Just a Midnight Run to IKEA With the Family

Pin It Now! Shiloh got home from work on Thursday night and said, "Let's make a run to IKEA tonight. They close at 8pm." It was 6:25pm. IKEA is 30 minutes away. Sometimes I am crazy like that and said "Okay. We've got to hustle and the both girls bathed and ready for bed." Especially considering their bed time was only an hour away. At least Elijah was ready. We finally got in the car about 6:45pm. Two minutes into the drive there I had some serious doubts. "Shiloh, let's forget it. Lydia and Jordis will for sure fall asleep on the way there. This is not a good idea."

Shiloh reassured me (but not really).
"That's okay. I'll carry Lydia. I don't know when else we are going to get there. We need to get those curtains so the kids stop waking up so early." We just moved and the new house's blinds do NOT keep the light out. It is completely bright and sunny early in the morning. Lydia and Jordis are waking up early.

Before we even got on the freeway Lydia was asleep. We pulled off at the park and ride (right before the freeway) to locate and deliver Jordis's pacifier to her... because she had thrown it on the ground of the DMV (as usual) and then was crying hysterically. (Does this happen to anyone else?) Then Shiloh had to take care of a work email on his iphone. I thought surely with the loss of precious minutes at parking lot, the clock ticking closer to closing time, the wife not really going now anyway that the Hagen DMV would skip the freeway entrance and go back home. No such luck. Daddy was in a good mood, on a mission, ready for a family adventure. Bless his heart. Momma was in a bad mood, on an unwanted mission, ready for a family disaster. Nevertheless, I knew it was going to make for good blog material. I brought the camera.

We arrived at IKEA at 7:25pm. All of the kids were fast asleep. "That's okay. Kids are resilient." said happy Dad. "They'll be fine." Yeah, I knew they weren't going to die or anything, but waking all of your kids up so they could rush through IKEA? And I knew that I would pay the price the next day when the kids woke up with IKEA hangovers.

When we actually made it from the parking lot to the entrance (about a 12 mile hike) the IKEA lady greeted us, "Just to let you know, the showroom closes in 15 minutes."

"It said online that you close at 8pm."

"That's just the store. The showroom closes at 7:45pm."

"What's the difference?"
"The showroom is upstairs and the store is downstairs."

And off we went - hoping the curtains were in the "store."

We flew through the gigantic show room to find the curtains. Lydia was whining most of the time, "Hold you. I want to go home."

Elijah wanted to stop at every little kid's table to play.

Jordis was okay for the first few minutes, but then began to fuss and whine as it was now feeding time and bedtime.

We found the curtain section and began to search through the cheap and crappily made affordable products.

Grumpy wife questions happy go luck husband, "Shiloh, what size do we need?"

"Shoot, I forgot to measure."

"You have got to be kidding me. You were so gung ho on this and you didn't even measure the windows?"

"It's fine. We can just guess."

Most of the curtains were made out of tissue paper, but we found a few that seemed like they would work.

"The store is now closing." We heard over the loudspeakers more than once.

We made our way to the check out lines (another 12 miles). Shiloh leading the charge with Jordis in his arms looking over his shoulder at me (her food supplier) crying. Lydia was hanging on me continuing her mantra "I wanna go hoooomme."

And Elijah was carrying a trash can ($1.99) filled with some hand towels (picked up on the way to the check out lines) complaining, "Slow down. This is really heavy. I can't keep up."

Tell me you can picture this awesome scene.

Me and the girls head to the car so I can feed Jordis while the boys get the goods. The boys eventually join us and we head home. I can only laugh (or maybe I rolled my eyes - I can't remember) when Shiloh says, "Well, I think that was a successful trip. The kids did fine."

And lest you think this is a long story... it continues.

We get home and put Elijah and Lydia to bed. But Shiloh decides that Jordis's curtain should be hung right away. It's not like 10 month old babies need to get a good night's rest or anything. Jordis stood in her crib and watched happily as Dad hammered away at her wall until 10:30pm.

And the curtain fit perfectly and did its job as Jordis slept about an hour longer than the previous nights.

And yes, that is my cat sniffin' bootie off my other cat. That's how they roll.

The curtains for Elijah and Lydia's room remain in the package, but Shiloh says they are going to work. And he's "the man" so I am sure they will work or he will figure out a way to shrink the window to make it work.

Pin It Now!

Be a Fan