The IKEA Experience

I've been wanting a new dining room table for about three years now.  Our old dining table is pretty small.  I bought it in California when I was right out of college and single.  Then  I moved it to Florida, Scott and I moved it back to California, then to Okinawa and now to Colorado.  The finish is damaged on the top, but it's a good little table.  But that's the problem.  It's little.  With more than two or three people eating at it there is no room for food.  

Scott wanted to wait til we moved back to the states, since our Okinawa house was also very small.  After shopping around a lot, Scott and I picked out a table we liked from Ikea.  We almost drove to Utah earlier in the year to buy it at the Utah Ikea, but Scott broke his ankle a few days before we were planning to go.  It might have been a sign that we weren't supposed to make that drive. 

So, for that reason,  I've been eagerly awaiting the opening of the Denver Ikea.  It was supposed to open fall 2011, but actually opened ahead of schedule!  Hooray!!

Here are the kids waiting outside the store for Scott to bring the car around (above).  :)

And here we are waiting to check out.  I LOVE Ikea.  A lot.  So I was very excited for the store to open.  I would never go to an Ikea within the first week of it's opening if I didn't love it.  There was sign on the freeway that said "IKEA PARKING LIMITED" and had a radio station to tune to for Ikea info.  When we got off the freeway there were neon vested parking attendants waving you in for about a half mile before getting to the store.  They got us right to an open spot that was pretty close to the entrance (they have a big parking structure at this Ikea).  

There were a lot of Ikea newbies at the store - trying to figure out how to make sense of this big store.  But we knew exactly where to go and found our stuff quickly.  It was "the mall at Christmas" crowded inside but not "mob crushing you at a soccer game" crowded.  So I was happy about that.

 

And here is Scott (with helpers) assembling the table. It's big but also has two additional leaves that store INSIDE the table.  Have I mentioned I love Ikea?

 And our new table upright.

Here is our old table (right) next to our new table.  I think the new one is 2 1/2 times bigger at least.  I'm glad to have the bigger table.  Now we don't have to put our jug of milk or bag of chips on the floor while we're eating 'cause it won't fit on the table.  :)  Thank you Ikea for coming to Colorado!