Babymoon

Ben and I took our baby moon last week.

A babymoon, you say?

Yes. A babymoon is a vacation you take before you have a baby. Kind of a second honeymoon/last chance vacation with just the two of you.

We wanted to get away from the stress of work and life and just enjoy each other. Taking a few days off to stay in Birmingham would do us no good. We would just be constantly thinking about what needed to be done before the baby gets here that we wouldn't truly enjoy it.

Yet another sign that this pregnancy is moving forward at a rapid pace!
And I was really bad about taking pictures on this vacation. Sorry.

We drove up to Gatlinburg late Wednesday night once I was through working.

And by late, I mean late. We didn't get there until almost midnight, which was 1am Gatlinburg time.

We did remote check in with our cabin rental company (highly recommended company), so all we had to do was find the cabin and punch in the key code. They said in the email, don't use your GPS to find your cabin.

It was dark, and I couldn't read the directions without turning on the cabin light and blinding him while he was trying to navigate mountain roads, so my genius of a husband put the address in the GPS system and said, "I guess we'll figure out why they say don't do that."

Yeh. We figured it out.

It took us down the complete wrong (scary, dark, twisty turny) road. No cell phone service. No lights. No road signs. Awesome.

I thought I was going to cry.

Finally, Ben backed up to the beginning of the road and followed the directions on the paper, which were super easy to follow and we found our cabin in 3 minutes.

Men.

Anyways, the cabin was delightful!

We had a pool table, a little kitchen, fireplace, and a loft bedroom. There was a hot tub on the porch and a jacuzzi in the bedroom, but those were not used.

At least not by me. Ben hopped in the jacuzzi on Thursday morning.

We crashed once we got there. It was a long drive.

We woke up the next morning to some storms rolling in, so we ate breakfast in bed, played a few rounds of pool, and had lunch. We ventured out to Pigeon Forge after we took our showers.

We decided we wanted to go to the Titanic museum in Pigeon Forge, but it was $30 a person! We said, thanks, but no thanks, and walked out.

$30 A PERSON! Ridiculous. And I love Titanic.

So we settled for a doughnut snack at Krispy Kreme and walked around the Tanger Outlets. Ben had lost a button on a shirt he'd brought to wear, so he got a new one at the Polo Outlet, and I forgot my jacket (pregnancy brain) so I got a new one at Gap.

We headed back towards Gatlinburg for dinner and ended up at the Hard Rock Cafe. Ben had a burger and I had a salad. So interesting, I know.

We were beat after dinner, and it was beginning to rain. We didn't want to get stuck on those scary mountain roads in the rain, so we headed back to the cabin. We watched American Idol on tv and fell asleep on the couch.

Hehe. So lame.

Friday morning, we had to check out by 10am, so we cleaned up the cabin and moseyed into downtown Gatlinburg. It was super touristy and funny.

We decided to go into the Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum.

Worth the $15 a person? Not so sure. But I was with Ben, so that didn't matter.

$30 a person is totally different.

After the museum, we were hungry for lunch and went to Pancake Pantry!

This place is TO DIE FOR. Ben had eggs, bacon, and pancakes, and I had an omelet with pancakes. It is seriously the best breakfast place in the world.

My mouth is watering thinking about it.

After Pancake Pantry, we decided to just head on back to Birmingham, so we waved goodbye to Gatlinburg and headed south.

We had such a fun time just relaxing with each other. We didn't have an agenda. We just went when we wanted to go, and stopped when we wanted to stay. That's our kind of vacation.

It was nice to get away and relish our last few quiet moments as a couple before our life becomes hectic. Ben was still asleep one morning as we laid in bed in our cabin, and I was able to snuggle up next to him, place my hand on my belly, and praise God in the silence for the many blessings in my life, pray over my sweet husband, and pray for our sweet baby.

It may not have been much of a vacation, but it was one of the best times I've ever had.