Ikea.

In preparation to us moving to our new place (without our shipment of beds, chairs and toys) we decided a trip to Ikea would be necessary. Neither of us had ever been to an Ikea in the US, so we were a bit overwhelmed at the idea...but a few spreadsheets later (I'm not kidding) we were off.

So after a subway, train and tramlink ride we made it to Ikea Croyden.

Please note the NEW pram complete with a rain cover and foot muff! I'm no longer the American with the oversized stroller! Don't worry I almost got Lincoln killed trying to get it for me...but that is his story and he has promised to make his blogging debut telling it.

We walked through the store (I swear it's a town) and stopped for a bit of lunch before continuing on to the self-pick up area.  (LOVE the food...it really is all that it is cracked up to be!)

The self-picking area was pretty crazy. Lincoln tried to maneuver a boxed table/chairs, wardrobes, and bedside tables through a sea of Saturday-Ikea shoppers....while I pushed my new stroller (and kids) to the check out area.

We arrived at Ikea around 1 pm and headed for the Tramlink at about 5:45 pm. Overall I don't think it was has crazy as we had expected. They delivered all of the furniture (and other random things I bought) to our new house the day we moved in. It was so nice to have at least some furniture right away!

...

This Ikea first-timer is glad we bought the Sweedish meetballs (and furniture).