Holy, Moly! Visiting Ikea

After spending the morning picking strawberries and picnicking with friends, I loaded they boys up and drove on to Atlanta to meet up with Daniel at IKEA.

Daniel had been attending the Leadercast 2016 conference where he got to hear the likes of Andy Stanley, Nick Saban, Dr. Henry Cloud, and Steve Wozniak (among others) share how to be the "Architects of Tomorrow." I may be just a teeny bit jealous that he got to go to this.

We made our plan without really considering how tired we all might be (me and the boys from a long day and Daniel from attending the conference), BUT it's been hard to commit to making a trip to Atlanta for the sole purpose of visiting IKEA (we have been talking about it for almost two years now), and I was determined to make it work.

I arrived in Atlanta before Daniel was finished, so I took the boys for a snack at Chick-fil-a before heading to the massive blue store known as IKEA.

IKEA has a play area called Småland where you can drop your kids off to play while you check out the store. I asked Jack if he wanted to play first or look around with me. He said he wanted to look around.

So we went upstairs to the showroom where Jack proceeded to shout "Holy, moly!" at every turn. IKEA is a fascinating place and I hadn't thought of how much a 4-year-old would appreciate all of the little spaces.

Thankfully the store wasn't really busy and we could take our time – which was good because Jack wanted to open every drawer and look at every nook and cranny.

Isaac was stuck in the stroller, but with the help of snacks, he was a good sport.

Style of bed I would consider for Jack's room...

Style he would prefer... The next day he told me he wanted a

"bumpy bed from that big blue store that has a playground."

How I feel visiting IKEA.

After looking at the entire store (including the outdoor furniture, that was the main thing on my list), I checked in with Daniel and discovered that he was stuck in traffic (figures) and that it would be at least an hour before he arrived. 

So I dropped Jack at the Småland and made my way through the marketplace portion of IKEA downstairs (Isaac was too small to drop off so he was still stuck with me, in the stroller).

Jack had a ball and his hour of play was up just about the time Daniel arrived. We were all hungry so we ran to Chipotle for supper before heading back to IKEA to pick up the furniture we wanted.

It was after 8pm before we were picking up our items. I am so glad that neither boy had a meltdown since it was past bedtime! Jack had fun pushing Isaac around in the stroller while Daniel and I decided what we wanted.

We managed to leave the store by 9pm and hoped to have smooth sailing back to Chattanooga. Leaving Atlanta was a breeze and I was looking forward to a quick trip home.

But then we hit Marietta and construction on I-24 and my dream of a quick trip sailed out the window as we hit stop and go traffic. Daniel and I were in two separate cars (Daniel with the boys). It ended up being a 3-hour drive home. Getting home at midnight is not ideal, but we all survived and the boys went straight to bed. Talk about a crazy, long day!

Happy Mother's Day weekend to me! The ÄPPLARÖ table extends to seat eight, but when it isn't extended it still allows for plenty of room for the boys to play. We still need to pick up a few additional chairs as they did not have everything in stock, but now we can seat more people on our deck. We eat as many meals outside as we can, so this is a perfect addition for us.