I am sick.  Again.

I am not even joking when I say I started coughing the minute we landed back in Denver last week.  And not a dainty lady-like cough.  A loud donkey-like cough.  I guess I should be glad I was able to sandwich our trip to Vegas in between two colds, but I would rather just not have had either cold at all.

That being said, this weekend has been a blast.  Memorial Day weekend, the unofficial kickoff to summer, is one of my favorite times of the year, so I’ll be damned if I let a stupid cold get in the way of any warm-weather fun.

It is officially taco season (for me, at least) and I could not be happier.  This recipe for Blackened Shrimp Tacos was in last month’s Cooking Light so we tried it out on Friday and loved it.  Then again, what isn’t there to love about perfectly spicy shrimp, crumbly queso fresco, mashed avocados and a ranch-y mayo sauce?  Oh and Joey made me have that strawberry margarita.  He’s so unfair.

Headed to the Boulder Famers’ Market on Saturday morning, totally forgetting the Boulder Creek Fest was also going on.  It was packed with people and tents, so we grabbed breakfast, took a quick stroll along the creek and got out of there.  Whose idea was that outing anyways?…

We ate cheesy pupusas and I grabbed my beloved Vietnamese Iced Coffee and completely regretted it later when I was buzzing so hard on caffeine that I felt absolutely insane.  Some days caffeine doesn’t affect me and other days, it hits me so hard that I vow to never drink it again.  I had to stage my own intervention later that day and tell my family and Joey to not allow me to drink coffee anymore.

My mom bought tickets for us girls to see Les Mis on Saturday afternoon at the Buell Theatre in Denver and I loved the performance.  Call me crazy, but I wasn’t especially wowed by the film version so I was sort of worried I wouldn’t like the play either, but I loved seeing it live.  It may have helped that the actors in the play had better singing voices than Russel Crowe.

After the show, I forced my mom and sister to walk around Denver with me to find something to eat (all those starving French peasants were making me so hungry!) and stumbled upon the Denver Day of Rock celebration, complete with a line of FOOD TRUCKS!  I was slightly excited.  I got two Korean Short Rib Street Tacos at the Epicurean Catering truck and felt totally revived afterwards.  Stole a few of my mom’s sweet potato fries too 🙂  They had a glaze on them that made them different than any other sweet potato fry I’ve ever tasted.

A friend of ours was in town for his brother’s high school graduation party, so we spent the rest of Saturday night at the celebration.  This is legitimately another friend of ours’s car.  The shifter is made of a Coors Lights tap handle.  He says he’s going to fix it up, but I say leave it as is!

Also, if you want to feel old, play beer pong at a high school graduation party where none of the kids even know what beer pong is.  Also, play one game and make all of one cup and you will realize you certainly aren’t in college anymore.  All beer pong nostalgia aside, the sunset going on in the middle of the party was so spectacular.  Maybe I’m biased, but I swear Colorado sunsets are above all others.

I think this pictures basically sums up Sunday.  But that’s a whole different post.  I also went to yoga for the first time in for.ev.er.  I drove there with the windows rolled down, then chatted with the teacher and headed into the locker room, only to find pieces of my hair sticking straight up in the air.  Only slightly mortifying.

Monday was the annual running of America’s Best 10K, the Bolder Boulder.  We’ve been digging the Denver scene lately, but Boulder will always and forever have my heart.  Just look at that view!

Why Joey insists on doing this slip and slide during the race is beyond me.  He just ends up complaining about how he’s soaking wet and out of breath afterwards.

And speaking of things that are beyond me, I have no idea how these two people ran in these full bear costumes without passing out.  I can only imagine how hot it probably was in there.

My parents were nice enough to come down to crazy crowded Boulder just to watch us finish.  Thanks, Mom and Dad!

It certainly wasn’t our fastest 10K by any stretch of the imagination, but considering how terrified I was for the race — I haven’t run a 10K since the Bolder Boulder last year and last year I didn’t think I was going to make it up that final super steep hill into CU’s Folsom Field! — I felt pretty good about our results.

I really only go so I can hang out with these people all morning and sit in awe as the elite runners sprint 6 miles in about half an hour.  I see it happen every year and I still can’t believe it.

Rounding Memorial Day out with our first CSA (or Community Supported Agriculture) pick-up.  Basically, we’ll be stopping by this organic farm in Longmont every other week to pick up our share of fresh veggies.  They let us know ahead of time what we’ll be getting, so hopefully we’ll be able to plan what to do with our loot.  For now, will someone please tell me what to do with broccoli rabe?

And last but not least, a BBQ at my brother and sister-in-law’s.  Where my mother taught my niece to say “diamond,” and my nephew only pushed me over and told me he didn’t like me a couple times.  I swear he doesn’t really hate me 😛

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What did you do with your Memorial Day weekend?

Have you watched the new season of Arrested Development?

Are you much of a caffeine drinker?