Joanne and Heather's IKEA Adventure

Have you ever been to an IKEA store?

We have ONE store here in Michigan, and Heather has been wanting to take me for AGES.

So yesterday we set out on my maiden voyage to IKEA!  It was a mini road trip... about two hours from Grand Rapids to Canton, MI.  In fact -- mile for mile it is about the same distance from Grand Rapids to the Chicago IKEA store -- but when you factor in Chicago traffic we were much better off heading to Canton.

Anyhoo... off we went, and two hours later... we arrived!

It wasn't long before our big blue bags were getting heavy, and we had to get a little granny luggage cart, thing... yup, I hung my purse on it too in true old lady style.  I'm sweet like that!

 

We were kind of amazed by this under the kitchen sink cleaning supply organizer thingy.  Isn't it sweet?  It affixes to the inside of the cupboard and then pulls out, as Heather is demonstrating!

I purchased these spice racks -- since we don't have one.  I loved it because you could buy each rack individually for only $3.99 and then a pack of jars for $2.99 and then you can hang them how you want them.  So fun!

The kids room section was ridiculously cute.  Almost made me want a kid of my own so I could decorate their room... but not quite...  : )

After almost two hours on the upper floor, we stopped at the cafeteria-ish area for a snack...

You know, power shopping food -- real healthy stuff...

Revitalized, we headed down to the lower floor to embrace all things kitchen gadget-y and more!

Seriously, wow!

And then we ran into this...

FABRIC!  On sale for $1.99 per yard.  I almost bought some, but am trying to exercise some crafting restraint.  If I'm not purchasing for a particular project - I shouldn't buy it.  Right?  But so cool nonetheless.

By now the granny cart was long gone and we upgraded to a real cart...

Heather looks so happy to be at IKEA!

We eventually finished up, and loaded up the back of the car...

I didn't actually buy anything big, no furniture or anything.  Just going there and looking gave me TONS of ideas for our house, but because I'm a good wife I figure I should talk them over with my husband first before making any large purchases...  : )

After all of that shopping there was only one thing left to do...

DINNER!

Both Heather and I's moms LOVE them some Bahama Breeze (as do we!) and they don't seem to have them on the West side of the state where we live.  It's a super fun restaurant that's island themed.  Feels like a little bit of a tropical vacation when you eat there.

Of course these helped with the tropical theme...

YUM!  Bahamaritas!  I know you're jealous.

So we sipped our fruity drinks on the heated, covered deck.  We ate some delicious food and jammed to the guitar player/singer guy doing some bad, overly synthesized covers of Bob Marley tunes, and relished in a kid-free evening (okay all of my evening's are kid-free, but Heather's are not.  And as much as we both love those kids, it was super fun to have an adults only, girls only evening)

 

Pretty much the best Winter Wednesday, EVER!  : )

Holiday Rewind 2: Christmas with the Roehm's

On December 27th we headed across the state to Portage, MI for Christmas with Travis' family.  His brother Tyler was in town from Texas (funny how both the brothers ended up in Texas!) and we have a great time giving gifts, seeing movies, and playing games.

Seeing a tree lit up and stockings on the mantle never gets old... no matter how old WE are!

Trav's mom Kim was VERY excited to get "Peter and the Wolf" on CD.

I got some really pretty silver jewelry from an artisan in Arizona!

Trav and Tyler got these beautiful cutting boards... I think they also came from Arizona?

We got Tyler a crock pot and crock pot cookbook.  We couldn't LIVE without our crockpot in the Winter months!

The kids gifted the parents with a gift certificate to their favorite restaurant in St. Thomas to use when they vacation there this Spring.

Fun stockings filled with treats!

We enjoyed a delicious meal of baked spaghetti with the extended family.

Oh, and Bella was festive as always in a red bow!

 

Trav's family are all Seinfeld buffs so we played their new DVD Scene It Seinfeld game.  I never really watched the show - so I just operated the remote!  : )

Grandma Roehm knitted me these slippers... she knits the BEST slippers!  I need to have her show me how to make them.  So cozy!

It was a lovely time!

Holiday Rewind 1: Christmas with the Eversden's

Look!  I'm FINALLY getting around to posting pictures from Christmas!  Better late than never I suppose!

We spent Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and Boxing Day with my side of the family in Tecumseh.  We had a wonderful time - but missed my brother Will of course - who was stuck in Texas working and couldn't make it home for the holidays.

Here are some of my favorite photos from our trip...

Travis and I on Christmas morning.

My mother was VERY excited about this ornament! (well is is super cute!)

Travis was equally excited about his Vegas guide book.  He's learning all he can in preparation for our trip in May! (apparently Bella wanted in on the action, too!)

My Dad is silly.  He tries to guess EVERY gift and is about 99.9& accurate.  No joke!

Even Bella got a gift or two.  She must have been good this year.

I love me some "Vanilla Bean Noel" from Bath & Body Works!

And I was waaay too excited about my new cooling racks!  Ha!

Mum got a fancy new ipod...

Nothing says "Christmas Morning" like mimosas!

Santa got the boys these silly hats. We made them pose in them with their first beer of the day...

Here we are before dinner...

And afterwards... posing with our Cadbury's selection boxes... an annual tradition!

 

We ate sooo much good food that day!  YUM!  And it was great to spend some relaxing time with my parents.

Stop back tomorrow for "Holiday Rewind 2" - highlights from our Christmas with the Roehm side of the family!

Wrapping up the holidays...

... it's finally here.  The official end of the holidays for us.  Travis goes back to work tomorrow and I have about a week and a half until classes start again.  The tree is down and the decorations are packed up.  It's refreshing and sad all at the same time.  I'm ready to forge into 2010, but we've had such lovely holidays this year and great times together that I will miss that everyday couple time with the hubby!

This past weekend we've soaked in the time relaxing together at home.  We did a little puzzling...

We took a nap or two... (because puzzling is such hard work!)

 

And we tried out the nifty little slider maker that Travis got for Christmas.  Little burgers are so much cuter than big ones!

Oh, and we tried to go see a movie.  TRIED to.  We both really want to see The Blind Side but we got to the theatre and it was just NUTS!  It took forever to find a parking spot, and then the ticket line was out the door!  We gave up and plan on going tomorrow night instead.  Hopefully it will be a lot less busy!

Speaking of movies... did you see any good ones over the holidays?  We went to see Invictus with Trav's family and it was FABULOUS.  I highly recommend it!

For those of you milking the last few hours of the holidays like we are... Happy Sunday and ENJOY!

Happy New Year!

How has 2010 been so far?

We had a great new year's eve... the best I've ever had in fact.  Alison & Noah, and Heather, Anthony, and Lily came over for snacks and drinks before we headed out for dinner.  Afterward... Alison, Noah, Travis and I checked out some live music at a bar down the street and counted down to midnight there.  We then headed home for champagne and games.  What a wonderful evening!

Stay tuned for Christmas pictures... I swear they're coming!  Until then, Happy 2010!