Celebrate my 10th wedding anniversary

We had a really lovely time. Took the train to Boston, walked a ton around the city, saw a play, rode the Swan Boats, browsed the book sale at Boston Public Library and all around generally enjoyed not having to worry about what our kids needed. Found myself smiling at little kids a lot and missing our kids, even though it was fabulous not to be woken before 6 am by little voices. (My body was still on child schedule though, both mornings I woke up briefly before 6. I think I’d need another night away to fully rediscover my own sleep patterns.) Went for a run on Saturday morning. Took the trolley tour. Let ourselves be spontaneous (mostly, had to plan the theater). Had just about gotten the hang of the subway system right as we were leaving. Missed our train home because we forgot to check the tickets. But all’s well that ends well and we’re happily home again at an overly warm house with two sleeping children and my relieved (and now departed) mil, who evidently had a good time with the kids, nonetheless.

We have Amtrack tickets to Boston, a departure time, a hotel room, and nearly 3 full days of babysitter lined up. I’ve realized that I’m nurturing some guilt over leaving Noodle for the first time, but we really desperately need this time alone together. I’m so looking forward to it.

We’ve got our anniversary weekend booked for Boston and are now looking (finally) at renting a place for a week in the summer. Found a place that is more kid friendly than rural, but it’s right on the water and I think both kids would love it. It’s close to a town we used to live in (Troy, NH) and that would allow us to be familiar with the area, which is helpful when you need things like, oh, groceries. Don’t know that this will work out, but it’s a start. We’re thinking a more rural location would be more fun if we were going with another family (or extended family), but if this doesn’t work, we’ll think more about it.

It’s time to make reservations and it’s slipping my mind.

My fil backed out. He’ll be in Europe. So I believe my mil is up for the weekend. Frankly, I think I’ll feel easier about her having Noodle, since she’s more familiar with this grandma, and thus less likely to panic. Specially since she’ll be just over a year and probably strongly into that stranger anxiety zone.

Our 10th anniversary is in June and we want to plan ahead and make reservations at a good family resort or location. N will be just over 1, so serious amounts of water is a bad idea, although if our site (room? house? cottage?) is really well secured, we might consider something on the coast. Q will be 4, so lots of things to do with him would be good.

But we’re brainstorming and researching at this point. Our current guidelines:

• Family Friendly
• Reasonably Priced, or even Cheap! (Some ability to make meals a plus.)
• No more than maybe 3 hours from home? Some flexibility here, since the cheaper the location, the more worthwhile the drive/time committed. There are a few places in northern VT that would be quite a hike, but are on the maybe list.
• We like the idea of one of the retro-family resorts. The cheesy kind with little cottages. We see a few of them scattered in this area, but that’s too close.

Suggestions and advice welcome.
_{Although, as with the naming of our child, we reserve all rights to abandon previous principles and all recommendations.}