Babymoon

Jared and I went on a little babymoon this weekend. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this "babymoon" phenomenon, it's basically a second honeymoon before your first baby comes (aka: just an excuse to go on a trip and relax). While a babymoon is really an unnecessary part of preparing for the birth of your first child, I totally get it. That's not to say that once the kid is born that the two of you will never relax, or be alone or go on a trip ever again; however, let's face it things are about to change drastically. This is the perfect opportunity to get away and relax, to stop thinking about all the preparation that still needs to be done, and to enjoy these final moments of it being just the two of you.

Originally, I wanted to seize this vacation opportunity to go somewhere cool that we had never been before. However, I then realized that I wasn't going to enjoy a trip like that if I couldn't go full itinerary, local breweries and wineries, tourist-mode. My normal travel style is definitely not conducive to being pregnant. Therefore, I knew that a trip like that would not be relaxing and that I would just go-go-go the entire time and end up coming home exhausted and worse off then when I left for the vacation. If I truly wanted to relax, I had to go somewhere that I had been before and didn't have a bunch of historical, tourist stuff that I would be tempted to divulge in. Alas, we opted for a weekend at my mom's beach condo in New Smyrna Beach. There's not much to do there except relax by the pool or on the beach. Perfect. Plus, it's only like an hour and 20 minutes from our house and my mom owns it so this vacation would be super cheap. Just food, gas and boarding our dogs. This truly was the best option for us because we really have no business spending a bunch of money on a vacation when we have so much necessary baby stuff that we still need to buy.

Here is a recap of our babymoon...

Friday
We drove down to New Smyrna and ate lunch at one of my favorite restaurants there on the ocean called Chases on the Beach. It has a fun, outdoor, MTV Spring Break kind of environment which makes me feel like I'm in college again. During our lunch there, we discovered that it is that time of the year again when Sam Adams Summer Ale is back on tap. This is probably my favorite beer ever. Jared ordered one and I smelled it...which sounds really weird, but since I can't drink one right now, just smelling it still satisfying. Only pregnant ladies of the world will understand that. I think that a Summer Ale might be my #1 request upon returning home from the hospital after delivering this baby. Go ahead and judge me.

By the time we made it to the condo, it was overcast and really windy out. Terrible beach weather. However, we trekked down to the beach anyways. We sat on the beach in our chairs, reading, for probably an hour until we couldn't stand being cold anymore and then went back to the condo. We hung out on the couch in the condo (thank you ABC Family for that Harry Potter marathon) until dinner. We ate at my absolute favorite restaurant in New Smyrna Beach, The Garlic.

Saturday
I forced Jared out of bed early because I could actually see a little sunshine out there! Plus, the weather forecast said that it was going to start raining around lunchtime so I wanted to attempt to get in as much beach time as possible before the storm. By the time we got ready and made it down to the beach, the sun was already gone. Fail. It was overcast and windy once again. Still we tried to make the best of it. We relaxed in our chairs for a little bit and then went on a 2 mile walk down the beach. It was windy and kinda chilly so I had to wear my cover-up. No tanning to be had here. We went back up to the condo around noon to eat lunch and that's when the storm began. For the rest of the day, it was a torrential downpour outside so we just hung out in the condo. I guess God decided that we should spend some quality spouse time together instead of frolicking on the beach. It was so very relaxing, doing a whole lot of nothing.

By dinner time, the weather cleared up so we went to dinner at The Breakers and enjoyed watching the post-storm pink sky fade away from their oceanfront deck.

Sunday
Sunshine! I was so excited when I woke up to sunshine! We only had half a day left to spend, so I wanted to get down to the beach as soon as possible. The weather was beautiful, except that it was still windy and the rain from the day before had caused the temperature to drop. However, I wasn't going to let that stop me from salvaging what was left of my beach vacation. Here Jared and I are on the beach in our chairs, in bathing suits, while everyone else walking on the beach is in sweatshirts because the temperature is in the 50s. Luckily, the sun was shining bright and there wasn't a cloud in the sky so it didn't feel as cold as it actually was. Ok, I was freezing. The temperature warmed up a little as the morning went on, but I was so excited to be out in the sun that I didn't care. We went for another 2 mile walk on the beach and then it was time to head back to the condo and pack up. By the time we had to leave the beach (around noon), it was finally the perfect temperature. Of course. I was very sad that we couldn't stay longer, but we had to get back in time to pick up the dogs from boarding.

I only managed to take two pictures (both on Sunday) from our entire trip because the weather was pretty much crappy the entire time and we didn't really do anything that exciting. Despite the terrible weather, which really pissed me off, we still managed to have a fun trip together. I guess the most important thing about this babymoon was the two of us relaxing and spending time together, which is exactly what we did.

5 years ago, we went on our honeymoon to the Dominican Republic and it rained majority of the time we were there. That forced us to basically hang out, with nothing to do and invent ways to entertain ourselves together. So I guess it's only fitting that now, 5 years later, we had the same thing happen on our babymoon. It's nice to know that no matter the circumstances, we can always manage to have fun together even if we aren't doing anything at all.  

I did finally work up the courage for a bare belly bump photo!