To celebrate Pete’s birthday and New Year’s Eve, we headed to The Nest Bed in the Poconos for our first ever B&B experience. I chose this location in particular because it’s modern and surrounded by nature (plus there’s an irresistible golden-doodle named Tulo). I can’t recommend it enough to those of you who are looking for a weekend getaway to the Poconos.

Photo credit: The Nest Bed

The steam shower with subway and honeycomb tiles was my favorite, and the stained glass accents around the entire house were gorgeous.

Here’s a small glimpse into the room we passed through whenever we headed upstairs to our room. This is also where Tulo greeted us by running up to us with a magazine in his mouth in the morning.

Seriously, how cute is that face?

I loved all of the attention to detail at The Nest Bed. From the adorable napkins accessorizing the ah-mazing homemade breakfast and dinner to the artwork hanging on the walls, the B&B felt like home and was filled with warmth from the lovely owners, Marko and Sally. They even had some retro pinball machines in the basement (I finally found something I could beat Peter at), along with a ping pong and pool table. I want them to adopt me, please (sorry mom and dad).

Say hello to Tulo for us if you visit. He will steal your heart instantly.

Pete and I spent our New Year’s Eve night dining at a local cafe (chocolate cake noms!) and taking goober-y photos of each other, followed by watching awful infomercials in bed and falling asleep to The Big Bang Theory.

Since it was Pete’s birthday, I decided we should do something he enjoys, even if the mere thought terrified me. That’s what birthdays are for after all, right? Anyway, I volunteered to go skiing with him at Shawnee Mountain, even though I don’t have a single athletic bone in my body. Pete had gone skiing a couple of times before so I was fully prepared to get owned, which is certainly what happened.

Here’s a video of Pete going down the bunny slope…which didn’t seem very “bunny”-ish to me at the time…but now looking back at the video, I suppose it’s a pretty skimpy hill.

Alright, so let me preface this next one by saying that the video below was my last attempt going down the hill. My first attempt was mere seconds after Pete slammed my ski boots on me. As a side note, for those of you who have never worn ski boots before, imagine clomp-clomp-clomping around like a deranged Frankenstein while the pro skiers gasp at how much you lack grace in your many layers. I wore 2 pairs of tights, two pairs of thigh high socks, jeans, a thermal, a t-shirt, a hoodie, a snowsuit, a giant puffy coat, waterproof gloves, and a helmet (oh, and underwear). It almost reached the 50s that day. Needless to say, I was a sweaty mess and my glasses kept fogging up while I was attempting to learn how to ski.

Anyway, Pete sent us right on our way to the weird treadmill thing that takes people up to the top of the hill if they want to avoid the ski lift (yes, please). That alone was terrifying. Having to shimmy out onto the hill made my heart drop. Pete made it look easy since he had done it before. He told me to follow behind him, so I tried and tumbled instantly. Meanwhile, Pete couldn’t stop himself, so he went all the way down to the bottom of the hill as I struggled to get back on my feet without sliding down. This went on for about 10 minutes until I unsnapped my boots and slowly walked down the hill like a defeated goober, with 3-year-olds whizzing past me and laughing at my blatant failure. I decided I was done trying until we had our group lesson an hour later.

During the lesson, I learned how to stop (or “make pizza,” as our instructor called it) and turn. Despite the class, I still managed to ski straight down the hill at a rapid speed (rather than zig-zagging) during my first post-lesson attempt down the bunny slope. I tried my best to dodge fallen snowboarders while screaming “PIZZA!” and other vulgarities not worth mentioning. Needless to say, I fell flat on my face.

Like I said, this video was my last attempt before we left and I managed to not fall (although you’ll see I came very close several times). Note the little child skiing past me effortlessly as I celebrate my victory. So sad. By the end of the day, my body hated me and I was incredibly sore, but at least I can say I tried something new and had fun doing it (despite the look of pure terror on my face).

What did you guys do to celebrate the New Year festivities?