Category: Summertime

2015 Summer Bucket List

Lauren3 Comments

Last week I had to put my chapstick in the fridge because it was too melty to use.  The combination of showering and blow drying my hair in the morning makes me grow an instant sweat mustache.  And I’m thinking of advertising our house as a bikram yoga studio.  It’s official.  This is life without air conditioning summer!  And this is this year’s “Bucket List.”

P.S. Isn’t it weird that I’ve lived in Denver for a year and a half already?  Like when did that happen?  And why have I still not done so many of the things that Denver has to offer?  Hence a lot of the things on this list taking place in Denver.

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#1 Attend City Park Jazz (check!)

When I told Joey about this he was like “yeah, we knew about that already.”  WE DID?  I must not have been paying attention because when I read that jazz bands play live music every Sunday in City Park, complete with FOOD TRUCKS and free entry, I freaked.  Sign. Me. Up.

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#2 Host a “Kick-Off to Summer” BBQ (check and check and check!)

This one was actually Joey’s idea, but hey, I’m so down!  In fact, we already sent out the Facebook invite for the end of this month and I am like “wait, does that mean my front yard can’t be a mud pit when people show up?”  The good news is that our newest beer — a hefeweizen! — will be kegged and ready!

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#3 Bike the Platte River Trail (check!)

A few months ago, Hannah and Josh were telling us about how they took a walk on this trail and I was like “wait doesn’t that go right near our house too??”  And it was then that we realized we only lived a bike ride away from each other.  We could even meet at a brewery somewhere in between!

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#4 Go to a Denver Movie in the Park (check!)

I said I was gonna do this two years ago.  Then I said I was gonna do it last year.  I still haven’t done it.  Also, I’ve been using this same picture every year…

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#5 Cold brew some iced coffee (check and check!)

Because buying it from a coffee shop every morning would probably get expensive.  I actually bought a fresh bag of beans this week so I’m hoping to get the grounds soaking this weekend.  Side Note: The bag of coffee beans smells SO good.  I kept huffing them in our kitchen, until Joey told me I was being weird.

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#6 Run 10 miles

I’m kinda cheating because we’re running a fall half marathon, which mean summer training, which means I’d be running 10 miles whether it was on this bucket list or not.  I should probably be terrified, seeing as my normal weekly runs are 3 milers and 10 is a lot more than 3, but I’m kind of excited instead.

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#7 Go to My Brother’s Bar (check!)

It’s supposedly Denver’s oldest bar and I saw it on a list of 29 things you have to do in Denver.  Joey’s down because they (also) supposedly have a really great burger.

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#8 Finish our front yard

I guess I never tire of adding house/yardwork-related items to my summer bucket lists.  I actually feel like this one is doable, though!  We’ve made a ton of progress already and we’re having SIX TONS of rock delivered on Saturday.  Talk about exciting weekend plans 🙂

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#9 Go to Yoga on the Rocks (check!)

I already roped Jenn into going with me.  Though, to be fair, it didn’t really take much more convincing than me saying I wanted to go this year.  She’s perfect like that.

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#10 Go to The Big Wonderful

I’m always delighted by how many fun and cool things there are to do in Denver and a weekly outdoor market that’s part flea, part food festival and part concert is one of those fun and cool things.  There’s even a beer garden!  And it supports local vendors!  But most of all, you say food trucks, I say I’m there.

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#11 Make fudgsicles

Because I had a huge hankering for one the other night when we made the stupid decision to brew beer and use the oven at the same time and it was legitimately 85° in our house.  And yeah, that’s not a photo of Joey eating a fudgsicle, but it’s also a cold delicious dessert so that’s as close I’m getting picture-wise.

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#12 Start that mother-daughter book club (check!)

You know, the one where the only members are my mom and I.  We’re both finishing up other books, but I think our first pick is going to be Flowers for Algernon.  I’m a shitty English degree holder and don’t even know what that book is, but I’m still excited to read it.

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#13 Plant flowers (check!)

I don’t even really know what I mean when I say that.  That’s how clueless I am!  I’m thinking something along the lines of a flower planter box/pot/tire? (

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#14 Take a weekend trip to Fort Collins

In addition to being awesome and getting us Denver Passports, Hannah and Josh were also awesome and got us Boulder and Fort Collins Passports, so I think a weekend trip is in order.  I haven’t been to Fort Collins in YEARS.  Plus the year I lived there, I was not of age so the drinking scene will be totally new to me.

What’s on your summer bucket list?!

Weekend Things

Lauren1 Comment

Even though it’s Monday, I have a headache and my hamstrings are sore as hell, I think it might be impossible to be in a bad mood today.  Because: JUNE!  SUMMER!  80 DEGREES!  I’M WEARING A DRESS!  I think a lot of problems are solved simply by a change of mindset, so when Joey was lamenting that today was Monday, I told him he needs to stop thinking of things as weekend or weekday and just think of it all as summer.

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If I told you I fell asleep on the couch at 9:30 on Friday night would you still be my friend?  We seriously drove 45 minutes to a homebrew store and when we got there they had JUST closed.  Nooo!  So instead, we stopped at Whole Foods, listened to the Rockies almost almost pitch a perfect game and started Top of the Lake before my aforementioned accidental passout.  Livin the life!

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Saturday and Sunday mostly consisted of us doing yard work.  We set new fence posts for our white picket and I did all the painting, which means I still have white paint in my hair.  It won’t come out!  We also set pavers on the other half of our yard and tore out a jungle of weeds so that we can put rock over the dirt.  So yeah, I’m sore and sunburned but something about using your own two hands (and hamstrings) to make your home nice feels so dang good.  Plus, enough of that crossfit shit, digging a trench and lifting bags of sand is a real workout.

P.S. It’s important to still use the gate, even if you don’t have to.

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I loved Joey extra when he was adamant about working really hard in our yard but also about not working past 5 PM.  We cleaned ourselves up on Saturday and walked to dinner.  As in, it wasn’t raining, it was warm and the restaurant we wanted to go to was that close.  HAPPINESS ABOUND!  We walked past this “good sign” on the way there 🙂

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We’d been to Jezebel’s once before and didn’t have the best experience but the menu is full of southern favorites, it’s so close to our house and it’s part of the Denver Passport Program so we just really wanted to give it another chance.  I’m so glad we did!  The service was awesome and the food was really impressive.  I sipped a Southern Mule on the patio and felt perfectly content.  Also, my shrimp and grits were killer.  More of that Andouille and those big ol’ shrimp, please.

The whole walk home I was quoting The Wedding Singer (I have no idea why…) so we were so in the mood to watch it when we got home, but couldn’t find it anywhere!  We settled for The Big Lebowski, man.  Insert, Joey’s turn to fall asleep on the couch 🙂

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Sunday started with pancakes and ended with us actually making it to the homebrew store.  This weekend has come full circle!  We also watched a few more episodes of Top of the Lake (which, for the record, isn’t really grabbing me all that much), cooked our favorite warm weather dinner and an evening stroll to the local library.  

Viva la summer!