We were all supposed to head down to Bluffdale for a baby shower for my niece, Bridget. Hal said he and Austin would drive down too, find something to do for an hour or so and then come back and get the rest of us. (I kind of wondered if there could possibly be anything they would really want to do there, but I didn't question it.)
Saturday came and in the morning Ally said she didn't feel well and her ears and throat hurt. I really didn't pay much attention to it because every Saturday she says she feels sick, so she can pretend to be sick on Sunday and miss church.
About an hour or two before it was time to leave I actually took a look at Ally and she really didn't look well. I felt her forehead and she definitely had a fever. So we went over all the options. We finally decided that Hal would stay home with the younger kids and Morgan and I would go by ourselves. (I tried not too look too happy at this point because I was afraid that would jinx everything.) Morgan and I have been waiting for a while to go on a "secret errand" that we can't do in Cache Valley because we don't want to run into anyone we know, which ALWAYS happens to me when I go on this secret errand (bra shopping).
We were almost ready to leave when Monica (my sister-in-law) called to see if we could take her gift to the shower too. I said sure, but that we needed to leave soon. Hal wanted me to see if we could be home by around 4:00. That was pretty much physically impossible because the shower started at 2:00 and it was roughly 2 hours away. I was hoping to get our "secret errand" taken care of before the shower, but we were only leaving an hour early.
Well, long story short, Monica didn't have her stuff ready until much later, so we got a pretty late start. I (who have a phobia of showers in general - the party kind, not the water kind) decided that we would still do our other errand first because it just really needed to be done, and it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world if we got there a few minutes late (and this is coming from someone who is generally punctual to a fault, that tells you how much I hate going to this type of thing). We headed off, both feeling pretty happy to be rid of everyone else. (Morgan and I are not exactly the social-butterfly type. We kind of like to be alone, or at least with people who don't bug us.)
So, we got to Brigham City and stopped at the Wal-Mart that is conveniently located there. We bought a few things on clearance (I'm not proud, I'll buy clothes at K-Mart or Wal-Mart as long as they're cute), completed the "secret errand" and went on our merry little way. I got looking at the clock and realized that this put us a little further behind schedule that I'd planned on. It was now 12:45 so I figured we might now be 15 minutes late instead of 5 or so. We had Hal call his sisters so they'd know we were just running late, not lost. I got ready to spend a pleasant drive, chatting with Morgan and she promptly fell asleep. So much for mother-daughter bonding. At least I did get to listen to what I wanted on the radio, which doesn't always happen.
Well, we made it in record time, which was surprising considering the heavy traffic, because even with part of the directions to the house missing we still got there by 2:01.
We got there, talked a little bit to the relatives on Hal's side of the family, took a tour of the house and watched Bridget open an enormous amount of gifts. Baby showers aren't really Bridget's thing either, but she looked pretty happy so either she was really enjoying herself or she is a pretty good actress. Bridget's baby has Spina Bifida, so I hope things go as smoothly as possible. I talked to her a few weeks ago for quite a while about what to expect after the c-section, what things will be like at Primary Childrens', etc. I'm sad she'll have to go through all that. We've had experience with a couple of our kids having problems (not Spina Bifida) and it is really, really hard.
Most of the time while we watched Bridget open gifts I talked to Elizabeth, another niece. She is going through some stuff too, so it was good to catch up with her. It's hard to see these little nieces grow up and have big grown-up problems.
Morgan and I gave each other "the look" after about an hour and a half, so we sort of snuck out while there were a few gifts left. (Seriously, she had opened gifts for a full hour.) We headed straight for Ikea. There was no way I was going to be that close and not at least take a quick look around and see what all the buzz was about.
We headed in and promptly ran into some people from our ward, the Braggs. They were experienced Ikea shoppers, so they gave us a quick tutorial on how to check things out there.
We went up to the showroom first, where we promptly got lost. Then we tried to retrace our steps and ran into the Braggs again. They said not to take short cuts and just follow the arrows all the way around. We did that and then decided to get something to eat. On the way to the restaurant, we came across a bin of little wooden human figures, the kind that artists use. Morgan fell in love with them so I told her I would buy one for her. We took him with us to eat, where we promptly dubbed him "Torsten" which is the only male Swedish name I could come up with off the top of my head. We had Swedish meatballs and apple cake and it was really good. (I need to make some more meatballs one of these days. I think most everyone will actually eat those.)
"Torsten"
We then headed downstairs to pay for Torsten and head home. (It was now about 5:00 so we obviously weren't going to be home by 4.) We ran into the Braggs again and got more helpful hints on what to do. It took us another half hour to wind our way through the warehouse. I was kind of thinking everything would be boxed up in the warehouse, but this wasn't the case either. We ended up picking up a new lamp, set of DVD cases, green mugs for the kitchen, etc. before we could actually get to the registers. (Morgan wanted to use the "self-pay", which I am not fond of, but I caved because the other lines were so long.)
Whew! I can see that Ikea is definitely more of a destination. Not just a quick stop you can make while you are doing other things. I'll have to grab Kim (another sister-in-law) and go back in a month or so.
This is getting a lot longer and more tedious than I had planned. I really mainly wanted to write about the ride home, which was my favorite part of the day. Morgan and I started off just listening to the radio going back and forth between stations to find songs we liked. (Morgan played with "Torsten" all the way home.) Then the last hour we started playing the old "power ballads" on Morgan's iPod. We started off with a couple from Aerosmith (What it Takes and I Don't Want to Miss a Thing) and then Lips of an Angel by Hinder. Next we played Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls and then I'll Be by Edwin McCain. After that we played I Remember You by Skid Row. We were then really close to home, but the song wasn't over yet so Morgan had me drive around the neighborhood a while until it was over. Then we played Heaven by Warrant, sitting in the garage while it ended. Too fun. We should have started that sooner. It was a lot better than switching radio channels and catching the end of a song you really like.
I do love iPods. Mine has been missing since last fall. I keep almost breaking down and buying a little cheap one, but I'm still hoping it will turn up next time I get out the luggage or something.
We finished up the songs, walked in the house and all seemed well there so, all in all, it was a pretty good day, although a long one.
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