Our Eureka Springs Babymoon

Let's start by saying... our babymoon was AWESOME! 

The trip began with a bit of nervousness and about 100 Hail Mary's on my part. While the state of Arkansas put out a blast to the world saying, "DO NOT TRAVEL DUE TO CRAZY SNOWY ICY WEATHER," we decided to ignore that. And so this is what we drove through...

Or I should say, this is what John drove through. My amazing husband fearlessly drove the whole way there. While the snow/ice/crazy slowed us down quite a bit and extended our travel a few hours over the 6 hour maximum I had set as a rule on our babymoon travel, it was still more than worth it.

When we arrived, our hosts, Eureka Springs Treehouses, let us check in 2 hours early. Thank goodness! Originally our plan was to explore town a bit to kill time before check in, but as you can imagine from the above picture, town was pretty much CLOSED. So, with the keys to our castle in hand, we headed a few miles down the road to our royal arrangements. On the way, we kept our eyes pealed for food options since we hadn't had lunch yet and were thinking we should grab food before we settled into the room for the night.

We were just about to pull into a Pizza Hut, which we thought would likely be the only folks crazy enough to stay open through the storm, when I spotted a lone OPEN sign across the street on another restaurant. And as luck would have it, they were on my pre-researched list of yummy Eureka Springs food to try! So we excitedly crossed the street and ate at Thai House Restaurant.

As you can see, they were super crowded and we had to wait forever for our food.

Kidding! 

We were the only folks in the restaurant, so we had all attention on us and fast, delicious service. Yum!

Btw, I should mention now that this post is going to consist mostly of food pics and meal stories because eating is always my favorite part of traveling. Sorry in advance, but not really. 

Also, we were silly and mostly only used our iPhone cameras to get pics. I think we took a grand total of 8 pics on our really nice camera. Doy. 

Anyway, after we filled our bellies, we packed our leftovers with plans of eating them again for dinner to avoid heading back out in the snow, and headed straight to our CASTLE!

Ta da! 

You're dying to see the inside, aren't you? Well here's a little tour for ya...

The entrance is there on the left and our comfy king-sized bed is obviously on the right.

We also had this great little kitchen area...

Which lead to this super fancy sink area. And there was a small room with a toilet and luggage closet behind me.

In front of the bed, we had this lovely little sitting area, complete with fire place #1, TV #1, a faux bookshelf, and a deck with a beautiful view off the back. 

The deck...

And the view! Not a super great pic, but super lovely in person.

Let's go back inside now, shall we? 

After just a few minutes of exploring, we discovered a secret passage way behind the faux bookcase!

Which lead to our romantic jacuzzi tower!

Complete with another fireplace, another TV (not shown, above the fireplace)...

And another beautiful view of the woods and the mountains.

Also behind the secret passageway was a knight in shining armor! 

And the most luxurious shower I've ever showered in. See all the jets? 

So that's the grand tour, but if you want to see even more pics of the castle, check out this vid from the Eureka Spring Treehouses website.

After exploring our castle, we settled in for quite a while, took a jacuzzi bath, watched some HGTV (my fave!), and then decided to brave the storm just a little more with an early evening trip out to rent a movie and buy some cinnamon sticks at that still-open Pizza Hut. 

We found a Redbox only a mile from our castle and the Pizza Hut was pretty close too, so we weren't too scared to venture out. Plus, the roads were dead! So it was safe, promise.

We rented Book of Life, which was adorable, and then drifted off into dreamland. Sleep was blissful!

The sunlight beaming through our big window woke both of us rather early, such a lovely way to greet the morning! We ate some microwave oatmeal for breakfast and made our plan for the day. 

We decided to head into town to check out all the cutesy little shops and scope out the lay of the Eureka Springs land. While our time out exploring was great, especially since the snow made everything look so pretty and peaceful, as you might have guessed, most of the town was still closed down. We did end up finding a few open shops, including a hot sauce shop named Silly Chili and a shop with lots of shoes, but town was definitely mostly closed. 

