Category: Wedding Fun

What I’m Loving Lately: Summer 2018

Lauren2 Comments

Every summer is my favorite summer but looking back, Summer 2015 really was one of the best and I think it’s because I embraced the busyness.  I was thinking less about how many alcoholic beverages I was consuming or if it was okay to eat another meal out and more about checking another restaurant off my list or prioritizing a trip to the museum on a Sunday.

This summer, I am trying to find a bit of balance between fun indulgences and responsibilities that might feel OBLIGATORY but are really just me being stubborn.  Nobody will die if I buy Larabars instead of making Dorsey Bars, in the same way that it will all be okay if I don’t attend every single week of the Farmers’ Market.  Less black and white thinking, more focus on enjoyment, being okay with not doing something and trusting that things will work out anyway.  These are the things I’m working on this summer.  Here are some things that are helping with that enjoyment part.

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No Pressure Gardening

Look, this garden is great and being able to walk into the backyard to grab some fresh basil is truly life-changing, but I’m still hitting the grocery store every week so I’m not entirely reliant upon homegrown stuff and that takes ALL the pressure off.  Anything that comes up and ends up being edible is just a bonus.  It also helps when your backyard gets a lot of sun and growing things is relatively easy.

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Waterloo Sparkling Water

LaCroix who?  We bought these at Whole Foods for our Memorial Day BBQ and had a ton leftover but I’m not complaining because coming home from work and cracking a refreshing beverage is pretty great.  I don’t even claim to like watermelon-flavored things but this one is really good.

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Andi Dog

Not to act like I’m the first person to ever own a dog but this is the first dog I’ve owned as a grownup person and even though he’s smelly and barks at every dog and refuses to eat until we feed him from our hand and insists on sleeping between Joey and I and is cranky in the morning, I JUST LOVE HIM SO MUCH.  He sits on my lap every morning when I eat breakfast and he has this little orange and blue ball that he tries to hide/protect by putting one paw over it and he howls to imitate sirens when an ambulance drives by and it’s all just the cutest.  Thank you, Andi Dog, for making my life 100x happier!

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Grilled Salmon

Can you even believe we had never grilled salmon until a month ago?!  Turns out it’s super easy, super fast and a super way to not turn the oven on.  Also gets the skin so perfectly crispy!  And when your main is a no-brainer, you have more time to tackle all the side dish recipes you’ve let pile up for the past five years.

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Prepping for Binge Mode: Harry Potter

If you haven’t been frantically re-reading the HP series in extreme anticipation of Binge Mode’s deep dive, then you and I (and Joey) are leading insanely different lives.  I’m mid-Order of the Phoenix and HOLY SHIT, I had forgotten about so many book details since I originally read it back in 2003!  It basically feels like I’m reading it for the first time and it’s been a PURE DELIGHT.

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Dorsey Sister Supper Club

We were like two glasses of Steigl Radler and several slices of pizza in at Cart-Driver, when my sister announced we should have weekly dinner dates this summer and I could just take her anywhere I wanted in Denver.  IN!  We had our inaugural Supper Club at Comida with watermelon-jalapeño margaritas, griddled tacos, fried shrimp and flan and I think I like this new ritual very very much ♥

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Summer Week Nights

Without any effort, Joey and I have fallen into a post-work groove.  It goes something like come home, spend half an hour in the back yard (reading, watering our garden, trying to keep our dog from egging on the neighbors’ dogs on the other side of the fence), cook dinner, eat in the back yard, clean up, walk our pup, hop into bed and read.  It makes my heart so happy!

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In other news, we just got back from a weekend trip to the Quad Cities to see our friends Nick and Tracy get married and while I’d like to share a bunch of pictures I took, all I have is two breakfast sandwiches, a rehearsal dinner selfie and the ceremony kiss, so I guess I’ll just say Milltown Coffee makes a mean lavendar honey latte, “All I Want for Christmas is You” is a surprising crowd favorite on the jukebox (even in June), ice cream makes for the best nightcap, BREW in the Village is a hidden gem and a good wedding is a true honor to witness ♥

Happy Monday!

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!