IKEA, SCHMIKEA

OH how I love IKEA. This was NOT that trip though. By the time we left I had sworn more times than the previous 10 years prior to that afternoon. I can sum up our trip in 3 words (well, with a contraction)

Em didn't nap.

Julia was the only one who qualified to go into Smaland. Damnit.

We have all recovered, and the warm fuzzy IKEA feelings are coming back. I will say though, the Staughton, MA store is a wreck in the self service area. We spent an HOUR looking for a stupid mattress. Well, a choice of 5 mattresses. Not one of them was where they were supposed to be. Not just sold out, but other things were in their place. Those Aisle/Bin tags were worthless. We ended up finding a mattress on our way out, they had moved
one of them into the center display. I said one or two curse words at that point. Then all was forgotten when we saw the receipt and then it all fit into the van like a glove, thanks to my research and prior measuring. Nice.

Then, we had the brilliant idea of heading to the mall in Natick. They have a PF Changs, isn't that worth it? And a Bare Escentuals. We ended up spending WAY too much time in Natick. I did get to go to the Container Store and bought a few containers. DUH! Then, I needed to get to the F portion of the mall. we took a long time finding the entrance I needed since Dan and I were not at our communicating best. Dan was pulling the whole, "I think I know where I need to go so I will not listen to you who is not driving and is actually able to read the signs and may know where we are going, and oh yeah you have a map of the mall, but that means nothing and oooops I went the wrong way again." I was just pissy. It was good times folks. Then we finally made it inside (seriously, after 30 minutes of driving around the outside). The mall was very cool, very, ummm swanky, with a lot of stores I would like to shop in if I had a bazillion dollars and a lot of stores I wouldn't shop in even if I had a bazillion dollars. We ended up not going to PF Changs since we didn't think the girls would hold up long enough. We then spent too long trying to figure out what to have for dinner. Dan had California Pizza Kitchen and the girls and I had Cheesecake Factory. We ate in the car. It worked out swell. The girls watched Bug's Life and I kept my sanity and we ate great food. Then we drove around forever looking for the bank so we could get cash to pay for tolls since they don't like debit cards much. Then we drove around some more. Then we got on the toll road.

Then we drove home with 3 girls sleeping in the back.

Today is assembly day.