Category: Summertime

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!

Our Garden in 2017

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It’s mid-November and I am JUST getting around to publishing this post about summer gardening.  What am I doing?!  I’ve definitely been telling myself that I could stretch it out until we used up the last of our butternut squash harvest (because summer gardening isn’t over until you use up everything you grew… or something), but I’m really running the risk of sounding tone deaf if I wait much longer.  In other words, this post has been a looooong time in the making and it’s about time I shared it with you.

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In 2016, we started our first garden.  Joey built us two beautiful wooden planter boxes (and I contributed by suggesting they be on wheels and staining the wood) and then, in a mad dash to start growing things sort of late in the season, we bought a bunch of seeds and sprinkled them all over.  Each seed looked so teensy that we thought “there’s no way we’re really supposed to place just ONE of these things into the dirt!”  We ended up with garden boxes bursting with veggies and by the end of the summer, squash had taken over on one side and chard and taken over on the other.

Not going to lie, it was THRILLING to see all those veggies pop up but they probably would have appreciated a bit more space, so this year, we did it right.  We started earlier, we plotted out what and where and when and Garden 2.0 was a smashing success.  I mean, our snap peas didn’t do great and we couldn’t get a single strawberry to grow to full ripeness before a squirrel ate it and we only got one pattypan, BUT our basil was beautiful, our tomato plants were alive and thriving and giving us the most incredible tasting tomatoes and we had beets and radishes and chard all summer.  Not to mention the legit pumpkin/butternut patch we had.

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I cannot even begin to tell you how delightful it was to go into our backyard and grab a handful or parsley or basil for dinner, or fill our colander with cherry tomatoes or radishes to use in a week’s worth of lunch salads or sauté a squash that I had harvested only moments before.  These are simple things that brought me the greatest happiness.  And just like last year, we’ll end this growing season having learned some new lessons — what we liked growing, what we could do without, how to do better next year — and it all feels so good and essential and life-enhancing.

Oh and we totally grew a little flower garden successfully!  It sounds backwards, but I think I’m better with veggies than flowers, so keeping that garden alive all summer was a major accomplishment.  AND, after saying we would do it for the past two years, we actually got our act together and planted tulip bulbs for spring!  I can’t wait to see them come up (fingers crossed)!

So here’s to you, Garden 2017.  We loved you so so much!