babymoon in paradise

It was a risky move.

Trips, or "vacations" as people call them, tend not to go well for us.  Particularly at the beach.  Our first beach attempt (honeymoon), a family member died and we went back home.  Our second attempt a few years ago consisted of Luke coming down with something very similar to the flu, an urgent care clinic run, shots, antibiotics, and Luke in bed while I went to the beach by myself.  Yep.  In his defense, he DID feel better on the last day of that trip and we went parasailing. 

We so desperately longed for a healthy, relaxing, beach vacation "babymoon."  Since we don't know when we will be chosen by a birth mom, we wanted to go ahead and take a trip together and soak each other in before a new and busier season begins.  So, we booked it, and I started praying.  I prayed for God to allow us to have a relaxing time while staying healthy.  (And I prescribed Airborne to Luke and myself every day for two weeks leading up to the trip.)

Boy, did God ever deliver!  We were SO blessed to have a truly wonderful, beautiful, stress-free, healthy (aside from some unfortunate sunburns), FUN time!

 

 Almost every day we had a late breakfast and then spent the remainder of the morning and afternoon on the beach, which was just glorious.  I'm tellin' ya, I could do this boogie board thing for HOURS.  DAYS...  So much fun!  I regret I didn't get a picture of Luke in the waves.  He did those with his nice camera (which I'm sure he wouldn't have trusted me with, anyway).  We were usually in the ocean together, but he got out some to capture some photos and videos.

We booked through AirBnB and stayed in a lady's home.  We had a private bedroom and bath to ourselves.  One of the best perks of booking with her?  She let us use her golf cart every day to drive to and from the beach (it was about a 5 minute drive).  It was soooo nice not having to walk and lug all our stuff or drive a car and deal with parking!!  And the best part was, we fit right in with all the lovely older retired folks who were riding around on their golf carts in our neighborhood, lol. :) 

We were definitely blessed to enjoy some good eating!  We love visiting different Hard Rock's and really enjoyed this Egyptian-style one!

The Pirate's Voyage show and dinner was definitely one of the COOLEST things we did on our trip.  If you ever have the chance to go see it, GO!!  We were absolutely floored by all the acrobatics and stunts they did.  I mean I seriously had to remind myself to eat my dinner, because I was so mesmerized (and nervous because of the dangerous stunts) that I wasn't really interested in eating!  It is an awesome experience for both kids and adults!

A couple afternoons between beach time and dinner, we stopped by a coffee shop called Second Cup and chilled out for awhile.  This is one of our favorite things to do no matter where we are.  The Lukester loves coffee of course, but we also just love to sit and read or talk.  I cherish these times with my man!

Some friends suggested we try the Sea Captain's House for dinner, so we did!  We sat on the second floor and had a lovely view of the ocean.

We visited Ripley's Aquarium one afternoon.  The shark tunnel was my favorite.  We got to touch some jellyfish, which was a little anti-climatic.  Their texture is so thin and gel-like, you can barely feel them.

One night we went to the boardwalk and rode the Sky Wheel (pictured above).  We then walked around and ended up on a long dock that stretched out over the water.  We sat watching the waves come in and talked for a long time.  The night air and gentle breeze felt refreshing, and it was so peaceful sitting there with Luke, not thinking about anything other than that exact moment.

On our last night we found this little treasure.  You can't go on vacation and not have ice cream.  YUM.

  

Luke really wanted some good sunrise shots, so we decided to do it on the day we left since we were going to get up early anyway to get on the road.  When we left the house, it was rainy and yucky outside, so we didn't know if it was going to work out.  When we arrived to the beach, the rain stopped, and well, THIS happened.

It was breathtaking.  I am so, so thankful for this trip with my husband where we could truly 100% unplug from the daily grind and make beautiful memories we will always remember.