4th of July 2020

What a weekend! Guys, I’m tired. I think we almost always do our own two-person thing on the 4th, but since we never had a Memorial Day BBQ and everyone had the day off, it only felt right to invite our family over for ribs. Between that and taking a trip to Loveland on Friday and a trip to Frederick on Sunday, I am beat, but in a good way 😃

Can I also say that celebrating America felt weird this year. I’m not going to pretend any of the problems this country is facing right now, just popped up this year, but they are in the forefront of my mind and look, I know there are many great things about America, but she’s not looking her best right now. It’s tough.

I don’t know how to segue out of that one, so here’s a bump selfie comin in hot! Please ignore the messy state of our room, okay? 24 weeks, can you believe it?!

We had Friday off, so while Joey headed over to our old house to do some last-minute yard clean up before our renters move in, I baked ribs and ran over to D Bar to pick up a 4th of July cherry pie! It was fresh out of the oven so it hadn’t quite set up yet and started leaking when I put in on the car seat, so I quickly had to move it to the floor to be more level. Smelled so good!!!

Afterward, we headed up to Loveland for a long overdue visit to my brother, sister-in-law, niece and nephew. My nephew is like 5′-8 now?? And my niece has braces and they BOTH have cell phones. When did they get so grown up?? It was really nice to chat with my bro and sis-in-law and would you look at that pendant my brother made me?? GORGEOUS! ❤

Back at home, we lazed for a bit then made portobello burgers for dinner eaten al fresco. Oh and we watched The Photograph afterward and Joey liked it but I thought it was just alright.

Well we started the 4th in a relaxed way with buttermilk pancakes and PEACHES (!!!). Since we haven’t been to the Farmers’ Market, I have lost all sense of what’s in season, so maybe it’s still early for peaches but I couldn’t wait any longer! After that, the whole day just felt like a series of unfortunate incidents. First our A/C went out, then I exploded a stick of butter in the microwave, then our sink started leaking into the cabinet underneath, OY! But then everyone came over and even though it started raining just as Joey went to grill the ribs, we had a pretty new dining table to relocate to. We were able to move it back outside for dessert and to watch all of Denver shoot off fireworks from their backyard. It was NUTS! Andi didn’t seem to mind but Huni was over and spent the night huddled between Joey and I, shaking. Poor pup!

We did a bit of relaxing on Sunday morning, then whipped up some coleslaw and headed over to Bobby and Becca’s new house. It looks so nice!!! They are having a baby girl in just about a month, so we got to see the nursery and all those adorable newborn baby girl clothes ❤ They fed us lunch and dessert and we got to catch up and it was so nice. Back at home, we finished The Sopranos!!! I can’t believe we got through it that fast but I’m so glad we’ve finally seen it.

Please tell me how your 4th of July weekend was!

Memorial Day Weekend 2019

This weekend… wow! ♥

Leading up to this Memorial Day Weekend, I almost did that thing where I look up all my past MDW posts and feel the deep desire to do those same things in an effort to re-create the happiness of past years but then, I didn’t.  We already had a few plans in place and they felt good and right and enough.  I even took out a few things that I just didn’t feel like I had time for and was able to let them go without any of that guilt or FOMO I usually feel.  Plus I made it through the Bolder Boulder, so I guess that means the weekend was perfect!

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After what felt like much too long, we got together with Hannah, Josh and Mason to eat pizza, exchange birthday presents, get caught up on each other’s lives and most importantly, eat ice cream.  Mason looks quite pleased to be standing between two cones of Space Junkie and, I mean, can you blame him??  Hannah and I maybe stood in the regular line for 15 minutes before realizing they were out of our favorite flavor and made a beeline for the express booth where they luckily still had some.  In other news, Mason can walk, point out the letter O, play peek-a-boo, spot motorcycles and cheers drinks now and gosh, he is the absolute cutest!

