IKEA, Baby!!!

Okay so I'm not sure if we were the last people {in our age bracket} on the planet to visit IKEA or not, but yes, you have to endure an entire post on our maiden voyage to this store!!

We found out there was an IKEA right there in Schaumburg, where our hotel was, so we decided to set apart the entire day on Monday and go explore.

Ta daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!

We got inside and just started taking pictures of our whole experience. I present to you the photo essay of our day:

My favorite part of the store? The way they had their merchandise displayed AS actual rooms. I loved this one - a studio apartment, fully equipped with everything. If I HAD a studio that looked like this, I might not ever leave it. Especially if THIS guy was included!!

 Riding the escalator. Yeah the store is three HUGE floors. There's a lot of escalator-ing.

 Any store with its own restaurant? Yes please.

 What happens when you forget to take a picture BEFORE he starts eating:

 Found a little piggly wiggly!! They had some pretty cute stuffed animals. Won't lie about that!!

 We checked out their office furniture. Ryan decided to do a little work while he was there....

 It's an Eastern Comet couch!!! {Our high school colors were green and gold.}

 So we were walking through the store and saw this adorable {older} couple sitting on a couch in one of the living room displays. I told them they looked so cute sitting there, and they asked us to sit with them and talk to them for a while. So we went over to "their house" and sat on the couch and swapped love stories with them.

Turns out they had met exactly one year before, and they spent the day at IKEA on their first date. They had come back to recreate and relive the memories. How much did we love THAT?!?!!?!?!? They were so sweet and offered to take our picture before we parted ways.

 I thought it looked like a salon hair dryer.

 This is about the size of work luggage I need....

 We bought this little guy. Meet Albert.

 Trying to get a view outside, but our halos were being overactive, apparently...HA!!

 We "joined the IKEA family" - so we could get free coffee in the afternoon!!

 One of our favorite things - the cart escalator! They actually have a separate ones just for carts. Ryan wanted to ride IN the cart for this. I well imagine this is why there is a sign that says NO RIDING IN THE CART.

 And then...our crowning glory...THIS couch.

 We fell so in love. Look! It becomes a bed!!!

We WILL own this. We came home and put our own furniture up for sale right away to make room for this bad boy.

Sweet couch, we're comin' back to get you! Just as soon as we can!!!

And that, my friends, is how we fell in love with IKEA.