For lunch, I was excited to see that another place on my list of must-eats was open: Nibbles Eatery! 

Mmmm! Cafe food at its finest! I ate a most tasty shaved beef sandwich and drank a large pot of tea. Good times.

With full tummies, we headed back to the castle.

And then spent the afternoon hanging out. This consisted of more HGTV, some reading (I'm trying to get through The Birth Partner before baby shows up!), some chatting, and a very awesome nap.

Once the princess awoke from her nap (that's me!), we headed back into town with hopes that a few more restaurants would be open for dinner. The snow had been slowly melting all day, so we figured that would work in our favor. And it did!

For dinner, we enjoyed Stone House, which was probably my favorite restaurant on the trip. They serve wine and cheese platters, which does not sound like a good spot for a pregnant lady at all, I know, but I just love me a good cheese platter. When we realized all of their pre-arranged platters had at least a few cheeses and meats I couldn't have, we mentioned it to our waitress and she said, "No prob! Let's just create your perfect cheese platter together!" And it really was perfect! This pregnant lady was easily able to avoid soft cheeses, unpasteurized cheeses, and deli meats like she was supposed to. And yet it was still so tasty. Check it out...

I'm drooling just looking at it again.

And in addition to the delicious food, the Stone House also had a Beatles playlist on the whole time we were there. That makes it the perfect restaurant in Stephanie's book.

But we didn't stop there.

Since we were only in town for 3 nights and this was already night #2, we knew we had to take advantage of the many amazing-sounding food options available while we still could. So we headed to another restaurant for dessert: La Stick Nouveau.

It was so good!

I ordered a butternut squash cheesecake with apple crumble and John got a 3-in-1 chocolate sampler dessert. Both divine!

Actually, John said it was probably the best chocolate dessert he's ever had. And that's saying something because this boy eats a LOT of chocolate!

And we had the whole place to ourselves.

While you might think a quiet, mostly closed town is kinda lame, we found it fantastic. It was so peaceful, so relaxing, and also so nice to get away from the hustle and bustle of normal life. 

When we headed home, we picked up another Redbox movie, What If, a rom com starring Daniel Radcliffe AKA Harry Potter. Neither of us had heard of it before, but since we both love rom coms and we both love Harry Potter, we figured we couldn't go wrong. And we didn't. It was super cute! Plus, we watched it in our jacuzzi, which made the night even more awesome! 

The next morning, the snow had really melted, so we had high hopes that many of the shops in town would be open. We headed into town for an early breakfast and were happy to find that town was waking up! While we loved our previous day spent in a slow, quiet, mostly closed town, we were also excited to experience Eureka Springs in all its mountain-town glory.

Breakfast was at Mud Street Cafe and it was, as all our other meals, SO GOOD!

John and I splurged and got these super-decadent drinks. He went with the Almond Joy Coffee and I had a Hazelnut Hot Chocolate, both topped with the thickest, creamiest, yummiest whipped cream ever.

And then we had to find room to eat the main feast. We split the veggie hash and a giant blueberry sour cream pancake. Both superb!

Since we ventured out so early for breakfast (8am!), town wasn't quite awake yet for shop exploring, so we headed back to the castle and relaxed into the early afternoon. There was lots of reading, Johnny did some programming (he's designing an app!), and we took a long, cuddly nap. 

After being lazy for a while, we decided to make a plan for the afternoon and evening. It was, sadly, our last evening in town, so we needed to make sure we did it right! 

We started with an adventure that included...

Visiting the beautiful Thornncrown Chapel (oops, forgot the nice camera)...

Shop hopping in the historic downtown area, where we found an awesome shop called Bathe and created our own lavender-scented bath salts... 

Visiting Christ of the Ozarks...

And ended by eating dinner at another oh-so-good restaurant, Caribe...

