Last weekend, like many couples who are about to experience a forever-life-change like having a baby, the hubby and I went on a
"babymoon" (note: though I thought this word was well-incorporated into society, appaprently not, because dictionary.com did not have the word, hence urban dictionary.) (sidenote: I am referring to definition # 1, certainly not #2 :) Unlike many couples, our destination was the exciting and exotic town of Elkhorn, WI. Never heard of it? Calm down, your geography isn't that bad, when viewed on a map, it's probably about as big as the period at the end of this sentence. Anywho, we decided to find a good deal on a decent hotel and find fun things in the area. So, Saturday afternoon we checked out
Royal Oak Orchard and were very impressed with the place over all. Over 12,000 apple trees folks - I don't know a lot about farming, but that seems like a lot of trees to me!
Of course, what would an apple orchard be without profuse amounts of mums, a huge pumpkin patch, endless amounts and a millions varieties of apples and a tractor-pulled wagon to take you to the trees
a live blue-grass band performance
A petting zoo
And a heart-warming supply of the most amazing apple cider donuts?
(Try to ignore my hugely pregnant nose and face in this pic, ugh!)
It bears saying that we enjoyed, oh, about six of said donuts, slowly sipping a cup of hot cider while sitting in front of a roaring fire in the big apple barn feeling the crisp breeze on our backs beautifully contrasting with the warm flames on our faces. It was an amazing little life moment, a memory you just want to capture and remember so that you can pull it out later to savor and enjoy, perhaps during the dead of winter, or in the dog days of summer. Yes, a memory I wanted to capture so badly I couldn't even bother to snap a photo of it. Sorry - I was too busy enjoying my cider and donuts.
So after the apple orchard, we had a lovely and relaxing afternoon fooling around in our hotel room (taking silly pictures, get your mind out of the gutter. Besides, have you ever BEEN 37 weeks pregnant??)
went out to dinner, did some major hot-tubbing and some more relaxing.
Next day, we had a loveley time exploring Lake Geneva on a wonderfully crips, blue-sky autumn day. Had fun drooling over houses and snapping photos as we walked around the lake path.
All in all, it was a wonderful little weekend get-away. While we are both very excited to meet this baby, we both are experiencing a bit of the "ambivalence of pregnancy" that my old nursing school textbooks described - excited beyond belief, but also afraid of the change, and a bit sentimental about it never againg being 'just the two of us'. Ah well, it's too late now, so we need to just hang on to our hats! Speaking of not feeling ready for change, as I sit here typing this at 3:30am trying to determine whether or not I am in labor, my darling cat Sam is perched on my stomache (which is finally similar to a shelf), hanging onto my neck for dear life, trying to get as close to my face as he can. He must sense that change is coming...hope he's hanging onto his hat as well!
