Today we are celebrating our very energetic, very passionate, very expressive, very humorous Liam. He is four today. Continuing our no-party plan this year, we went on an overnight family excursion this weekend to Santa Fe in celebration of this special occasion. Liam wanted to ride the Santa Fe train to Lamy, and since it is peak tourist season in the capitol, we opted to take advantage of the "pastoral discount" at Glorieta Conference Center, and stay the night in an apartment for $44! No TV, no pool; but when you have mountains, a little lake, and fresh air, the kids didn't miss a thing. Our trip started out with lunch at India Palace in Santa Fe, where we feasted on saag, naan, and korma, among many other tasty treats! At Glorieta, we went on our first paddle-boat ride as a family, and visited the horses. We ate super affordably at the dining hall (with hundreds of youth campers!). One of our favorite memories of the outing was discovering 8-10 swallow nests up in some rafters. It was a neonatal ward! We had never been so close to so many chicks. The stay was a low-budget resort experience, but Liam felt like a king. The next day, we rode the Sante Fe Rail to Lamy. The kids spent most of the one-hour ride each way on the open air flat-car. We had the best weather--cool and overcast, with no rain on our parade. Though Liam's received a few presents from family, he is overwhelmingly more thrilled about the experiences of his birthday than its materialistic exploitation. Mission accomplished.