These house-made salsas and chips were to die for!

And the vegetarian mole (it was a Lenten Friday, after all)... indescribably good!

Not even an inch of room left for dessert!

We headed back to our castle for our last evening as royalty and, of course, once we settled in, we went straight for the jacuzzi. Only this was the best jacuzzi bath of them all because we used our lavender bath salts to make it all bubbly and heavenly-smelling.

We also played a round of John's new board game: Eldritch Horror. I thought it was just meh, but he loved it, so I was happy to play a round with him. 

We soon drifted off to sleep and awoke the next morning to the beautiful sunrise peaking through our deck window.

The iPhone camera obviously does not do it justice.

We had a nice lazy morning, both taking luxuriously long showers in that extravagant shower cave, reading and programming a bit more, and fitting in a few more episodes of my fave shows on HGTV. Before we knew it, it was time to pack and go, so we bid farewell to our castle and headed into town for a few more quick adventures.

Including our couples massage at Healing Benefits, which was SO relaxing. John especially loved the chocolate lotions they used on him. And I loved all the attention my masseuse paid to my achey lower back. 

We had one last meal at a very famous local place: Local Flavor Cafe, which for some reason I took no pictures of, but I promise it was delightful! I had an eggplant sandwich with a walnut pesto. Mmmmm! 

And we just couldn't leave town without picking up a magnet, which is what we do whenever we visit a new place together. 

And that was it! 

We headed back to Memphis and, without all that crazy snow/ice stuff, we made it back in less than 6 hours. Lovely! 

So, if you couldn't tell from all the stories and pics, we had a fantastic time. And it was much needed! It was just soooo relaxing and also, we had lots of time to talk about our little bundle of joy and what life will be like once he or she joins us. While we definitely talk about that a bit while we're home in Memphis, it was nice to have this special time carved out to focus on baby, and also to focus on relaxing before baby makes things busy for a while. 

Honestly, it was the perfect get away. 

Going on a trip to celebrate our marriage, our love, and our soon-to-be new role as parents... we're blessed beyond measure. 

We're Going on a Babymoon!

A few weeks ago, I decided to get to business and book us a babymoon before baby's due date got any closer.

Wait. What's a babymoon, you ask?

Think of it as a reverse honeymoon. You're celebrating this big occasion in life by going on a vacation, but instead of going after the big event, you go before, since going after would mean you'd be brining a baby along with you.

Basically, we're going on a vacation to celebrate the upcoming birth of our child. And getting one last trip under our belts before baby makes us stay put for a while.

So, when we started brainstorming places to go, we knew we wouldn't want to go too far since I'd be 30 weeks pregnant during the week we put aside for this adventure. That ruled out a lot of options, including flying.

I also knew I wanted some place that would be affordable, yet luxurious or romantic or unique, and definitely relaxing.

And I put a 6-hours-away-by-car max on our travel, 'cause this pregnant body doesn't want to sit still in a car much longer than that.

That narrowed things down quite a bit.

Within a 6-hour driving radius of Memphis, we've got places like...

Nashville (3 hours), but we've already been there, done that a lot.
Chattanooga (6 hours), but I wasn't getting the luxurious vibe.
Land Between the Lakes (3 hours), but again, not luxurious.
Little Rock (2 hours), but who goes the Little Rock on vacation? It just didn't seem special. (No offense, Little Rockers!)
Hot Springs (3 hours), but been there, done that too.
St. Louis (5 hours), which could have been romantic, since that's where John and I met, but since we both lived there for a while, it didn't quite feel like "getting away."
Memphis (0 hours), which would have been a nice stay-cation, but like St. Louis, wouldn't have felt like much of a get away.
New Orleans (6 hours), which we almost decided on, but at the last minute realized it'd be too much walking for lazy ol' me.

And then we found it. Our babymoon destination!

After several hours of online research and hemming and hawing over finding the perfect destination, I finally found it.

