To Sunapee with The Barters

So I think we'll make the Barter get together at least an annual thing (if not more frequently.)  My very good friend, Nikki lives in New York with her husband and her two boys.  We met up with them twice last year; once in MA and once in PA.  This year, we got a deal on Living Social for two for one hotel night stays at a hotel in Sunapee so they came to us again and we went up to my family's cottage for the weekend.

The weekend started early with the Barters arriving in Peabody on Thursday afternoon.  We had takeout and the boys had fun getting to know each other again.  Friday we went to Lynch Park in Beverly for some play time at the beach.  (I am quite familiar with Lynch as it is one of my favorite places to shoot engagement and family sessions).  We had fun with the low tide looking for crabs, hermit crabs, snails, and other fun and unusual creatures.  Eliot, of course, brought a full bag of trucks and such with him to set up his construction site.

 

Friday afternoon we left for Sunapee.  We went straight to our cottage and the boys went in the water.  I made the mistake of showing Alex (Nikki and Dave's oldest son) a crayfish and then he refused to go in the water so we had to use a baby pool as a flotation device for him so his feet were safe from the water.  Eliot had a blast pushing and pulling him around.

After that, we got some pizza and went back to the hotel to check in.  They were suites and they were quite roomy and nice.  We ended up being right across the hall from each other which was nice.  At night, we put our boys to bed and Nikki and Dave snuck over with their monitor and we drank wine (and Ted got his favorite NY/PA beer), chatted and played some board games.

Saturday morning was awesome.   Nikki and I went for a couples massage that was to die for.  It was quite an awesome massage.  I felt so relaxed afterwards.  Then her and I went down to the hot tub for about a 15 minute dip in the hot water. Again, it was so relaxing.  That was cut short when Ted and Eliot tracked me down after Eliot had a run in with a door and skinned off the top of his toe pretty badly and all he wanted was his Mama.

The rest of the day was kind of dreary.  It rained quite a bit and there wasn't much to do.  We were stuck inside and the boys were kind of chomping at the bit to do something.  Alex's favorite line of the trip was "it's BOR-ing!"

Saturday night was a ton of fun.  After we put the kids to bed, we broke out the wine and board games again and I haven't let go like that in quite a while.  It felt good just to laugh and be silly.  Poor Nikki, though, drank more than her fair share and felt it the next day.  Ted took some videos and now has blackmail over us both.

Sunday was another dreary day.   Nikki and I and then Ted, Eliot and I went canoeing. Then Eliot had a little time to fish before all the festivities were over for the weekend.   He became impatient with the fishing pole and grabbed the net instead.  Meanwhile, Ted actually did catch a fish and Eliot was thrilled. 

The Barters left for home right after lunch and we followed soon after.  We were all exhausted from a late night the night before and the gloomy weather wasn't helping anything.

It was a great weekend and I always have so much fun with Nikki.  We chat all year round on the computer, but it's so nice to actually be able to get together and chat in person.  I can't wait til our next get together!