A get-away with the girls

I love the ladies in my family, and I am always excited to have an excuse to spend some time with them. My sister, Valerie, turned 50 on Valentines day this year, and we had been planning on having a surprise birthday intrusion for a few months previous. About a month before we all headed to her home, my oldest sister, Marilyn, informed us that Val found out about our plans. It turns out that her husband and our brother-in-law, Greg, had accidentally forwarded one of our planning e-mails to her. Val jokingly called him a "techno-tard" (one of my favorite politically incorrect words now) but we have a sneaking suspicion that he may have done it on purpose so that she could be prepared. She was grateful to know that we were coming. I fell in love with New Mexico, it is a beautiful place, let me tell you why.

I made some lovely memories with some of my favorite people there. (I am embarassed about the above picture, but it is the only picture that I have of all of us on my camera. My sisters took much better photos.)

We were able to visit Val in her "natural habitat." I loved her home: she has an amazing collection of house plants which are very loved; she made us a very tasty meal in her kitchen; she gave us a tour of her eco-friendly, beautifully decorated and almost completely self-made home. I feel proud to have a sister, and brother-in-law, who are so talented.

I was able to witness my sister, Kathleen, scrub her shoes off with a stray toilet brush. I had dreamed of this day, but I never thought that it would ever happen.

Of course the opportunity didn't present itself until we happened to be visiting a very interesting place in New Mexico. A few miles away from Val's house is a community called the Earthship Community. They make their homes entirely from eco-friendly and recycled materials. I like Val's idea of eco-friendly much more, but these homes were very interesting to visit. Most of the homes were almost completely underground with just solar panels peaking up from their roofs above ground. If you were to look across the land you would never guess that people actually lived there. We joked that these homes were made with "blood, sweat and beer."

We experienced (probably) the hugest cinnamon rolls and pastry's on earth. Here Amy is holding one of them, and the local dogs display their begging abilities.

While we are on the subject of dogs, I was able to witness my sister, Marilyn, give a "double-dog-dare" for the first time in my life. Her and Kathleen shared a plate of delicious Mexican food and Kathleen loved it so much that she wanted to lick the plate. Marilyn double-dog-dared her.

I always thought that Kathleen was above taking dares, but apparently not above taking dares from such authority as her older sister.

One more thing that I loved about New Mexico was their use of my very Favorite color. Turquoise is the color that they use the most to signify good fortune. Almost everywhere you go, you see this color. I couldn't get enough of it.