Eureka Springs, AK in the Ozarks, exactly 6 hours from Memphis!

While asking around for suggestions, a coworker mentioned Eureka Springs, but I hadn't really given it much thought. It looked nice and all, possibly even romantic, and definitely relaxing, but didn't have that unique wow factor.

That is, until I found a place where we could rent a TREEHOUSE!

Or a HOBBIT HOLE!

Or a CASTLE!!

So get this, you guys...

WE'RE STAYING IN A MINI-CASTLE! :)

Our castle-for-two has fireplaces, a luxurious five-head shower, a private jacuzzi, and even a secret passageway!! Plus all the other lovely amenities you'd expect... wifi, mini-kitchen, plushy bed, cable.

AND it was super cheap to stay since we're going during the off season. Sure, it may be a little cold, possibly even snow, but that's what those fireplaces and jacuzzi are for, right?

Plus, reviews of the place online are all GLOWING. Somehow, I hit the jackpot!

This momma can't wait to get away!

Ok, so time for me to admit it. I'm a planner. I spend hours online, researching and reading reviews to plan the perfect trip. I'm not the type that can just show up with no plans and enjoy the spontaneity of exploring a new city. Eeek! That sounds so stressful to me. This lady has got to have a plan to make the most out of every minute away. And thank goodness, I have a husband who doesn't mind putting all the planning in my hands.

So, in addition to booking our castle (hehe, it's fun to say that) and hoping to spending many hours lazing about there, I've also already found about 20 restaurants that sound yum, super cool looking shops that are calling my name, museums for exploring, other sights to be seen, and this beautiful chapel that I can't wait to photograph the heck outta.

Oh, and of course I've booked us a couple's massage. John's will be extra special because it's a chocolate massage. Yummmm! (Shhhh, don't tell him. It's a surprise!) Oh heck, mine'll be special too: a prenatal massage fit for a pregnant queen! We never do massages since they're usually so expensive, so this will be a royal treat!

This is shaping up to be one lovely babymoon!

We depart later this week, so expect for things to be hush on the blog for a little. And then expect a Eureka Springs Babymoon recap post, including a big picture dump, I'm sure. You know how I roll.

Eureka Springs, get my castle ready because here we come!

To All You Still in the Thick of It

I've been thinking of you all a lot lately. And I wanted to say I'm sorry.

I'm so, so very sorry.

I'm so sorry you still feel the pain of infertility day in and day out.

I'm so sorry that pretty much every post I make from here on out is going to remind you of your pain.

I'm so sorry that you have to put on a happy, supportive face whenever you stop by these here parts of the internet.

I'm so sorry I couldn't take you with me when I left the infertile island.

I wish I could bridge the gap, but I have no idea where to start.

I just want you here on this other side with me. I want you here so bad, it hurts.

I want you to know what it feels like to take a pregnancy test and actually have it turn positive.

I want you to know what it feels like to tell the world that you're pregnant and have each person respond with only the purest joy that ever existed.

I want you to know what it feels like to finally get to buy all those maternity clothes and baby necessities you've always wanted.

I want you to know what it feels like to not have to cringe, or cry, or hide when another friend announces another pregnancy.

I want you to know what it feels like to have a little one growing inside you, kicking and squirming at the most random times, bringing a smile to your face with each and every movement, no matter what time of day.

I want you to know what it feels like to finally have dreams come true after helplessly hoping for so long.

I want you here so bad, it hurts. 

I want to take away your pain.

And if I could, I would in a heartbeat. Because I know now, more than ever, that your pain was never supposed to exist.

I know this simply because of how right it feels to be on the other side.

And knowing and feeling that makes me hurt for you all the more.

Infertility was never supposed to happen. You were not supposed to have to suffer so hard, so long, and so alone. You were not supposed to be so horribly cursed.

Why can't I take it away?

I'm sorry that all I have for you now is prayers.

