Category: Holiday

The 3rd of July

Lauren1 Comment

Right now, my brain is a jumble of thoughts like, “wait, what day is it??”  “Which member of the family has a teeth cleaning today??”  “Will I have this headache forever??”  “Were the past three days real or just a perfect dream??”  We spent two days in a tiny house village and it was the most entertaining!  Bobby and Becca got married and the wedding was SO perfect!   The 4th of July was low key, with spur of the moment dessert plans and our dog didn’t give a $&!% about firework noises.  So despite how discombobulated I feel, everything is actually very fine and good.

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The wedding was in Lyons, so Joey and I decided to make a mini-vacation of it and spend a few nights up there.  We headed up Monday night, where we proceeded to check into our tiny house and were SO delighted by it!  I think we’d been there all of two minutes when I proclaimed “I live here now!”  In all seriousness, staying here was the most fun… but only for two nights 😛

Afterwards, we walked to dinner.  We had our hearts SET on this taqueria for WEEKS but found out that morning that it’s closed on Mondays!  WHY?!  But it was okay because Oskar Blues was our back up and despite it’s mediocre star rating on Yelp, it was actually really great.  I loved my beer and the fish tacos were perfectly fried and had an amazing buttermilk sauce.  Only acted slightly like children when we got back to our tiny house but to be fair, any space with a ladder, is a space not to take yourself too seriously in.

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Saturday morning, we walked over to The Stone Cup and had an impressive-for-a-coffee-shop breakfast of Huevos Rancheros x2 then did a little bit of exploring at the LaVern M. Johnson Park.  That water was FRIGID, but it was very hot outside and we could not bear the thought of walking all the way back to our village so we forded the river, like the true adventurers we are.  We also walked into town so Joey could eat a triple scoop of ice cream (“you only let me have three scoops yesterday!” is a real thing he said to me the next day…) but mostly the day was really low-key and I even finished Order of the Phoenix and moved onto Half-Blood Prince!

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The wedding started at 4 PM and what can I say except that it was PERFECT ♥  So well organized, so pretty (The Lyons Farmette is just lovely!) and just so full of love.  Not to be too sappy, but witnessing this couple’s love for each other and all their family and friends’ love for them was truly incredible.  I felt so honored to be a part of it and just so happy for the two of them.  Also drank approximately 50 glasses of wine, danced to Backstreet Boys, petted an alpaca and just had thee most fun.

Also, Marriage Advice: Find someone who wants to act a fool on the dance floor as much as you do!

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Honestly, this 4th of July felt so weird!  Everyone on was out celebrating and I just felt like “but the big celebration was yesterday!”  Our 4th of July felt like a haphazardly thrown together afterthought, but that being said, it was actually really great.  A couple of weeks ago I was considering prepping some ribs ahead of time so we could grill but then Joey told me he’d round up a few meal options and we could just decide day-of what we felt like.  HE’S A GODSEND.

We ended up feeling like pizza so, after picking up breakfast burritos for the road, retrieving Andi from my parents, inspecting our garden (snap peas looking good!) and resting for a bit, we headed to Whole Foods for pizza ingredients and made the spontaneous decision to try no-churn ice cream for dessert.  It all turned out even better than expected!  We did one red sauce/mozzarella/roasted garlic/black olive/basil pizza and one olive oil/mozzarella/fig/goat cheese/arugula/walnut pizza (+ shishitos grilled to perfection) and I loved both so much.  Plus, the ice cream turned out SO GOOD.  It was MEGA-CREAMY and we threw some peppermint extract (1 teaspoon) and mini chocolate chips in.  This feels life-changing!  Also, our neighbors set off fireworks late into the night but Andi didn’t even lift his head at any of them.  THANK GOD.

I hope you all had the best 4th of July but for me, it was all about the 3rd 🙂

Memorial Weekend Things

Lauren1 Comment

I have fuzzy memories of Joey and I listing off the wonderful things that happened over the course of Memorial Day Weekend 2018 before immediately falling asleep last night and whoa, that list was long!  Friday night Rockies game, Saturday run followed by double yogurt bowls on the front porch, Becca’s bridal shower, seeing Solo: A Star Wars Story and Avengers: Infinity War on a perfect night at the drive in, being served a crispy buttermilk waffle on Sunday morning, summer color pedis with my mom and sister, Detroit-style pizza, running our NINTH Bolder Boulder and having my mom, dad and mother-in-law there at the finish, BBQing with family and being so exhausted that I accidentally fell asleep only something like 5 times 😛

Told you the list was long!

