Babymoon BUST!

Last Saturday, 

Alex and I had intended to set out on a big adventure to Cincinnati

for our last huh-rah before Greta made her debut.

We knew we wanted to do something special, just the two of us,

but didn't have the vacation days

nor the finances to make a true babymoon work.

So we decided a nice romantic day trip would suit us just fine.

Our original plan included a quick trip to IKEA in the morning

{to get some last minute items for the nursery and our KING sized bed}

and then a full day of exploration and discovery downtown

with a romantic dinner to top it all off before we drove home.

Let's just say, things did not go according to our plans.

You see, we had this trip planned for over two months now.

Last weekend was the only weekend we could make it work.

Between traveling {to Chicago & Asheville}, baby showers, 

and other local events that we had previously committed to,

our humble little babymoon was only possible on this particular Saturday.

The BUST part of our babymoon all started when

we had mistakenly not anticipated for the interference 

the Final Four games would cause us.

Our beloved Louisville Cardinals played against the Wichita State Shockers at 6PM,

making our romantic dinner {that was supposed to top off the whole day} rather tricky.

We had already picked out a restaurant in downtown Cincinnati, 

so Alex called ahead to make sure they were going to be playing the game. 

Since they said they were, we thought we were all set 

and could maintain our original schedule without any further modifications.

 

But as we were driving our borrowed SUV with an attached trailer up I-71,

we realized maneuvering this beast of a motor vehicle 

downtown might be more than we had bargained for.

So, we created a new game plan for our lovely babymoon

and decided to just go up to IKEA, return home and unload our goods,

and then hit up some local hot spots in Louisville for more of a staycation kind of babymoon.

We were pretty proud of ourselves for adjusting to our new babymoon plan so easily

and went on our way to IKEA with smiles on our faces.

Originally we had planned to spend an hour, maybe two, in IKEA.

I had scoured the website weeks in advance and had a very specific list.

We thought we would be in and out and on our way to babymooning fun in no time!

{If you have every been to IKEA, you might be laughing at our naivety at this point,

because surely no one on God's green earth has ever made it through IKEA in under two hours.} 

We ended up spending three hours there
and we didn't even stray too much from our original mission, 

whizzing by all those adorable and perfectly furnished 500 sq. ft. apartments.

 

When we finally made it out of the time-sucking warehouse 

we then had the delightful task of packing the car.

I think we both {wrongly} assumed the mattress and box-springs

 of our new KING bed would easily lie in the trailer bed. 

This was not the case.

We ended up packing the back of the SUV several times 

before some old-and-very-sweet man came to our rescue. 

He was a car packing wizard 

and I wish I had him with me for every move and roadtrip in our future. 

He was absolutely brilliant at packing the back of the SUV and the trailer.

At this point in the day we were both famished and HAD to stop for lunch.

 

We decided on Jimmy John's and had a nice "romantic" meal

 over a couple of subs, some delicious chips, and a shared cup of water.

When we got back on the road we realized that by the time we made it back to our place

we would only have a solid 45 minutes to get everything carried inside before the UofL game. 

I am not really sure what kind of optimism we were both clinging to but we, again naively, 

believed that would be plenty of time to set up shop at home
and then whisk away to a nice (truly) romantic 

dinner with a TV nearby so we could still cheer on the cards
and maintain some aspect of our original intention for the day.

My dad met us at our home shortly after we pulled in to help us unload the trailer and trunk.

He was a mighty big help but despite his valiant efforts, 

we did not get everything situated before the start of the game. 

For obvious reason, we were all a little anxious to watch the game

so we decided to leave everything where it was 

{which I will admit was a little rough on this nesting-hard, 37-week preggo, 

but I took one for the team and decided to just walk away from the mess}

and go and watch the game.

We totally crashed a friend's house last minute
{because, remember, we don't have cable}
and were totally stoked the Cardinals won!

But, then we realized we didn't have a bed to sleep on that night.
Before leaving for IKEA in the morning,
Alex had taken apart our bed in order to make room for the king.
So, when we returned home after the game,
we called the strongest friend we have and he and Alex carried the bed inside.

 

It was quite the process actually.
Turns out king beds are HUGE!
Leave it to our naive and humble hearts,
to fully believe we would be able to carry this mattress
up our narrow stairs with no problem.
Thankfully, after some careful planning,
the boys were able to get the bed up the stairs.

Even though we were totally excited to have our new bed in our room,
Alex still had the daunting task of assembling the bed.
Again, our naivety took us by surprise here
because we thought this might be a 45 minute task
but, oh no, it turned into a couple of hours.



We had the bed made at 12:45AM
and crashed so hard,
I am not sure if I even remember climbing into bed.

So.... babymoon turned out to be a BUST!

No exploration of the city.
No romantic dinner.
No fun discovery shopping.

But, I think it might have been God's way of preparing us
for the unpredicatability of parenthood.
The most well-intended plans will go awry,
and from what I hear, they will go awry more often than not.


And, we are totally grateful that despite not having the most romantic of days
we did get to spend it together and we did get a NEW KING SIZED BED
and the Cardinals did win their game and we just have a lot to be grateful for.