Skates, Something Swiss, & Uncle Julio

While Sister and I were enjoying our time at the American Girl Store, the boys were doing a little exploring of their own. They found an ice skating rink in the middle of a mall!

You should know that Sister has asked for ice skates every Christmas for the last several years, though she'd never been ice skating, nor do we have a place to ice skate within 100 miles.

So we went and the children, Sister especially, were most excited!

Due to my attire, I opted to watch from the sidelines (and hold everything).

The view was priceless.

The children clung to the outer rail or to their daddy's hand. Their slow pace and wobbly feet were almost painful to watch. And The Engineer...so sweet. So patient. So kind. So gentle.

Sister quickly made friends with a little girl who was a bit more sure of herself on the ice. Hand in hand, round and round they went.

After an hour or so, there were tears, a worn out daddy, and two exhausted children.

And then we went to IKEA!!! I'd never been. It was one of the coolest places I've ever been and design/concept wise, it has challenged several things in my mind. Unfortunately (or maybe not) we did it backwards. Little Man was in the stroller, and Sister in a buggy, and we unknowingly started out downstairs, amidst the boxes and bins and throngs of people. As we approached check out, utterly confused and with two sleeping children, an IKEA employee kindly explained that we needed to go back through the throngs of people, to catch the operating elevator, to make our way upstairs through the showroom, and then back downstairs...we greatly complicated things.

IKEA is so cool. So cool. The ideas. The way they feature and sell their products...the entire thing is genius. I would love to be one of the people/decorators who does the layout for their upstairs rooms. SO FUN!

While I ooed and ahhed the Engineer followed closely. (He did some oooing and ahhing, too.) Both children slept soundly, Little Man in the stroller and Sister in the buggy. We gathered ideas and jotted down a few item numbers for possible future purchase. Yea, pretty much I would completely love to set up one of those rooms in IKEA.

Little Man slept all the way back to the hotel, where we changed clothes, and headed to Uncle Julio's for dinner. Cheese dip and fajitas for all! It had the kind of atmosphere that makes you want to dance and laugh. We had a blast! Hands down, this is now my favorite Mexican Restaurant. So good.