Before Babies Bucket List

9 months! 9 months of marriage down, as of last weekend.  9 months of bliss. 9 months of being a duo. Of living together. Of Netflix and chill. Of realizing just how much we still need to learn, about each other and adulting in general.

When we realized we had reached this milestone in our marriage we naturally talked about what could have happened during that time - specifically the formation of a baby. And so we talked about kids, like all young marrieds do at some point in their first year. The conversation basically went like this:

Tayler: You ready for kids yet babe?

Me: Nope.

Tayler: Me either.

And then we moved on from that deep conversation.

Don't get me wrong, we LOVE kids. At all family gatherings we say hand over that baby please. It is without a doubt our biggest goal in life. But parenthood is a huge step!! So so huge! And little ones change your life. At present we feel like there are some things we need to take care of and things we want to do before we get down to that business.

Sidenote, I'm majoring in Family and Child Development and I just learned that moms lose up to 700 hours of sleep during their baby's first year. SEVEN HUNDRED HOURS OF SLEEP. S/o to the mommas of the world.

Hence, the Before Baby Bucket List.

*Disclaimer: We realize that ultimately kiddos will be our greatest most wonderful adventure, and we would be happy if this list never got completely completed.

1. Spontaneous weekend flight to whatever state is cheapest. 
2. Camp at Havasupai Falls in Arizona. (Tayler has already been TWICE! So I made him swear to take me before I agreed to get marry him.) July 2017 with my dad and little sister.

3. Each get a Bachelor's Degree.
4. Go on a humanitarian trip.
5. Pay off our cars.
6. Take a dancing class together.
7. Go on a vacation with friends. Virginia Beach, May 2016

8. Go on a cruise. Bahamas Cruise, May 2016

9. Hit up all the National Parks in Utah.

Zion's National Park May 2017

10. Master at least 20 healthy meals.
11. Go to an upscale, fancy smancy restaurant.
12. Enjoy a cross country road trip. We did drive from Utah to Virginia, but it was one of those drive or die trips where you try to make it as fast as possible. No fun detours or scenic routes there!
13. Spend a week in Yosemite.
14. Visit the Faroe Islands (between Iceland and Norway)
15. Spend a day in New York City being tourists: Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty, Brooklyn Bridge, etc.
16. Force Tayler to run a Half Marathon with me. I keep telling him it's fun but he's not convinced. And honestly I saved this one for last because I think it's the least likely to happen...unless he reads this and accepts the challenge? *hopehope*

For now, we will keep it at that! We don't want to push the joys of parenthood off too long;)  I'll update the list as we complete things. We've got a few of these planned out and I'm so excited! These first few years of marriage are really a special time, when our focus is only on each other instead of kids or careers or scary words like "mortgage". So here's to taking advantage of now, and the adventures and memories we'll make.