Operation Shower: The Weekend With All The Baby Stuff

I try not to post baby crazy stuff here, because I don’t want to overload anyone who is not interested in reading baby posts. Fair warning: this weekend was all about the baby stuff.

I had too much fun this weekend at Operation Shower not to show pictures.

I do not plan to have a shower, because all of my family members live far away in different states. I’m actually the only one who lives in Delaware. We registered at Babies ‘R Us and Target and sent word of it on our gender announcement card in case family/friends want to send a gift. You may already know, my husband and I are both in the Guard. So when I heard about Operation Shower, I was really excited.

It basically provides group showers for women whose spouses are deployed or recently deployed. A few of my coworkers had been to one before and they highly recommended it.

I was invited to one in D.C. over the weekend and I am so glad I went! I’m also so glad I brought a friend, because no way could I carry all the gear back myself.

I insisted that we leave at a ridiculous hour in the morning, because I thought there would be a ton of traffic on the drive to D.C. Turns out there was zero traffic, so we got there about an hour and a half early, but there was a lot of traffic on the way back.

It was hosted at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center. Weird name, but impressive building. The building was literally so big that they had two full size houses which functioned as gift shops inside, with room to spare. We stopped at Starbucks, where I was tempted to get a S’mores frappuccino but instead tried the mango black tea lemonade. It was delicious, but I still want a S’mores frappuccino.

 They let us in the doors and immediately were entered into a raffle for later and escorted to our own place setting.

The theme for this shower was Go Wild. The decorations were adorable.

The food was really good; I wish there were more vegetarian options, but we made it work. They had tomato and mozzarella sandwiches and an interesting squash dish which I definitely thought were potatoes.

The desserts were the best part of the meal. I tried a fruit tart, a pineapple cupcake, and a raspberry macaroon. I don’t even like raspberries, but I picked it up because I wanted a pink one. It was all delicious.

 And then there was all the fun stuff, the gifts! They really do a great job. They started off with a gift card, a cute jewelry plate, and jewelry from Stella & Dot.

Then all the fun baby stuff! Everyone gets a ‘shower in a box’ filled with baby items like clothes, toys, etc.

 I originally asked for a gender neutral box, because when I was invited I hadn’t found out the gender, yet. Luckily, one of the ladies working there stopped by to talk to me and offered to switch out some of my gender neutral items for girl items when she found out I knew the gender.

 It was filled with lots of good things like this cute elephant stuffed animal, food, and a baby blanket.

 How adorable is this hedgehog outfit? It also has ruffles on the butt.

 They had raffles for lots of items, and we were down the the last couple raffles and I hadn’t won anything, yet. I already had lots of gear so I wasn’t disappointed in the least.

One of the last items they raffled was a 4Moms Rockaroo. As they were reaching in the names cup to pull out a name, my friend whispered my name and I quickly “Shhhh”‘d him so that he wouldn’t jinx me. Well, I guess I was wrong, because I won and I nearly lost my mind. If I could have picked one item to win, I probably would have picked this one!

 They also had a onesie drawing contest, which I didn’t win, but I got to keep the unicorn onesie I drew.

All of the moms there received so many items, I haven’t even gone through the shower in a box completely yet to look at each one. They also gave all of us an infant car seat and a portable playard for outdoors or indoors. It’s indescribable how awesome this is, and I appreciate it so much. It’s so helpful to have support like that. If you know any military spouses, I recommend it!

My house is now babyville, because I have a bunch of baby items all over the place. At this point, if I took them out of their boxes, I probably would be blocked into my house like a hermit and would need considerable skill to escape.