For the love of IKEA.

This past weekend the boys and I made a trip up to Cincinnati for a little whirlwind vacation.  We were only away for maybe 30 hours or so, but it was a great time.  We had several places that were "must-stops" since we were only going to be there a short time. 

First we got to see our awesome friend, Kristin, whom I haven't seen since last fall.  It was great to catch up with a precious friend.  While we were visiting at Starbucks, G$ decided to eat some dirt.  That was his first dirt experience, and hopefully it will be his last, but I'm not going to bank on it.  Since the place we were planning to go for dinner had an hour-long wait, we decided to make Graeter's our dinner.  Smart.  To continue the sugar-high, we then hit up our old friend Tim Horton's for some delicious Timbits.  Thank you, Tim, for the Blueberry glazed!  YUM.  We went back to the hotel and decided to take G for a dip in the pool.  It was super fun, although I think he wanted to swim on his own instead of being contained in the float. 

Saturday we enjoyed a lovely (FREE!) breakfast at the hotel and headed nextdoor to IKEA.  This was the star, and the reason for, the trip.  Keith has never actually experienced IKEA before, except for the 2 times he used their restroom - once in Malaysia, the other in Burbank, CA.  Yep.  We've been wanting to get a shelf or shelves for our kitchen for me to store my ever-growing collection of cookbooks.  We dont' have a ton of cabinet space, and some of the books are simply too big.  We had seen several online that we liked, but once we got there, we knew we had to have this one:

I absolutely love it, and it is perfectly functional.  Thanks to Keith for putting it together and hanging it, without busting a hole in the wall. :)

We also found a cute little chair for G for the living room, now that he's getting to be such a big, big, boy.  He seemed to approve (pardon the paci).

He has loved having his very own chair (and he knows it's his!).  He climbs in and out of this thing all day long.  He's really into "reading" right now, so he will bring one book after another out and throw it in the chair and climb up.  It's pretty cute, if I do say so.

We also hit up the outlet mall a few exits up, where we found some great deals, and then we headed straight to our cherished TJ's.  We have so many favorite things we buy here - can't wait until there is one in Lexington.  Finally we stopped at Mio's Pizza, which took me back to my high school days.  I have lots of memories at this place, so it was nice to think back on them. 

Speaking of high school, we're off to Cincy again tomorrow for my high school reunion: Lucky #13!!!  Can't wait to see some of my dear friends.