Last weekend was a mini vacation for me with two of my best friends, my older sister Beth and her husband Kevin, who has been part of our family for probably four decades now, even before they got married. (Mamma always said if Beth didn’t marry him one of the other daughters would, because we were determined to get him into the family.)

They live in Denver, and my little sister and her husband live in Littleton (Highlands Ranch), so we generally all congregate in the middle at my folks’ house in Pueblo for family gatherings.

However, I offered for family to come to see the Creede Repertory Theatre play “Arsenic and Old Lace” with me (it opened last weekend), so this time the family (or at least part of the family) came south instead of gathering in the middle. My little sister Kristi and her husband Tom were in North Platte, Nebraska this past weekend for the funeral of Tom’s mother Betty who had recently lived with them until she passed away from cancer this summer. And my folks had visited here recently, so they opted to stay in Pueblo and let “the kids” get together.

It’s hard to believe, but we’re all in our late 50’s. In fact Beth and Kevin will turn 60 in 2018. Kristi is the youngster, but she’s still over 50 now. In fact one of our conversations while Beth and Kevin were visiting was where we might all live once we retire, which is probably another decade away but sometimes fun to think about. Tom thinks the Carolinas would be good. Kevin talked about all the amenities in Arizona, not that we would be into shuffleboard, woodworking or daily hikes around the mobile home park.

The weekend was full of good conversations and time together. Beth and Kevin met me at church Saturday morning, and after lunch we all stretched out on the couch (fortunately there are three portions of the couch that extend to put your feet up) and talked about this and that, with a little nap time thrown in.

We’ve never been party people, so our big night on the town Saturday night was “Wonder Woman” at the movie theater with that wonderful buttered popcorn to munch on while we waited for the movie to start. We had more snacks back at the house where we discussed the movie, which was action packed (my kind of movie) and one where the good guy (or in this case gal) wins.

Sunday involved a trip to Creede for the play, which did not disappoint, and another action movie that night. I have always enjoyed the “Arsenic and Old Lace” play and remembered the black and white movie version with Cary Grant as the only sane member of a pretty goofy family. You can’t go wrong with that choice at Creede Repertory Theatre this season. The fact that veteran actress Christy Brandt is one of the spinster Brewster sisters administering arsenic and other potent poisons in elderberry wine is a plus. She is terrific in every performance she undertakes.

With no paper on Tuesday, since it was a holiday, I had the rare opportunity to have a Monday off, so the three of us went to Taos, always an enjoyable treat where dinner at Michael’s Kitchen is a highlight and a meander through the bookstore a must. (It was Moby Dickens for a long time and is now Op. Cit., not as cool a name but still with a lot of great offerings.)

Another action movie Monday night finished off the long weekend for us before Beth and Kevin headed back to Denver on Tuesday and I headed to Crestone’s Fourth of July parade and then to work to get Wednesday’s paper out.

Meals and movies were about as ambitious as we got, which was just fine for us “older folks.” We were content to let the action be on the screen in front of us.

Dinners out and snacks at home were always fun, since pretty much all food is “comfort food” in this family. We like our meals together, especially if someone else is cooking and doing the dishes. In addition to Michael’s Kitchen in Taos, we enjoyed May-Wa’s in Alamosa and the Old Firehouse in South Fork.

All in all, it was a pretty awesome time with two of my best friends.