December 8, 2014

Trip to IKEA in Ottawa

The day before we left for Thanksgiving at Evan and Clovers, our computer died. Since Evan is our resident family computer engineer, I lugged it and our external hard drive down to him to work his magic and retrieve all our unsaved data. Poor Evan and his imposing in-laws.

Anyway, this means I haven't any way to download all the pictures from my camera, and quite honestly, writing this post on the iPad is enough to drive me crazy. I keep meaning to try one of those Bluetooth keyboard things out, but since the kids generally just use the iPad while I tippy-tap type on my regular, old fashioned computer, I have never got around to it. So picture me standing here at the kitchen counter typing with my two pointer fingers and not being able to figure out how to make the pictures from my phone behave themselves in blogger on the iPad. I feel technologically passé.

All this to say that this post is probably a disaster. So be generous and kind.

The Monday after Thanksgiving, Tori and Alex played hooky from school and we all headed up to Ottawa for the day. We were planning a trip to Parliament Hill and IKEA, but made the mistake of going to IKEA first, which has the distinction of being the largest one in North America. By the time we were through, we were too exhausted to even think about Parlament Hill, let alone traipsing around it. Chasing Gilbert and Elsie around a giant store for hours is not the way to feel relaxed.

But we all had fun!

(This is in Syracuse, just decided to post it here anyway!)
Aunt Livie trying out an ornament garland with some nieces.


IKEA in Ottawa 


Love Elsie perched on a giant stool


The stools were all placed around these play areas so you could watch your kids play while you ate. Which is pretty cool! 


These girls!




Trying to take a picture so everyone would think they own this cool bedroom. There was a lot of hilarity. 






Gilbert got into the idea of taking pictures with IKEA stuff.


Being an advertisement.


Oh the silliness! 


I really liked this chandelier. 


Gilbert had to pose like the girls



Snuggles with Aunt Livie


Gilbert hanging out. 




Sisters





Livie testing out a reading corner.


Cool little bird made out of old maps.


Gilbert studiously reading some installation instructions at his own personal table


An Elsie sized chair


Gilbert being chill after looking his accumulated loot in a cupboard. He amasses quite a collection of odds and ends. It was a little embarrassing to hand the cashier a pile of stuff and say "We don't know where this all belongs....?"


Testing out a mattress. 


Fixing their hair, with Gilbert photo bombing from under the shower curtain.


I just liked this wall. 


Livie wanted a shot of the whole room...


3 comments:

Virginia said...

I'm totally impressed this is an iPad post typed w/ 2 pointer fingers. :-) You maniacs! Looks like fun! Did you get anything good?

Cecil and Amy said...

What are the prices like at the Canadian IKEA? Obviously it was worth your while since you've gone here before. I love IKEA. Since the three I've been to are HUGE, I can't imagine what the Ottawa one would've been like. Help us!

I've got a keyboard for an iPad that I don't use. You want it? You took fall pictures for me so I will give you the keyboard! Deal?

Bethaney said...

Oooh! I would love the keyboard if you aren't needing it anymore! And I have only been to the Ottawa and Montreal IKEA's, so I can't really compare and contrast prices or size. I really don't know if the biggest one in North America is 100 square feet bigger than the regular IKEA size or a few thousand square feet. :-) The prices are similar, as long as the dollar is up. If we are at par or even lower than the Canadian dollar, things are a little more expensive. We don't tend to buy too much. Mostly just decorative things. I have a bit of a crush or Scandinavian things, so generally those sorts of things.