13 Years

Somewhere after the 10th anniversary, an anniversary just becomes another anniversary. I can only equate it to after you turn 21...the excitement that comes with a birthday starts to wear off, and while you are excited that you made it another year, it just doesn't have the same pizzazz that the previous years brought. You no longer stress about what you are going to do to celebrate, what outfit you are going to wear, how you are going to remember it. It's just another day that has come too fast, with hardly enough time to remember what you did the previous 364 days before.

I knew that our anniversary was approaching, but with so much on our plate there way little time to properly prepare. I'm not sure I even shaved my legs. I had not yet bought a card to write the words that become cliche year after year. The older you get, I guess less is more. So I was completely caught off guard when Tony told me the night before that I should be ready by 1pm. On a school day? Yes please! True to form, Tony walked in the door at 12:55pm after working all morning to jump in the shower. Although I was packed, I figured that I had another 20 min to get fully prepared. (BTW, "fully prepared" does not mean shave my legs. It means getting enough paperwork done to truly feel that I could relax for 24 hours!) At 1:15pm I was still typing away frantically as he walked in the office yelling "I told you to be ready at 1pm! We have to go!" I became irritated, he was stressed out, we were off to a great (and typical) start!

After speeding for an hour and a half, I realized where we were headed. A place that I had passed hundreds of times on our way to Colorado but had never been. A place that I had always wanted to go! Ojo Caliente! We arrived 25 minutes past our appointment times and begged for them to still take us. As I prepared for my massage, my heart racing from the speed of the drive up, the stress of our lives and me being completely irritated with my groom for cutting it so close, I settled in and tried to relax. Oh great, I got a talker. Just as I was anticipating the ending of my hour long massage she poured hot oil on my scalp and all my cares melted away. I started to think that I had completely lost my mind and sense of time. How could I still be in this room? This is the longest massage of my entire life! This is life! God, I love Tony! A 2 1/2 hour massage was just what the doctor ordered!

By the time I floated out of the treatment room I had forgotten all of the reasons that I wanted to be single again. As I gazed out onto the scenery, I was overcome with gratefulness. To my husband of 13 years, my mother in law for watching the kids for the night and for enough work to pay for what I could only assume was adding up to be a very expensive trip! We sat in the hot springs, covered ourselves in mud to bake in the sun, ate a fantastic dinner and told campfire stories with new friends from far away places. It was truly a magical 24 hours to celebrate 13 years!

Uncle Jay Strikes Back!

There is no one on the planet who can make me laugh harder than my big brother Jay. So when he came to visit for the first time in a couple of years, I knew that we were all in for a great time...and boy did he deliver! First off, the title of this blog is a lie. Uncle Jay NEVER strikes back. In fact, he has mastered the art of taking a WWF looking blow to the head as if you had taken a folding chair during Summer Slam, walked to the top of a 20ft A frame ladder, and magnificently swan dived your body off hitting him precisely on the top of the head. He is the best. So after taking Cienna to the mall for her bi-annual birthday / Christmas shopping spree, he allowed both of the kids to manhandle him with a giant stuffed Narwhal like an absolute pro!

Bi-Annual Shopping Spree

Narwhal Bash Fest

The gifts just came on coming. After taking AJ on his bi-yearly shopping spree, he also bestowed the gift of purging on me. In addition to his amazing talent of theatrical beat downs, he is also somewhat of a savant when it comes to baseball cards. I expressed my anxiety over having several boxes of loose baseball cards that we had collected from hauling jobs over the years and the fact that I had resolved never to go through them for fear that I would accidentally throw out a Babe Ruth rookie card. My intention was to someday die and make the boxes my kid's problem. But alas, my brother Jay saved the day by staying up for hours every single night going through each and every card. He divided them into "binder quality" which we call "The Ultimate Freestyle Collection", categorized "box quality" which just means to hold on to them for future value, and "slops pile" which means they aren't worth the card stock they are printed on. I wish I had a video of how fast he went through the cards, because then you will realize how many years of my life he saved me in just a week. He is the Rainman of baseball cards.

AJ's Shopping Spree

He also bestowed upon us a gift for our game room. Vintage 49ers pendants that I remembered hung in his room growing up. This was truly a gift from the heart, as I know it was probably painful for him to part with them knowing that he would not be able to look at them on the daily anymore. But it was much appreciated and I will treasure them forever!

Bringing the Bay Area to ABQ

I also bestowed some gifts on my brother during his trip. The first was the gift of Wienerschnitzel. Man does my brother love him some chili cheese dogs. And chili cheese burgers. And chili cheese fries. Another blast from the past of our childhood and I am happy to report that they went down quickly and without a fight.

In His Happy Place

I also gifted him the experience of country club living. We went down to ACC where we floated in the pool, cocktails in hand, living our best lives. A long way from Cape Cod Village!

Living The Dream

Lastly, I shared with him everything New Mexico that I could find in my house for one epic picture to take home and share with his friends.

#turquoiselyfe

My stomach still hurts from laughing so much. I look forward to our next reunion (hopefully in the near future!)