And support, if you ever need it, but I also understand how that might sting coming from a pregnant gal.

I'm so sorry.

Just because it seems like I've moved on in many ways, doesn't mean I've forgotten you. Far from it. In fact, I think of you all now more than ever.

Know that I'm angry for you.

I hurt for you.

I question for you.

I think often of you.

I'm praying for you.

Lord, please take it. Take their pain away. Take their suffering. Take their sadness, their loneliness, their barrenness.

Let them feel alive again.

Free them from the chains of infertility.

Let them be joyful. Let them be fruitful.

And let me remember always to keep them in my heart.

Amen.

3 Tips for Building a Maternity Wardrobe on the Cheap

Enter: the bump!

It's cute, it's fun, and, in most cases, it's the first very obvious sign of your growing bundle of joy. 

You love it. You really, really do! 

But soon you realize, things just ain't gonna fit like they used to. 

So what's a gal to do? 

With a baby on the way, it's not like you've got an abundance of cash lying around to grow the wardrobe. At least, not most of us average folk anyway.

Lucky for us, building a maternity wardrobe is actually very easy to do on the cheap!

First of all, you only need stretchy waistlines and slightly-longer-in-the-front tops and dresses for a few months during and after pregnancy. Then you'll tuck 'em away until you're ready to use them for a few months during and after your next pregnancy. This means you don't really need to invest in many high quality, built-to-last-forever items. 

And secondly, well... that's where my tips come in! 

Now, since this is only pregnancy numero uno for me and I'm only 26 weeks in, I may not be the best expert here, but these tricks have worked for me so far. And I hope they can work for you too! 

Let's get right to it.

1. Work with what you already have.

The best first step in putting together an inexpensive (and awesome) maternity wardrobe is taking note of the non-maternity items in your current wardrobe that would still work with a growing bump. Why buy things you already have, ya know?

Flowy shirts, wrap dresses, and yoga pants are great examples of such items. At least for wearing through the 2nd trimester, I'd say.

top and undershirt from Old Navy Maternity

And in addition to your non-maternity items that straight up fit over your cute popped belly, there are also a few other items you can easily adjust to fit your growing body.

For example, your bras! No need to purchase new ones if it's just your band size that's expanding. Instead, buy yourself some of these: bra back extenders. Thanks to those cheap little suckers, I'm still wearing my pre-pregnancy bras and they're still soooo comfortable. So, until my cup runneth over, AKA my cup size increases, you'll find me comfortably fitting into my old bras, and cheaply. 

You can also wear your non-maternity jeans (and any sort of zip-up pant, really) for a bit longer with this little helper: the Bellaband. You keep your pants unzipped to fit the belly, while the stretchy band does the hard work of keeping your pants up. I wore mine regularly during the first trimester and it was lovely. 

So, don't discredit your non-maternity clothes too quickly. With a quick sort of all your items and a few inexpensive helper items, you might already have more to wear than you realize!

2. Borrow, borrow, borrow!

Early in my pregnancy, I was blessed to have a friend offer me her maternity wardrobe. Talk about growing the wardrobe for cheap!

Think about it, though. Like I said before, you only wear maternity clothes for a few months during and after pregnancy. So if you have a friend or relative who's recently had a baby, chances are she's packed those clothes away and planned on forgetting them until the next pregnancy happens. So while they're not being used, it's the perfect time for you to swoop in and kindly ask if you can borrow a few (or ALL) of her items. Sure, asking might be a bit awkward, but what's the worst that could happen, really? She says no? Yup, actually, that's probably the worst that could happen. Totally worth the awkward asking and probably receiving free maternity clothes, if you ask me. 

tunic from Old Navy Maternity

There are just a few tricks to making this borrowing tip work right...

You've got to find a friend who's generally the same shape and size as you. But that shouldn't be too challenging, as the stretchiness of most maternity items makes it so that you don't have to be a perfect shape and size match.

