Pre-Baby Getaway

I think we would have done this sooner if our schedule would have allowed it.  With Shawn's overtime, etc, the weekends have been a little nonexistent.  So we waited until I was four days shy of 'full term', took a chance, and rented a cabin (not TOO far outside of civilization, though, because birthin' babies on remote roadsides is not an appealing sort of adventure to me).  For the first time in the 5 years since we got married there, we headed back to Leavenworth with two whole extra little people in tow.

The cabin was not at all like an actual cabin, aside from its rustic appeal.  It was a nice, spacious, open house with a hot tub and a beautiful view.  The boys loved exploring every nook and cranny and choosing a new bed every night in the loft.  There was one with a view of the living room below, one with some fort-like netting around it, and one next to the hidey-hole storage compartment (the very same hidey-hole that became much less exciting once Casey locked Colton in it). 

It was great to get away and relax.  We required nothing of ourselves besides slow-moving mornings with coffee and books.  They just happened to have Baby Catcher by Peggy Vincent (stories from a midwife) on their bookshelf, so I buried myself in that and didn't even spend two minutes crotcheting the baby blanket that isn't quite halfway finished yet.  Eventually we left the house each day for some exploring.  We went to town one day for some window shopping.  OK, not exactly.  I needed some truffles from the chocolate shop, so we went beyond 'window shopping' there.  Four truffles and a brick of peanut butter-chocolate fudge.  I'm still working on those truffles, one bite at a time, because I'm not ready to let go of them yet.  Two rum and two dark chocolate raspberry.  Mmmmmm.  (I'm beginning to think this subject matter needs its own post.)


ANYWAY... the boys picked out one thing too, and there was a lot of fun and fighting and Casey-squawking in the process:

A bag of rocks!  I used to love those when I was little too.


We had a bratwurst for lunch and came back to town for dinner at Visconti's that night.  Visconti's is the Italian restaurant where we had our post-wedding dinner after getting married on Icicle Creek, and it is as delicious as ever.  (Would have been more delicious with a bottle of red wine to share, but I can't complain!)  After dinner we took a walk, then headed back to Visconti's dessert shop to eat gelatto on barstools with a view of the street and all the passersby.  It was a great day for eatin'!


The rest of our evenings were spent at the cabin.  We grilled our dinners and spent some quiet time together.  OK, not really quiet at all.  There were dance parties and board games and whole lot of hide-and-seek.  And Jenga!

 
I attempted to do a lot of this:

But always ended up with some of these:

We had good dinners, like chicken and corn on the cob, and the kids got a special sugar-for-breakfast treat in the form of Trix:

Shawn took advantage of the hot tub the most, but I waded in it with Colton one day.  Here's the obligatory 'kiss the baby' shot:

But that baby tastes like chlorine!

Colton LOVED the hot tub, which surprised me, because he's not a big water person.

And this is as close as Casey would get:

On our last day, we drove out to Icicle River to the spot where we got married.  It's in the middle of nowhere, and we only know it by the Giant Rock landmark.  The reason we chose that spot is because we used to camp in that area all the time, and always ended up parking at the Giant Rock to hang out on the river rocks for the day.  It became our own little hideaway and it was personal to us.

That was us then, six weeks before Colton was born (and yes, it was a nice day for a white wedding):

And this is us now:

37 weeks with our third:

So there's our trip down memory lane!

On our way out of town, we visited the awesome Smallwood's Harvest fruit stand and petting zoo.  Our timing was perfect-- between rainstorms and during the only warm, sunny weather we got throughout the trip. 
Colton went on a tractor-cow ride.  Those guys didn't hold back, either.  They were doing doughnuts out in that field.

This is Colton sending up a bucket of food to a goat.  The goats had a huge climbing structure and they came running as soon as they heard the squeaking of the pulley:

Anyway... that's that!  As soon as we got home, we switched into baby-prep mode and started reorganizing the garage and closets.  Shawn has been building shelves and I've been washing door frames.  It's like we had to get this trip out of our systems before the reality of it all hit us.  Now, we're in full-on nesting mode!