trip to Ikea for quite some time (it is a bit of a commitment since the closest, easiest one to get to is in NJ about an hour and a half away) for light bulbs for our under the cabinet lights in the kitchen and to look at shelves and various other items to see if we could find anything that would suit our needs so we decided Saturday would be a good day!

So we did a little browsing online to get an idea of what items we wanted to make sure to look at and think about what other pieces we want to look at while walking through their "showrooms". We were looking forward to the trip all week! Saturday morning we did a few quick things around the house while Scott cut the grass. After Gavin's morning nap and lunch, we moved Gavin's car seat to the truck, packed up some toys, snacks and drinks and hit the road! The drive down was pretty good. Not much traffic and Gavin was relatively happy and having a good time. When we arrived at Ikea, we headed to the top floor and the beginning of their showrooms.

For those that may not have visited Ikea before, they have everything set up in sections based on the type of room (living room, bathroom, kitchen, bedroom, children's room, etc). In each section they have multiple examples of how their furniture can be set up to give you ideas for design and function. It is fun to check out the pieces they put together, even though we were not looking for bathroom and kitchen furniture, it is still fun to walk through and check them out.

After walking through, we were able to decide on what shelves we wanted for the dining room to replace what we had before. We browsed other items, but ultimately decided if we want to pick out any furniture for other rooms we want to make a separate trip. We did however find a cute rug for Gavin's room.


He hasn't quite got the hang of rolling cars on the road and track yet, but he will and we think he will enjoy it a lot, especially now that he is starting to acquire smaller cars.

We stopped to have an early dinner at the restaurant at the end of the showrooms upstairs. We shared some swedish meatballs, mashed potatoes and macaroni and cheese. It was really good, even Gavin enjoyed it all!


Then we headed downstairs to finish looking through all the accessories and lighting and such. While going through the lighting section to find the lightbulbs we needed, Scott came across this activity center for kids. Gavin had so much fun spinning the cylinders. We felt bad when we had to move on so we could pick up the last few things we needed and head home.


We made it through, picked up the boxes for the shelves we decided on and headed for the checkout. Unfortunately, the lines are always a bit ridiculous, but we even survived that. While Scott loaded the truck, I got Gavin ready for the long trip home. Despite trying to hurry a bit to get out of there in enough time to get home for Gavin's bedtime, we were put behind by the long checkout time and also Gavin fighting being changed, fed and strapped back into his car seat. So the drive back felt much longer than the drive down since he was very unhappy, but he finally caved and passed out at about his normal bedtime and stayed asleep when I transferred him to his crib when we got home.

It was a really fun and successful family trip to Ikea. Gavin even enjoyed it (when he was confined to his car seat). We look forward to making a trip back for more shelves for Scott's radio room and some other things we have our eye on!