5 year anniversary + babymoon surprise

This past Friday (2/10/12) Brandon and I celebrated our five year anniversary! I knew Brandon had something up his sleeve when he asked me "What time do you get off work Friday?" followed up by "Well... can you get off any earlier?" Long story short Brandon ended up emailing the family I work for and asked if I could get off by 2pm, so that we could head out of town. Anyways, Monday - Friday of last week Brandon had a bunch of our close friends text me with "hints" about where we might be going to celebrate our anniversary. Everyone had an assigned day to send their text. I had everything texted to me from camping, to traveling to Abilene to stay at a bed and breakfast, to Fredericksburg, to Oklahoma, to Alabama and a general road trip. I was fooled with the very first text thinking "Oh my gosh... they ruined the surprise!!" Yet once Tuesday rolled around and I received more messages like the first, I knew he was just trying to throw me off. Thank goodness, because I was not really looking forward to going camping being 28 weeks pregnant and all! :) Call me crazy.

I got home from work Friday and Brandon had the car packed with the necessities (I checked high and low for sleeping bags. . . none to be found!) and a cooler filled with food for the weekend. He had actually taken the day off to prep for the trip. We headed out and after a few minutes I had a general guess that we are heading to Austin. I still wasn't sure exactly where and knew that some bed and breakfast establishments have a full kitchen for guests so that option was still a possibility in my mind. After a few minutes I blurted out "You are taking me to Katherine's parents lake house in Austin!" Brandon just smiled this little smirk but I wasn't sure if it was a "you are right smirk" or a "you have no clue smirk."

Ends up I was right in my guess!! Brandon had arranged with our college friends for us to use their parents lake house, on lake Travis, for the weekend. It is a VERY nice, luxurious house, that we have been to several times with a big group of college friends. I immediately became SO EXCITED! If I could pick anywhere to relax and do NOTHING it would be this lake house.

We arrived about 7pm Friday night. When we arrived we were greeted with the package and note below from my friend Katherine and her momma, Millie. They were so sweet to come up before we arrived and drop off some candy and a baby present for Clara. So special!

We got settled and made a pizza and salad for dinner. After dinner Brandon pulls out a basket full of goodies for me. Check out the stash below. A ton of stuff for pampering myself all weekend - a face mask, epsom salt to soak my swollen ankles, foot cream, a back massage brush, nose strips (yes, I think these things are cool) and these Flex-Tastic gel things you stick between your toes to help with overall foot circulation (which was perfect considering my left foot was enormous by that time at night).

Here I am putting the mask and Flex-Tastic to use. I was in heaven. We watched Iron Man (well I watch some of it) and passed out by 9:45pm. I know... party animals.

Brandon told me to wake him up Saturday morning once I was hungry because he had breakfast planned. I was up by 5am and by 7am was famished so I took his advice and woke him. :) He proceeded to make whole wheat blueberry pancakes, topped with maple syrup and peanut butter (have I mentioned I have a PB problem? I know... it's bad). He ate 1/2 of one pancake. I ate 2 + his other half. Don't judge.

We lounged around for the majority of the morning and eventually ventured out to do some shopping at an outdoor mall, the Hill Country Galleria. We arrived there at 11am and I was already starving (imagine that) so we headed straight into Panera Bread for a quick lunch before shopping. Thanks Brandon for snapping a picture of me stuffing my face with soup & a panini sandwich. Had to get you back. 

After some shopping (only walked away with a magazine and discounted book from Barnes and Noble) we headed back to the lake house. I promptly plopped myself back on the couch, feet propped up, blanket in place and just made myself comfortable. Brandon then asked "Hey - I packed some 'healthy' brownies for us. Want me to make them?" Um yes please. (Healthy meaning they were lower in sugar, that's all!) That question quickly lead to the following along with the movies You've Got Mail and The Devil Wears Prada . . . 

We played a little ping pong. . . 

And then I played some old school piano. . . you know, songs I learned in 5th grade. . . I'm cool like that.

A while later we decided it was time for some dinner. Brandon had packed lots of options for us and we decided on grilled chicken, grilled shrimp, and some sautéed onions and bell peppers along with brown rice. Was delicious except I had to abort the shrimp after the first few bites. Totally started to gross me out (a pregnancy thing). Does it look like all I did was eat all weekend? If so, it's because I did. Don't worry, I managed to resist eating yet another brownie after dinner. 

After dinner we started the movie Music & Lyrics with Drew Barrymore and Hugh Grant. It was just ok in my opinion. But then again I really can't give it a fair rating since I, once again, fell asleep mid way through. Surprise surprise. 

Sunday morning/early afternoon we just hung around the lake house until about 1pm when we headed back home (sigh. tear).  We somehow managed to balance my Iphone on the coffee table to take a pic together. 

By Sunday when we left my ankles were less swollen than they have been in a LONG TIME. I was so relaxed. It was the perfect anniversary present + babymoon. We figure this to be our babymoon also since we don't really have any trips planned before Clara arrives. 

A HUGE thanks to Brandon for planning the perfect getaway weekend. It was so fun to get out of town and relax/hang out together. Happy 5 years Brandon, love ya! You are the best!