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Dipped out of work a bit early on Friday and had backyard lounge time before watching the Rockies beat the Reds with beers in hand.  That picture of Joey using his hat to shade Andi is actually my favorite thing ♥

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We got up and ran Saturday morning and it was already HOT, but there was iced coffee waiting for us back home and we ate breakfast on the porch with our doggy and it made me feel really happy about summer being here!  I spent the afternoon at Becca’s bridal shower and I cannot believe she and Bobby’s wedding is so close.  I could not be more excited!  Saturday night plans included picking up Illegal Pete’s and heading to the Denver Mart Drive In for opening weekend and to say I’d been looking forward to it would be a MAJOR understatement!

The weather was PERFECT, my burrito was delicious and we really liked Solo!  The sun hadn’t quite gone down when it started so we had a hard time seeing the first bit of the movie (BOO!) but Alden Ehrenreich was perfectly smug-charming, Lando had a closet of capes and I thought the whole thing was just really fun.  Not as sold on Infinity War.  It was already after 11 PM when it started, so we maybe closed our eyes a few times but it also seemed really Thanos heavy and the ending was confusing/weird.  Did really enjoy the Thor/Star-Lord stuff though!  Guys, it was 2:30 AM when we got home, which is a million hours past my bedtime.

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When I got up on Sunday morning, Joey was in the kitchen making us waffles!  The best!  I ran to get coffee and when I got back, I was presented with a perfectly crispy buttermilk waffle and all the fixings ready to go ♥♥♥  We ate them on the porch swing and it was truly glorious.  Afterwards, we cleaned our house in preparation for our Memorial Day BBQ and even though I dread cleaning our house, it wasn’t so bad and happened really quickly.  Andi and Curtis Cow supervised from their thrones.

That afternoon, my mom and sister came over and we walked to Base Coat for pedis x3.  My mom almost got a purplish gray color but switched at the last minutes so we all ended up with fun summer colors.  I tried to convince them to stay in Denver and go to dinner with Joey and I but something about not wanting to abandon their significant others so we went to Blue Pan Pizza by ourselves and maybe it was all for the best because we were able to snag a two person table right away.  Saw a cute planter thing on the side of some hipster home on our way in too!  We walked Andi when we got home and I am already LOVING warm summer nights where the sun stays out late enough to walk him after dinner.  Then we watched Get Over It because it’s still our favorite. 

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It only took nine years, but we’ve finally perfected our Bolder Boulder morning plan so waking up, getting out the door, parking and making it to our wave (with time to spare even!) went so smoothly.  Some years I don’t care about my time, which immediately inspires me to care abut it the next year so I really wanted to finish under 60 minutes this year and I’m happy to report that we did so!  58:33 and it felt EASY!  My mom, dad and Lori (her first time at the BB!) were there to cheer us to the finish and can you even handle that sign my mom made?!  I cannot!  We hung out in the stadium for a bit to watch some other racers (including the Marine Corp, two butterflies and a butterfly catcher, a dad carrying his son and a man in a wheelchair) finish before heading out.

Back at home, we rested on the couch for maybe too long then sort of scrambled to get everything ready before our family turned up for the BBQ.  We grilled an assortment of brats, I made maple baked beans, Joey made German potato salad, my mom brought cocktails and the most pasta salad, Wayne made the best guac and Lori supplied us all with Cherries in the Snow for dessert.  I maybe ate a big piece then felt majorly full for the rest of the night 😛  It rain-hailed later on, but seeing my niece, nephew, brother and sister-in-law was still the best.  Oh and Lori brought us the most vibrant peonies from her yard and my sister got me thee cutest orchid that I’m determined not to kill.

Memorial Day Weekend always leaves me feeling exhausted but in the best possible way and this year was no exception ♥  Now, let it be summer!