You've got to find a friend whose style is similar to yours. Otherwise you're just going to feel like you're awkwardly wearing someone else's clothes for several months.

And you've got to be relatively clean. If you're the type that spills stuff on everything, you may not actually be a good candidate for maternity clothes borrowing. In this case, I'd find a friend who's done growing her family and see if she wouldn't mind giving you her maternity wardrobe for keeps. 

3. Shop the sales. 

Once you've sorted through your normal wardrobe and begged a few friends for borrowed maternity clothes, there's only one thing left to do.

And that's SHOP!

top from Pea in the Pod

Ladies, I cannot even tell you how many awesome, inexpensive maternity items there are out there waiting for you to buy. All you have to do is look. And I especially recommend looking at the sale items.

Aside from the maternity leggings I'm wearing in the pictures above, all the other items were bought very inexpensively from the sale racks of shops with HUGE maternity sale sections. 

The jeweled top from Pea in the Pod, originally around $70, I bought for around $25.

And the green top and gray tunic from Old Navy, I bought for less than $10 each. 

Cheap, cheap, cheap! And yet all decent to high quality items! 

Here are my go-to maternity clothing shops for items on the cheap:

Old Navy

For inexpensive and decent quality, this is my favorite! Just look at that sale section!! And they usually have some sort of 20% or 40% sale going on on top of their already discounted items, so if you're looking to bulk up your maternity wardrobe on the cheap, make this your first stop. 

I'm definitely not usually an Old Navy shopper, but their maternity items just can't be beat, especially if you're looking for standard items. Their jeans are wonderfully comfortable and affordable, as are their black slacks, and all their tops, really. I do recommend reading reviews on items to get your sizing right. Their maternity items tend to run a little snug, so I generally size up, but it really depends on the item.  

One little bit of a bummer is most of their maternity stuff can only be bought (and returned) online. Meaning you can't try on anything before buying. And if you don't like, you have to ship back. BUT! I say it's still worth it. You just have to see those discounts to believe me.  

The Gap

The Gap also has a great maternity sale section, mostly online. And they also have sales on top of their sales going on all the time too. Their items are a little more expensive than Old Navy, but also higher in quality. Pro tip: You can combine your online shopping carts from Old Navy and the Gap since they're both owned by the same company, thus saving you on shipping costs. You're welcome!

Pea in the Pod

For really high quality items, this is my go-to. I do have to be careful not to be tempted by their non-sale stuff, because that stuff is WAY out of the budget. But it's easy enough to avoid their lovely non-sale stuff because their sale section is, just like Old Navy, ginormous! I highly recommend shopping at a Pea in the Pod store, as they have a great big sale selection available and you get to try it on before buying, but if that's not possible, online works great too! 

It's worth noting that you won't ever see Maternity Destination or Target on my go-to list. While their items are cute, I find the quality is lacking, sometimes severely. And since you can get higher quality items from the maternity sale racks of other the shops, I'd say skip 'em. But that's just my two cents. 

---

So, what do ya think? After all those tips and tricks and sale shopping links, does an inexpensive maternity wardrobe sound doable?

I sure hope so!

I will say, I think it's totally worth investing in just a few super high quality, more expensive, non-sale-rack maternity items if you've got room in the budget. Occasions like baby showers and that maternity portrait session you just booked kinda call for it. The key, though, is balancing those few expensive items with a whole bunch of non-budget-breaking items. Mix and match the costly with the non-costly to your heart's content, and with these three tips, I bet no one will be able to tell how very affordably you just built your maternity wardrobe.

In fact, within the next year, I bet pregnant mamas will probably be asking you if they can borrow your maternity wardrobe.

Feels good, doesn't it?

And to the ladies who have done this pregnancy thing before: What are your wardrobe building recommendations? I'd love to hear your tips in the comments!

Happy thrifty sorting, borrowing, and shopping, mamas!