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We started Saturday with Lemon Poppy Seed Yogurt Pancakes and I already had four on the pan when I thought “these don’t look right” and realized I hadn’t added any baking powder!  Um those went into the trash, but the rest turned out great.  Afterward, we hit up the grocery store(s) for BBQ supplies — Joey and I were maybe on opposite sidbes of the produce section when we both heard “Screaming Infidelities,” looked over at each other and mouthed “your hair, it’s everywhere” to each other, ha ha! — and not enough other food for the rest of the week (oops!).  Then I left Joey to work in our backyard and headed to the mall to find a dress for an upcoming wedding.  I think I tried on about 100 dresses and finally bought one.  Have I mentioned how much I hate shopping? 😛

We went to the Rockies game that night and managed to see the one loss of the series but it did happen to be Game of Thrones night and I loved how they imitated the intro but with Coors Field on the map.

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Sunday, what a day!  We started with our monthly coffee date.  Wait, no, we started by being minorly alarmed that I felt itchy ALL OVER.  I took a Benadryl and it seemed to calm down but not going to lie, I still feel low-level itchy today.  Anway, I had Hoja in mind for our coffee date, but then Joey suggested we walk to Huckleberry and in a rare sighting of flexibility, I happily agreed.  Toasts and iced coffee in the sunshine ♥  We went home afterward and really cleaned the house!  Felt so good to get everything spick-and-span.  We had ribs baking in the oven while we cleaned and they smelled so good!  Afterward, we mixed together two different kinds of no-churn ice cream (salted Oreo and strawberry with vanilla bean and white chocolate chips!) and I was DELIGHTED to discover it was only 2:45 and I fully had time to sit down and read for a bit AND go to yoga.

When I got back home, Joey had made a trip to Home Depot for a new lawn mower (our old one finally bit the dust), new doorknobs for our garage, a few things for our yard and the prettiest hanging plants!  I was so happy when I saw it all.  He is the very best.  We had this for dinner (YUM!) and watched Before Sunset.  I liked Before Sunrise better and also, is it supposed to be a compliment when someone tells you they have a wife and son but can’t stop thinking about you?

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Memorial Day, Bolder Boulder Day, the best day!  We didn’t realize until halfway through the race, but this was our TENTH time running the BB10K, whoa!  We each held up 10 fingers as we crossed the finish line in 59:07 and I felt very proud and happy.  Plus, our family walked the race this year!!!!  We maybe had two whole hours between our finish and theirs so we walked to The Hill for coffee, walked back Folsom Field, discovered we couldn’t bring our goodie bags back into the stadium (this makes no sense…), walked back to the car and finally (another six miles of walking later…) got back into the stadium just as the sun was coming out and John Mayer’s “New Light” started playing.  Never mind all the walking we had just done, I felt peak happiness in that moment!

My dad and Lori came in first and we totally missed them!!!  I couldn’t believe it!  But they seemed to have loved the race.  We did see my mom, my sister and Wayne come in though and I was so proud when I saw them all run through the finish line.  Timing worked out perfectly so that we were able to catch the Women’s Elite race and the winner of the Men’s Elite race all together afterward.  Gosh, those runners are incredible!

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We told everyone to come to our house for a BBQ at 2, then when we were just leaving Boulder at noon, hinted that it would be okay if everyone took their time arriving.  I was feeling slightly frantic trying to shower, get ready and put together a few dishes, but it turned out we had plenty of time and I was just about to text my sister and say “hurry, we can’t stop eating the dip!” when they showed up.  We got to use Joey’s new outdoor cooler, check our Lori’s cute new car and feast on ribs and it all made me feel so happy.  We pulled out the ice creams later on and the salted Oreo was amazing but the strawberry was a bit icy.  We blame the tupperware we froze it in. We were cleaned up, in our pajamas and parked on the couch by 5:30!  Joey and Andi (who was worn out from his play date with Huni) took a nap, while I watched part of Saving Private Ryan because it happened to be on and when they both woke up we started Game of Thrones: The Last Watch (I cannot believe how much went into the making of that show!) but by 8:30 I was EXHAUSTED.  I think I fell asleep the second my head hit the pillow.

What a perfect weekend!