Babymoon

Man, I'm a blog slacker lately. Oh well.. I'm sure you guys are just sitting there anxiously awaiting my posts.. lol.

So a couple weeks ago we went on a Babymoon! A lot of people seemed unaware of this wonderful term, so in case you are one of them a babymoon is sort of like a honeymoon, but you take it before the baby comes. We just did a weekend get away to fabulous downtown Salt Lake City. :) Way better than sitting in the car or a plane to go anywhere, because my main goal here was to sleep in and order room service, which could be done quite well in SLC.

My wonderful cousin Janell kept Ainsley for the weekend, so it was just the two of us. Ains was so excited to have slumber parties with Sadie and Addi. She just ran off as soon as we got to their house and didn't even say goodbye. Lil stinker.

We stayed at the Hotel Monaco. It was very nice and fancy. Our room was on the 12th floor and we had great views. We had gotten some kind of 'romance package' that came with the most fabulous room! Besides the king size bed and jacuzzi tub for two (the thing was like a swimming pool!) It also had this whole other room with couches and a dining table and another tv.. it was so cool we kept thinking we should invite people over to hang out.. but thought that might be a little weird "hey guys, come hang out in our hotel room.." yeah, it comes out a little weird.

By the time we got Ainsley dropped off and us checked in my lil prego body was just tired, so we ordered room service for dinner (why don't we always have that option??) and watched a movie in our room. Let me tell you, we are exciting people to be around, lol.

The next day we slept in, I woke up first and read a book for a while in one of the comfy couches in our little living room and awaited the arrival of breakfast to my door. (sighs fondly.. wishing juice, eggs and toast were walking their way up the stairs right now) When we felt like it we got up and went for a drive. We ended up in Babinski's, this shi-shi, fancy baby boutique. We walked around and looked at all the super cute stuff.. well, I looked, Tom mostly just made fun of all the prices. He also mocked the giant sock monkeys they had for sale and called my crafty sister Roxanne to try and talk her into making giant sock monkeys to sell for outrageous prices. We also wandered around some of the other shops nearby and enjoyed ourselves window shopping.

After that we drove to Costco because I was almost out of vitamins (I'm telling you, we are exciting people) however, all the walking around had taken the wind out of my sails and by the time we actually got to Costco I was ready for a nap. Tom, who had not wanted to go to Costco anyway, make the executive decision that I was too tired to walk through that huge store. So after driving all the way down there and finally finding a parking spot, we pulled out of it 2 minutes later and drove back to the hotel.

We then engaged in my current favorite activity... (get your mind out of the gutter people, we took a nap! lol) Yes, we crashed out on the nice king bed with the thick curtains drawn and were utterly lazy. It was beautiful. We woke up with just enough time to take trax from our hotel to the Gateway mall, grab a sandwich at the food court and chow it down before our appointment at the Day Spa. Man, I'd been looking forward to this. Tom got a 90 min massage while I got a 60 min massage and a 30 min facial. Yes, I am a pampered prego princess! :D

After pure bliss we decided to find something yummy for dinner. We were pretty close to the great japanese place we went to for my birthday, so we walked the 2 blocks to it... only to find it is now called the Copper Onion and is not a japanese place. Sad! We checked out the menu but weren't really excited about it, so we walked back the 2 blocks and decided to walk 2 more blocks in the other direction and go to the Market Street Grill, which Tom had always wanted to try. I was really craving sushi at this point but gave in with the promise of a nice brunch in the morning. :) So we had some tasty food and went back to the hotel for dessert. (Literally, we got cheesecake and chocolate cake from room service.. you dirty minded people).

The next morning we were up and at 'em just in time to make check out. We headed to the Little America for their huge breakfast buffet. I love breakfast food. I think it is my all-time favorite kind of food. Eggs Benedict is my particular weakness, but all the fresh fruit, french toast, waffles, biscuits and gravy and omelets were also appreciated. :) Thoroughly stuffed and waddling my prego butt out of there making comments about how I was skinny when I went in there to the people in line to get in, we made our way back to the car to go get our Ainsley and head back to regular life.

Hotel Monaco

Our extra suite

Tom posing for me

Sunday thoughts on a Monday afternoon

I have had so many thoughts of different post I want to type lately.. and by the lack of posts here you can see that the time and/or motivation did not appear to bring them to fruition.

So, I'm picking one for this free moment I've just found.. we'll see if I get to the other ones. :)

I think the last month or two has strengthened my testimony more than it has been since I can remember. The more I read about birth (yes, yes, I am still talking about this) the more amazed I am by the female body and any doubt in my mind that it was not designed by a supreme and amazing being that knew what He was doing has vanished. I can understand why we are considered his greatest creation. I won't go on about all the vast ways our bodies do what is needed if we just let them, and all the little things that work for the good of mothers and their babies. I don't want to focus on specific details that could offend or insult anyone.. or bring into discussion this amazing belief and faith that I have found, it's still so close to my heart. If anyone is curious I'd be happy to send them a passionate email. :) I just love the feeling that I am a divine creation who was given the abilities and tools I need to perform the greatest miracle, bring life into this world.

Though yes, I acknowledge that not every woman's body is perfect, not all of them work quite in the way it seems that they should. I know in the two years we tried for Ainsley I had many sad moments, seeing my body as a failure. And experiencing the loss of a pregnancy I had just proudly announced weeks before did not do much to inspire faith in this body of mine. But as I look back I see these as struggles I needed to go through, ending in blessings timed perfectly in His wisdom, not my timeline. I am trying my best to remember this and to give my will, hopes and worries up to the Lord. Even now as I navigate the joys, discomforts and anxiety that is pregnancy I am finding many times that I can shut out my fears with simple thoughts.

I don't know about other people.. but I mentally go off on sad, worried tangents.. such as "what if I am unpacking all these clothes and getting ready for a baby that never makes it here.. who will put these away, will someone come put them away before I get home from the hospital, sad and empty handed.. would I want to come home to no sign that she almost happened.. how would I handle that.. how would life go on.." when this starts to spiral out of control I give myself permission not to worry about it. I tell myself if this baby is supposed to be a part of our family she will make it here. If she isn't, than it wasn't meant to be.. and we'll figure that out. Maybe this wouldn't be comforting to others, but right now for me, it gives me the peace that I need.

I had a thought yesterday that meant a lot to me.. it was simple, and I'm not sure it's still verbatim.. but something along the lines of 'He is sending you girls because you will be good for them'.. I basically got this warm feeling that it wasn't just a toss of the dice whether we got a girl or a boy, 50/50 chance. She was picked to be in our family because He has faith in me to be a good mother to her, to teach her what she needs to know, to provide a warm and loving home where she can flourish. I hope that I can. It definitely makes me feel like I have a purpose and makes me want to try my hardest to live up to that belief in me.

I'm not always the most spiritual person, but I've really cherished these experiences and needed to put them down somewhere.. and that's why I made this blog, lol... so here they are. Thanks for listening.