Our "Fun" Before Baby Bucket List

JC and I have enjoyed an active, fun lifestyle for the past nearly four years of our marriage. We’ve taken six trips outside of the country and about that many trips inside the U.S., driven around the state on wine tasting trips, enjoyed many minor and major league baseball games and spent many low-key nights just enjoying each others company.

First Cubs game together, summer 2007

Puerto Vallarta vacation, summer 2012.

But come September, that lifestyle that we’ve gotten so used to will change drastically. Gone are the days when we decide to travel to Chicago for a baseball game on a whim or plan a Mexico vacation within a month. Don’t get me wrong, I’m very much looking forward to experiencing Disney world with my new little family, showing Baby Fultz the ocean for the first time and checking out all the local zoo’s and Children’s Museums; however this is a major change from the adult-fun, spontaneous trips that have dominated JC and I’s life for the past four years.

In our last three months of child-free living we decided to come up with a “bucket list” of fun things we wanted to do before Baby Fultz arrives.

Before Baby Bucket List:

1.) Go to a concert. Luckily there are some really great musicians coming to Central Illinois this summer, so this will be easy to check off the list if I can manage to stand the hot weather when I’m 8 months pregnant!

2.) Go to a minor and/or major league baseball game. JC and I always make it a priority to go to a Cubs baseball game in the summer. I worked for the Cubs organization the summer after we started dating. We share many wonderful memories around Cubs baseball.

3.) Dinner at a nice restaurant. I love trying new restaurants and food, and have really been wanting to get to Bizou in Decatur. I’m hoping we can mark this item off of our list before too long.

4.) Go on a Babymoon! Luckily this item was already taken care of for us. JC is hosting a 12 day long trip to Germany in June. We will be heading across the pond with about 40 other people who are signed up for the trip. I’m hoping we can get some alone time, relaxing and swimming in on the trip.

5.) Go boating. My family purchased a boat about three years ago, so we always make it a priority to spend at least a few weekends on the lake. With my growing belly this may be harder for me, but I’m willing to figure out ways to get myself on the boat and out of the water!

6.) Pamper ourselves. For Mother’s Day JC, Wrigley and Baby Fultz got me a “spa day” with a pedicure and manicure. This will definitely come in handy soon as I de-stress before the chaos of living with a newborn is upon us.

7.) Sleep in/lay in bed all morning. When Baby takes over our lives sleep is going to be a treasure, so while I can sleep in and be lazy I plan on doing that!

Even though we will have a new baby to care for and dominate our days and nights, I think it is important to continue to have “date nights” and reconnect. I hope to set a good example for Baby Fultz on what a healthy adult relationship should be like. To do that I feel that having “couple” time and individual interests and alone time is very important. 18 years may seem like forever, but if our experience is like most parents I’ve spoken with, it will fly by. Before we know it we will be alone again, without children as our main, constant focus and we are going to have to figure out to be “us” again, which is why it's so important to keep "us" alive with a new baby.