Tag: Denver Chalk Art Festival

Weekend Things: Unexpected Perfection

LaurenLeave a comment

I thought Memorial Day Weekend was going to be my favorite weekend of the summer, but this weekend, the first weekend of June, caught me by surprise with just how perfect is was!  I know we’re only four days in, but June is THE BEST!

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Joey went golfing Friday afternoon and wasn’t planning to be home till late, so I did what any person does when home alone on a Friday night in a house that feels like it’s 90°… make no-bake granola and boil water (to brew kombucha) from the burner on your grill.  The second part of that plan was maybe a mistake because I ended up with a pot of water full of cotton, but shhh, anything to avoid heating up our house is fine by me.

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The rest of the night featured reading in the hammock, eating hot pink slider bun leftovers, watching the Rockies game with Andi (Heartbreak by the Dodgers #1) and then Joey came home and we resumed our watching of Arrested Development Season 5 until I looked over and he was full on sleeping, so I ordered us all to bed 🙂

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Saturday!  The best day!  Joey requested yogurt bowls when we woke up, so I made us each one, and then we ate them in the sunshine of the backyard before biking to the Famers’ Market for the first time this summer.  It’s such a small thing, this little trip we take (almost) every summer Saturday, but it makes me SO HAPPY.  It was already busy when we got there and early-summer produce is always a bit slim, but we got iced coffees and cherries and saw a long-haired dachshund and two new foods stands (BAO BUNS AND TACOS!) so I was truly in my happy place.

Spent the rest of the afternoon on this little retaining wall project Joey cooked up for us.  I lifted like 10 bricks and did very little complaining but OH MY GOD, it was actually really hard for me.  I woke up Sunday and everything was sore!  And before you make fun of me, we looked it up and they weigh 52 pounds each.  Joey was doing most of the work, but he named me Refreshment Coordinator so I helped by providing lunch, plus I arranged for our groceries to be delivered because that just seemed like a major time-saving move.

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We cleaned ourselves up fairly early because we wanted to grab dinner before the Rockies game.  I’d been wanting to try a new-to-us placed called Goed Zuur and oh my god, I cannot believe we had not been there before!  They mostly serve sour beers and we’re on the fence with those but I did have a good one from Odd13 and daily happy hour means it was only $3, plus the food choices were great.  We both opted for a hot dog and shared a bag of duck fat, black pepper & Parmesan popcorn that I think I may have been shoveling into my mouth.  Sooo good, we’ll be back for sure!

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The Rockies gave up EIGHT RUNS in the 7th inning, but thankfully, I was barely paying attention because we attended this game with Hannah, Josh and, for his first ever Rockies game, Mason!!!  He was wearing a little Rockies onesie, baby sunglasses and a teensy hat and I COULD NOT HANDLE THE CUTENESS!  They got him a First Rockies Game button and a picture with Dinger even ♥  He was so well-behaved (and such a flirt too!) but they decided to head out at the 7th inning stretch and Joey and I looked at the score (Heartbreak by the Dodgers #2) and decided to leave too.  Made the spontaneous decision to grab ice cream at Sweet Cow afterward and look, if it’s summer and you don’t have a nightly reminder set on your phone to get ice cream, are you even really living??

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The Sunday plan was for Joey to work on the wall and me to do our food prep for the week, but I thought about it and decided we needed to have more fun than that so I suggested we grab breakfast and hit up the Chalk Art Festival as soon as it opened up and Joey was game.  We got toast and a waffle at Huckleberry then made our way to Larimer Square.  The bad news is that it was already crowded with people but the good news is it probably wasn’t as crowded as it got to be later in the afternoon and it also wasn’t too hot.  I took some shot of my favorite ones, which turned out to be anything with bright or bold colors and then we got the heck out of there.  I checked and we hadn’t been to the festival in 5 YEARS, whoa!

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The rest of the day involved wall building, lunch making (Beet, Farro, and Watercress Salad with Fig Vinaigrette coming right up!) and laundry folding but I did sneak in a workout (amen for partly cloudy skies that make mid-day running possible) and a trip to the liquor store, because I take my roll as Refreshment Coordinator very seriously, okay?  Rockies lost AGAIN (Heartbreak by the Dodgers #3 = a sweep, UGH!) but let’s focus on how good the wall looks so far instead 🙂  Joey wanted to get it in before we get a sprinkler system (FINALLY!) at the end of the month and I already think it looks great!

