Catch up!

From Christmas they moved onto the next event and the next. Starting with New Year's Eve, moving onto Jenny's birthday and Jason's birthday. With the different holidays and other birthdays of their friends and families, combined with their already busy schedules, the year passed by in no time. Before they knew it, Sophia had started college as well, they had celebrated Henry's first birthday, and they had even seen Harry and Julia finally tie the knot. To celebrate and to catch up with each other as they didn't get to see as much as they wanted with their studies and the work at their family businesses, the group decided to go on another vacation with all of them. This time with Elizabeth being invited from the start.

Everyone was excited to visit Jason's family vacation home again and to spend time at that beautiful place where they had built many beautiful memories. George and Sophia were glad to have a few nights away from little Henry. Though they loved the little bugger more than they could express in words, parenting and being a student was proving to be quite challenging and exhausting. Despite the help they were receiving, raising a small infant was a fulltime job and so was studying. So, with a part of the load being taken away by the nanny they had hired and their parents, they still had an overfull list of tasks each day. Causing them to have too little time for one another and for their friends. Time they were happy to catch up on.

As for Elizabeth and Nick, they were happy to revisit the place where their romance began. Planning to go back to all the places where they had gone on their first date and make many more happy memories where there were already plenty stacked on one another. Though Jenny and Jason's romance hadn't begun there, they too had made quite some happy memories at the vacation home and had made plenty of big steps in their relationship that deserved to be recalled and revisited. The latest newlyweds considered it as a second honeymoon. With that all the couples had multiple reasons to be happy to join in on this trip, which would surely be a big success. What they didn't know yet was that at this very trip their next mini-member would be created. The couple that had started their romance here, would also create the first addition to their family of two.

Like the first trip they made sure to have time together and time apart. The firepit was used more than once and amazing dinners were created in different teams. Even Elizabeth managing to put something tasty on the table. Though her dish wasn't as impressive as those of a lot of the other members of the group, considering where she had started, this was a huge improvement. Earning her a loud cheer and an applause, which she accepted gracefully with a light bow and curtsy.

Another big difference with last year, was that they were now all at a legal age to drink. Aside from Jenny who didn't drink because of her beliefs, the rest of the party all enjoyed a drink. Some of them more than others but no one else was really abstinent. Though Jason came pretty close as he had never felt a big urge to drink and despite Jenny telling him that she didn't mind if he had a drink if he wanted to, out of respect for her beliefs he had kept the instances where he would drink to a minimum. The past years the only occasions that he would sometimes have a drink, would be at business dinners where it would be rude to refuse. Even then he would make up an excuse most of the time, as he was usually the party with the more powerful backing making him more free to refuse such offers than most others would be.

So, drinking just for enjoyment, like now, was something he didn't partake in. Instead, he decided to enjoy the show along with Jenny. She let herself be amused by the silly antics of their friends as they loosened up more and more with each drink. With each couple seemingly having a different tolerance for alcohol, Jenny and Jason could shift their eyes to a different direction to witness a different state of inebriation. With the increasing states ranging from a bit tipsy in the case of Harry of Julia to full out drunk in the case of George and Sophia. It was clear that they needed to let loose and forget that they were responsible parents for a day, but when they jumped into the pool with their clothes on, it was time for everyone to call it a night and turn in.

Harry and Julia helped the drunkest couple to their beds, while Jenny and Jason cleaned up the mess. They didn't mind having to do the cleaning by themselves as it gave them a chance to get all their laughs out before going to bed. Each time they saw the scene of them jumping in the cold pool water replay in their minds and the faces of George and Sophia when they seemly registered the temperature of the water, they couldn't keep a straight face. As soon as one of them started laughing, the other automatically recalled what had happened as well and both of them had to laugh until their sides started hurting, causing the cleaning process to take much longer than necessary. Who knew that Sophia's and George's jump wouldn't be the most exciting and noteworthy occurrence of the night. Because in the bedroom of the second most tipsy couple, verging on the edge of a state of early drunkenness, no one was ready to go to bed yet. With some playful chase and run, the loosening of reason and rules, and love in the air, going to bed was turned into bedding each other. Which would later be revealed to have resulted in the creation of another life for another unsuspecting couple.