IKEA Grand Opening!

I have been waiting a LIFETIME for an IKEA to finally make it's way out here to Utah. I'd been hearing rumors for quite some time that we were going to get one in Draper, Utah, but I didn't believe it until I saw the beautiful blue building along the I-15. IKEA has a soft spot in my heart because it reminds me so much of home and of my family. When we were little, it used to be the "fun" Saturday activity to go. All of the kids would play in the balls room for a little bit, then go and buy a little something that we had saved up enough money for. Then as we got older, we would go and have their fabulous 99 cent breakfast in the mornings and just walk around and dream of how our homes would look someday. Bottom line, I LOVE IKEA! It's one of those things that I can think about it all the time and it brings an automatic smile to my face. :o) Ok, now you can all roll your eyes and say, yes, Bernice is an IKEA nerd!! :o)











So, in honor of the grand opening of the new IKEA out here in Utah, I convinced my little sister "Duck" to go out the night before and camp out with me and I planned about two months in advance to take the grand opening day off from work so that I could enjoy IKEA for the entire day. The first 100 people were going to receive a free chair, and I honestly thought that I would be one of the first 100 since it was a Tuesday night that we were camping out and I really didn't think there were that many hardcore IKEA fans like me that would miss a day of work and actually camp out for the grand opening. To my surprise and disappointment, I was sooooo wrong. Worst part was that my sister and I were like 125 or something in line...in the line that kind of switched back and forth, we were facing the 100th person!!... sooooo close, yet sooooo far away. :o( "Duck" and I were counting on the "mystery cards" to make up for it, because IKEA was giving away 2500 gift cards to the first 2500 people there and 1500 of them were actually money cards, while only 1000 of them were buy one get one free food items. So again, I was thinking our odds were pretty good, right? Wrong again!! My other sister met up with us in the morning and between all THREE of us, NONE of us got one of the money cards!!! Unbelievable, eh? So, basically, I slept out at IKEA just to show my love and support to the company...which is ok I guess. I just really wish that they would have at least tried to make it so that there were money cards for the people who had spent the night. But, I guess it should have just been expected. I am sooooo not lucky and have never really been with things like that. Well, one exciting thing though was that "Duck" and I got our picture on ksl.com.
Not the best pic, but hey, it captures the memory of our premier IKEA trip out here in Utah. :o) I'm in the green hat btw...and you see those people in the yellow shirts...they were in the first 100...see how close we were?!?!?! But all in all, some wonderful memories of camping out and hey, it's still IKEA, so I got some great deals and enjoyed a fab day off of work with my sisters. :o)