Hike-a to the Ike-a

Shirra's store came with a few included items, like a counter for her cash register, but we've had to provide for pretty much everything else. So today we took a that long but necessary trip to Ikea.

To make matters worse, the nearer of the two Ikeas (both in New Jersey) was out of some of the shelving units that she wanted. Ikea Paramus also didn't have a bunk bed that we'd planned to get for our house, but Ikea Elizabeth did. Luckily Maeve fell asleep for the entire ride there, so we got to listen to a funny podcast of "This American Life." That was pretty much our only entertainment for the next six hours. It didn't help that we had to drive there thru pouring rain.

Once there, we knew exactly what we wanted, but because Ikea Elizabeth is smaller than its Paramus counterpart, we were slowed down by nearly an hour. At this Ikea, you have to place orders for their warehouse for certain items, and then those items are summoned forth from the unknown depths of the store. We were further delayed because we'd promised to take Maeve to the Ball Pit, but at least she got to have some fun at the store, and she was quite relaxed for the trip home, having gotten some exercise at the store.

The next step was to pack up the car, which was made more challenging by the fact that we'd forgotten to empty the car of certain items, like Emmett's unnecessary car seat and a boxful of books that Shirra was planning to take to the library at some point. In the end, it just made for a better photo. Had any of the boxes been an inch longer, it's doubtful we'd have been able to fit them into the minivan; we'd have had to place them on top of the car instead, something I was really glad we avoided. Back in New Paltz, we unloaded the boxes and pretty much had to go right into get-ready-for-bed mode. It doesn't feel like I've had a Saturday. Someone owes me a Saturday!