Memorial Day 2016 was one for the books. Call it a daycation, a babymoon,a getaway…whatever it was…it was a total blessing for us to spend quality time with each other in a beautiful place!

Before the weekend began, Josh told me he wanted to do something fun with me on Memorial day because he had it off, and now that I only work online, I was free as well! We had talked about Lake Arrowhead, because that is one of our faves, but we hadn’t discussed it much until Sunday evening. We decided that the traffic going up the mountain wouldn’t be worth it and were spouting off ideas of where else we could go for the day. He mentioned Catalina and we both lit up! We looked up the prices for tickets and it was a little over our budget, BUT, my sweet-souled residents threw me a baby shower a few days prior and I ended up receiving a decent amount of cash! I had told Josh that I wanted to save it for something special for Selah, but we both felt as if the Lord was telling us to use it for this. So we called and booked the Catalina Express tickets and could not wait for our little adventure!

We started our day bright and early, leaving our house at 6:30am (I had been awake since 5 because I was too excited) and we ended up in Avalon around 9:30. When we arrived, the weather was cloudy but perfect! Josh was feeling a little sea sick so we bee-lined it to the local Vons and bought Dramamine, blue Gatorade and Pringles. We mosied around and went to all the tour booths on the pier to plan out our day. We booked a walking tour of the old casino for 11:45 and then we decided to walk over and hang out over near it. While Josh was taking in his remedy, I decided to go hang out by the rocks and climb around. Turns out climbing around rocks barefoot and 7 months prego is harder than it looks! After about 45 mins, Josh was feeling better so we walked down to the private beach club. It was beautiful! We walked back to the casino for the tour and when we were let in, we were quite impressed! We got to learn all about the history of the old theatre and ballroom and I couldn’t help but imagine what a wonderful and different time it was in the 30’s! After our tour, we decided to go get some homemade ice cream down by the water and soaked up the beautiful views. Then we went to go rent a golf cart. It was so fun and relaxing cruising around the island with the wind in our hair! We found a good view spot near the top of the island and pulled over to make our way up the cactus lined trail. It was BEAUTIFUL! We only rented it for an hour and then changed into our swim suits to take a dip in the Pacific. The water was super cold so we ended up just putting our feet in and chatting. The weather was incredible and it was so fun to just sit and relax and think about life. After a while, we changed back into our clothes and decided to get an early dinner. We went to a fancy fish house right on the water and watched kids playing in the water and imagined what kind of kid our Selah will be. The food was pretty good (a little pricey) but it was so nice to just be there with my boo! After dinner we walked around some more and ended up just sitting on a bench in the sun on the beach. We were both perfectly content just sitting, watching and soaking. We departed our daycation at 6:30 and watched from the boat as the sun was starting to set.

The whole day, I just couldn’t stop thinking about how blessed I am! I mean, God has taken me to so many wonderful and beautiful places in my life thus far and let me experience so many awesome things! The day was full of prayers of gratitude and wondering why He let ME of all people experience so many great things. Not only have I been blessed with experiences and opportunities to see His glory, but I’ve also been overwhelmingly blessed by the husband He has given me! So all in all, this daycation wasn’t just a fun and relaxing day with my man, but it was more so a day of reflection and thankfulness of God’s goodness in my life.

Here are some photos from our day! Sorry (not sorry) for all the bump pics!

*BUMP PICTURE ALERT*

(this is me peeing in the wilderness…I’m quite proud of my ability to pee anywhere)