Tag: Brider

Weekend Things: Family Time in Estes Park

Lauren1 Comment

This weekend was just so so good.  When it comes to vacationing, I find I always have my sights set on far off locations and forget about the places, like Estes Park, that are only a few hours drive away, in our very own state.  And I always forget just how refreshing and re-energizing that fresh mountain air and time spent with loved ones can be!

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We stopped in Lyons to grab a beer at Oskar Blues Grill & Brew and look, I thought I didn’t like Oskar Blues beers, but then I had the Nooice Saison and loved it so much.  So I guess I don’t know who I am or what I like 🙂  They have an old school video game arcade that Joey and Adam were pretty into but my childhood mainly consisted of Mario Party on Nintendo 64 so I guess the nostalgia was kind of lost on me.

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Once in Estes (we saw three elk on our way!), we checked into our BEAUTIFUL condo, maybe locked ourselves out within three minutes of being there — four adults should be smarter than this, right? — made a very important beer run then had dinner at Tavern 1929, because when the lodge you’re staying at has its own restaurant and 18 microbrews, you obviously make a reservation.  We all dubbed Joey’s elk chops the best dish of the night and considered ordering dessert but then decided to retire to our condo for some hot tub/puzzle/sad sad Rockies game time.

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Saturday morning waffles for all!  Remember how I mentioned Joey made a bunch of buttermilk waffles last weekend?  Purposely, because we froze the extras then packed them up and just popped them in the toaster for everyone on Saturday morning.  I’d never tried this re-toast and revive method but they were great!  Plus, drinking coffee outside in the crisp mountain air is MY FAVORITE.  And I never pass up a coffee-mug-with-the-mountains-in-the-background picture 🙂

At 10, we made our way into town for the event of the weekend: The Scandinavian Midsummer Festival!  I didn’t even know A) Joey’s family had Scandinavian roots or B) that those painted horses are called Dala Horses and are a Swedish thing!  We totally had one of those in our house, growing up.  In all seriousness, the weather was beautiful, the festival was packed and it was cool to see all the Scandinavian culture.  We had lunch, made a stop at the taffy store and grabbed ice cream in town before heading back to our condo to rest up before dinner.

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We had a bit of a dinner party at our place later on.  Everyone came over with food and Joey and I cooked salmon with a recipe we’d never used at a size we’d never cooked but it all went swimmingly (sorry, had to make a fish pun) and this beet salad always impresses.  And I learned what potato bologna was and even got to try it for myself.  Had many Swedish learning experiences this weekend, guys!

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Okay, all I have are food photos from the beginning and the end of Sunday, but in between was a bunch of good stuff, like a quick and painless drive back from Estes, lunch at BriDer, couch lounging, garden surveying (my parents watered for us while we were gone and I love them for it ♥), running (amen for a quick weekend cool off in Denver), kombucha brewing and dinner cooking.  It felt like there were 10 extra hours in the day and I was not mad about it!  Joey made garlic scape pesto with scapes from the farmers’ market and, get this, chard from our garden.  Yes!  It was so good and we used it in some pasta for dinner and all was right in the world.  Except the Rockies… WHAT HAVE WE DONE TO DESERVE SUCH PAIN??

Please tell me what you did this weekend, I’d love to hear!

Weekend Things

Lauren4 Comments

A weekend sandwiched between two vacations just can’t compete with the days on either side, can it?  This weekend sure did try though.  By giving us the dreamiest end of summer/beginning of fall weather, a chance to get back to the Union Station Farmers’ Market, plans with friends, Sunday breakfast and even some time to get our shit together (oh right, that laundry and cooking thing…) before the week started.  Can’t complain about any of that 🙂

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Friday night, we headed over to Hannah and Josh’s to see their house now that they’re all cleaned up and moved in and WHOA it looked so so good!  Hannah is (and always has been) so good with that home decor stuff and I’m like “TEACH ME!”  We hit up The Old Mine afterwards for dinner/drinks.  They brew their own ciders and even though Joey and I were being beer snobs about it, turned out their cider was amazing.  Got this cutesy taster of apricot-jalapeño that was seriously good.

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We went for a run Saturday morning, then biked over to the farmers’ market and even though we hadn’t been in a few weeks, I was back in my happy place just like that ♥  It was blissfully UN-crowded and we bought these HUGE nitro iced coffees.  I’m not usually into that stuff but these were chocolate-milk-creamy status.  But here’s a sad sad story.  ALL I wanted was to bike home with a butternut in my basket.  We spotted one but wanted to consider all our options so we walked the whole market then, when we went back to buy it, it was gone.  NOOOO!  Fake Pouted about it for most of the day.

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Post-butternut blunder, we biked home, cleaned ourselves up and grabbed a quick lunch at Brider.  I got this hugh jass salad and ate every last bite, thankyouverymuch.  Afterwards, we headed to a graduation party for Joey’s cousin and there was an ice cream bar so Joey was in his happy place.  Then off to Becca’s birthday party where everyone was dressed up 50’s style, except us because we’re boring and lame 😛

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Joey had a 10 mile training run Sunday morning so I biked along with him and not gonna lie, it was kinda nice to be up and at em before it got hot and the paths got crowded.  And it was also nice to be BIKING 10 miles instead of RUNNING them!  Joey killed it though.  Sunday Breakfast afterwards at Revelry Kitchen.  Yelp had very mixed reviews but when that happens, it’s best to just try it for yourself, ya know?  And we had zero complaints!  Chilaquiles forever, please.

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Joey was out watching football for most of the afternoon so I binge-cleaned the kitchen (all the coffeeeeee), hit up the grocery store then walked myself over to Base Coat for a manicure.  My nail color is called Comida and I think that’s rather fitting.  Back at home, we harvested our BABY EGGPLANT and then I walked around holding it and thinking it was the cutest thing to ever exist (except that butternut…).  We used it to make some baba ganoush that Joey kept calling “tabbouey” because A) he’s confusing his Mediterranean foods and B) he doesn’t know how to pronounce tabbouleh.  Should I be writing these things about my husband on the internet??

This week: Rockies game!  My uncle is coming into town!  Dinner in Denver (hopefully)!  Vaca on Thursday!  All the best things, basically.  What did you do this weekend?!