Rounded out Sunday by reading on the porch swing, walking Andi, cooking a quick but delicious dinner of grilled salmon and a broiled veggie side, featuring radishes we grew ourselves (!) and eating it in the backyard (MY FAVORITE!) before finishing up a movie we started on Saturday called The Tale.  What can I say, except that it was deeply disturbing but masterfully made?  Look it up!  In conclusion, if the first weekend of June is any indication, this month is going to be incredible ♥

Weekend Things

Lauren4 Comments

This weekend was, in a word, perfect.  I mean, I wouldn’t have minded a little less wind, but in the scheme of things, a little wind isn’t so bad.  We started things off on Friday with a fun (and cheap!) dinner in the Highlands, aka my favorite neighborhood in Denver.  I surprised Joey by taking him to a new-to-us restaurant, Park Burger.

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We had the patio to ourselves for a quick pre-Rockies game dinner of beer, burgers and some perfectly crispy sweet potato fries.

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I think he liked it!

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It was a beautiful night at Coors Field, but we were facing a really good pitcher and neither of us had high hopes for a win.  We ended up ditching out early.  I swear it was Joey’s idea not mine for once.

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Saturday morning, we participated in the American Heart Association Heart Walk with a team Hannah organized.  Our team raised over $1000 and walked a 5K.  I was really proud of all of us.

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It was a little chilly (without the sun) but for the most part, the walk down 15th street was really enjoyable.  I love a good excuse to hang out in downtown Denver.  The cool brick buildings, guessing how much some of the lofts probably cost and making a mental note of any breweries was really fun.

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We were also given these pedometers.  By the end of the walk, everyone else had raked up numbers in the 9000-range and I was back in the 7000’s.  I don’t know how that happened but I was also closest to the 5K distance so I assume this pedometer was designed around someone with my stride 😛

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We happened upon the Denver Chalk Art Festival during the walk so afterwards, Hannah, Josh, Joey and I walked back over to check out the exhibits.  It was much cooler than it’s been in past years.  I’m sure the artists, who sit out on Larimer street for two full days, appreciated the clouds.  None of the pieces were too far along yet, but you could tell which ones were going to turn out really cool.

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Eventually we wandered over to 16th Street for some pizza.  Hannah has been talking up Mellow Mushroom for months so I was really excited to try it for myself.  Although the 16th Street location doesn’t have a giant psychedelic mushroom in the middle of the floor, the vibe was still very “mellow,” with a bunch of wacky mushroom drawings on the walls and bright blue lights everywhere.

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Also, $5 beer flights?  Yes please!  I got the wheat flight and Hannah got the seasonal sampler.  It only took us the entire length of lunch to decide which of Hannah’s beers was which, since they weren’t written in the menu like mine were.

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I ordered the small Kasmic Karma and it was delicious!  Like best pizza I’ve ever had.  It was ooey gooey and the crust was the perfect thickness.  Plus everything is better with a pesto swirl.  I can also vouch that Hannah and Joey’s pies were just as tasty.

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The highlight of Saturday night was an Indie double feature — Safety Not Guaranteed and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind — and froyo!  It’d been forever since we’d had froyo and this totally hit the spot.  I convinced Joey to put boba on his and they were so strange.  I felt like I was trying to eat one of those bath balls.  In other news, I loved both of the movies.  I can’t believe I’d never seen Eternal Sunshine but what a interesting, creative and thought-provoking movie.

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Today has been a delightful mix of work — lovely early morning run, grocery shopping, dishes — and relaxation — Rockies game, watching the Next Food Network Star premier and cooking a delicious dinner.  I think we sat in our seats for about two pitches before I felt like I was going to melt and forced Joey to go stand in the shade with me.  We won so I don’t think he minded.

I’m so not ready for this weekend to end.

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What did you do this weekend?

What is your idea of a perfect weekend?

What’s your favorite kind of pizza?