A Year of Dates: February.

This past weekend we enjoyed the first part of the Valentine's day gift I gave to your dad this year. I had planned out a date for every month for the next year, and put the information for each date into an envelope. At the beginning of every month, your dad will open the envelope and then we can go on our date :) I'm excited for him to see everything I've planned - he's been guessing about some of the dates... and he's been right about some of the ideas, but not others! I wanted to write about our adventures so you can see that we weren't always the lame mom & dad that I'm sure you'll think we are some day.


We got up early on Saturday and drove up to Traverse City. After about 2.5 hours on the road, we checked into our hotel - the Grand Traverse Resort.

Once we got there I headed to the amazing spa that they have in the hotel and your dad took the shuttle a couple of miles away to Turtle Creek Casino.  I had a wonderful day at the spa - I was pampered with a massage, a facial, a manicure & a pedicure - talk about spoiled!!


After I was done at the spa and your dad came back from the casino, we got all dressed up to go to dinner:

We enjoyed a wonderful 4 course meal at the Aerie Restaurant on the 16th floor of the hotel. The food was so delicious and the view over the Traverse Bay at sunset was really cool.  


Of course, I also made your dad take a picture of my baby bump while I was dressed up - here we are at 17 weeks 5 days:

On Sunday morning, we woke up bright and early and then went to the Sweetwater Bistro for a yummy breakfast. Then we got packed up and hit the road back home. We had a beautiful, sunny drive back to Grand Rapids. And of course I had your dad to be my chauffeur for the weekend... ok, let's face it - he's my chauffeur everywhere :)

On the drive back, I looked down at the cardigan sweater I was wearing and the buttons were popping open - I said to your dad, "Hmmm, I don't think I can wear this sweater anymore... maybe it's time for some maternity shirts." Pretty exciting! 


I also thought I was maybe feeling you tapping on my belly on Sunday ... it's soft, but there is something there :) I can't be sure it's you that I'm feeling, but it makes me so much more excited for when I finally do feel it! Your dad sat with his hand on my tummy for a while yesterday, but I guess you go a little bit of stage fright, because I didn't really feel you after that. Oh well, I know it won't be long!


Well that's it for our first 'date' of the year - we're off to a good start I think! 


All my love, Mom