Michael Luke, Noah, and I took a little trip to Atlanta this past weekend. My birthday (#28) is coming up this week, so I requested a trip to IKEA. We decided to make a little mini vacay of it.

We left Birmingham Friday morning just in time for Noah’s first nap. The drive from Birmingham to Atlanta is only two and half hours, but it ended up taking us around four and a half. Throw in a stop for gas, another for feeding Noah, and our stop for lunch, and it all starts to add up. No complaints though. Michael Luke and I enjoyed the time we got to spend together as a family.

We stopped for lunch at a small town called Villa Rica. The original town was built around the railroad track. After googling the local restaurants, we decided to try the Tin Roof Cafe. That plan backfired a little when we pulled into the parking lot and found Los Cowboys in it’s place.

Mexican sounded good though, so we decided to give it a try. Mine was excellent, but ML’s was a little on the spicy side. He ordered Huevos Rancheros and ended up downing two glasses of water to go along with it! After removing most of the sauce, he did enjoy it. Stopping for lunch was great because Noah got to play and stay on schedule. Afterwards, I told him we should have let them know we were celebrating my birthday. I could have worn the embarrassing sombrero hat and gotten some fried ice cream!

After hitting the road for another hour we finally made it to IKEA.

I was a little nervous of how long Noah would last in a store that big, but she did great.

We spent around three hours there, and she didn’t cry once. We did take a break to give her a bottle about half way through though. Gotta keep the girl happy.

Speaking of keeping the girl happy, I was happy to stroll through the showrooms. And what’s a shopping trip without picking out a few things to take home?

We scored this cream-colored garbage can for Noah’s room. It’s large enough for two bags. One for her dirty cloth diapers and the other for trash.

I also found these cute placemats for my table. I love how colorful they are, and since they are vinyl, they wipe clean easily.

They also had these cute glasses to match, but I refrained and only brought home the placemats. I just grabbed four though… so I am thinking I may have to order a few more. At only a $1.49 who can resist?

The placemats look beautiful on our white table. I owe you a picture!

After eyeing these wall sconces for a few months, I finally broke down and bought them for $15 a pop. Michael Luke is not so sure about the finish, but we can always change that if needed.

I plan to hang one above each of our night stands and eliminate our candle holders and my lamp.

Side note: I love the lamp on my night-stand, so I will need to find another place for it. I always had to get out of bed to turn it off (no fun). It didn’t look great right next to our bed either, so that’s why I decided to go with something a little bit smaller that can be turned off while I am still in bed.

We also bought this little guy to go along with the wall sconces. He will look great on our dresser and add a little more mood lighting to the room.

And in boring news I also got a cheese grater to add to my kitchen gadget collection. I wonder if I am starting to have a cheese grater fetish. This is my third one! They all serve different purposes though.

After leaving IKEA we headed downtown for a little supper at The Front Page News for some cajun cuisine. I had some amazing crab cakes and unfortunately was too full to have any bread pudding for dessert. We enjoyed a romantic dinner (with the baby) eating outside next to the water fountain.

To save a little money and to cut down on the amount of driving we would have the next day, we headed out of the city to spend the night in Douglasville. And thanks to Noah, we received the Cute Baby Discount, which amounted to an extra $10 off the price of our room. She’s already learning how to be a smart spender!

The next morning we slept in (only because we were on Eastern time), ate breakfast, packed up, and left. Then, we did a little driving around Douglasville.

Yep, we took the dog with us!

Then we headed back to Villa Rica to eat lunch at the Olive Tree.

I had a wonderful falafel wrap with Greek potatoes. This meal was also outside by another fountain. The best part was that we were the only ones eating outside, so we had private dining. After lunch we walked through the downtown area and visited some of the gift shops. I was even able to find my sister something for her birthday!

We enjoyed having a weekend to get out of town and spend a little time together. I was also excited to knock a few things off of my IKEA list. Did anybody else do anything special this past weekend? Did you get some shopping accomplished? Or spend some time relaxing?
Linking up at: Imparting Grace

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