To celebrate my parents' 40th wedding anniversary--which happens later this month--the family went up to Bretton Woods for the weekend. We stayed in the townhomes there, which were surprisingly nice given that they were chosen randomly off the Web. Having the townhouse was key, because in enabled everyone to do his or her own thing. The Tweedle Twins (the Tweedle Twirp and her boyfriend) could sleep in late while the rest of us went for breakfast. The folks with the wee baby could go to sleep early while the others stayed up finishing off their game of Trivial Pursuit. We could all indulge in hot chocolate and cookies right in our room. We had one fancy-shmancy dinner at the Mt. Washington Hotel and it was really fabulous. My only regret is I ordered poorly for dessert (I had the oysters, frisee, and lamb, and they were all superb).

For the activities, we all split up, with my father and Adam hitting the slopes (Peter to ski; Adam to snowboard), the Tweedle Twins playing Ping Pong at the hotel (the townhomes are part of the resort so we had full access to the hotel and sports center), and me, my mother, and Doodles going snowshoeing. Snowshoeing was wonderful. I wasn't sure Doodles could handle it, but he did quite well. I put him in the Baby Bjorn and stuck a pair of sunglasses on him because it was a bit windy and I didn't want the reflection from the snow to hurt his eyes. Oh man, you've never seen such an adorable snowshoer. We got stopped a bunch of times as people oohed and aahed at how cute he was. I had intended to go out for just an hour, but he was doing so well that we stayed out for two hours. About halfway through I could see Doodles was getting tired so I turned him around in the carrier so he could fall asleep on my chest. I really enjoy snowshoeing and I'm not sure why I haven't done it more. My first experience was at Mt. Rainier and it was obviously much hillier and the snow was plentiful. The weather conditions at Bretton Woods were lovely--the weather was in the mid-30s and the skies were only a tad overcast. The only downside of snowshoeing with Doodles is that by the end of the day, my shoulders were pretty sore from the weight of our chunky monkey in his Baby Bjorn.

The next day, I had a short massage scheduled. I feel a little gypped on the massage, as when comparing notes with Adam--who had the same therapist just before I did--he had a much more aggressive massage. I like a lot of pressure, but I think she was a sexist masseuse and gave Adam a better rub. However before the massage I found my parents who were tubing. I wasn't going to try it, as at the age of three my father had severely traumatized me. We lived at the time in Westchester County in New York and we had a very steep driveway (I'm sure my father will post a comment claiming it wasn't that steep at all, but I was three and dammit, it seemed steep to me!). He stuck me on top with a tobaggan, went to the bottom, and told me to slide down. I didn't want to. It was long and scary and I wanted nothing to do with it. It was a horrible experience and it turned me off of sledding. So when I saw my folks tubing, I initially wanted nothing to do with it. The slope was fairly icy and it looked dangerous. But overcoming my fears, I got into the tube, and gave it a go. Man, do I love tubing! I went on three runs before I had to go get my weak massage.

Overall, the weekend was lovely and Doodles was well behaved the entire time. He charmed folks everywhere and during our fancy-shmancy dinner, he kindly slept through the majority of the meal (babysitting could have been arranged, but if I don't feel comfortable with people babysitting in my own home, there's no way I'd let them babysit in a rented townhome). For anyone looking for a weekend getaway, I highly recommend the resort at Bretton Woods in New Hampshire.