Tag: Little Man Ice Cream

Labor Day Weekend 2020

Lauren2 Comments

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again… I love Labor Day Weekend! I knew this one would be different — no in-person Rockies games, no social gatherings, no going out to dinner, no bike rides anywhere (Joey will barely let me do the dishes, let alone ride a bike!) — but I thought it could still be good and it truly was ❤

Friday night, we tag-teamed dinner, so Joey made grilled salmon and I made those WAY OVERSAUCED green beans (oops!) but it was all really good! And then we watched I’m Thinking of Ending Things. My sister texted me halfway through and said “We’re watching the worst movie!” and I definitely knew she was watching the same thing we were. Not going to lie, we were confused about what was happening and had to look it up afterward (when it made much more sense!) but I still liked the creepy/weird vibe and I thought all the performances were just so good! Toni Collette forever ❤

I got a Saturday morning snuggle from this sweet pup! 95% of the time, if Joey gets up before me, Andi will go downstairs with him and never return, so I was elated when he bounded back into our room after Joey left for a run. He didn’t even wake up when Joey came back inside!

Undercooked eggs (and just undercooked things in general) are a no when you’re pregnant but I asked my OB and she said eggs were fine just as long as they were pasteurized and thank god because Eggs Benedict sounded so good! We ordered from Snooze and it HIT THE SPOT! Plus that sweet potato pancake is just my favorite.

Joey was on a roll after his run and was cleaning the bathroom at 8 AM?? Then post-breakfast, he mowed the lawn, hung some hooks in the nursery/baby’s bathroom and mounted our baby monitor while I read in the rocking chair (the best!) and then who knows what we did the rest of the day! I think I made some cookies to stash in the freezer and Joey was getting prepped for his fantasy football drafts the next day.

I should mention my back has been killing me for the past week! I blame my father-in-law who asked me how my back was feeling and at the time, it felt so random because my back had been totally fine and it’s hurt since that day 😑 I can’t tell if it’s doing things or if it’s sitting still and not doing things that makes it hurt but the heating pad/lying down has helped.

We made an eggplant (with Japanese eggplant from our garden!) and tomato pasta bake for dinner, then decided to take a walk to get ice cream. We brought Andi and he only minorly panicked over being in a new place. They had Space Junkie (!!!) and I got Joey a femur-sized waffle cone of Buttermilk Cupcake and German Chocolate Cake and it was comically huge! Back at home, we watched The King of Staten Island (which is finally available to rent for $6) and it was about what we thought it would be. Which is to say Pete Davidson was funny albeit immature and the movie was unnecessarily long. I mostly liked it but I’m not sure it really had any narrative arc. Oh well!

Happy Golden Anniversary to us! That’s six years! On Saturday Joey asked me if I’d gotten him a present and I don’t know if it’s a brag or an embarrassment to say it hadn’t even crossed my mind to get a card, let alone a present 😬 Luckily, we were on the same page 😋 We lost our anniversary photo photographer (Chris and Amanda moved back to Illinois last year ☹), so we had to rig it up ourselves but good enough! We obviously had to take a masked one as well 😂

I made us pancakes and bacon for breakfast and then we sat outside until it got too hot. Andi even got a little brush, then gave me this moody pose when I tried to snap a pic. Did I mention it was HOT all weekend? We hit 100 degrees on Saturday and Sunday wasn’t much cooler. So once it started to heat up on Sunday, I hid inside for the entire rest of the day.

I’m trying to get a few things in the freezer for when baby comes but not too much because A) our freezer isn’t so big, B) we have plenty of good take out options here in Denver and C) my mom can cook (as she keeps reminding me ❤). Plus, who knows, maybe we’ll still manage to cook! But I did want us to have a quick breakfast option, so I threw these egg sandwiches together and I think they’ll be really good!

After that, Joey had two fantasy football drafts that took up basically the rest of the day, so I hid upstairs and read/took a nap, then at 7, I left to pick us up an anniversary dinner from Cart-Driver. We hadn’t had that clam pizza in so long, so it tasted extra good. It was also literally raining ash outside (Colorado has a bunch of fires going on ☹), so it was an indoor celebration and I totally forgot to take a picture but I think you’ve seen enough photos of that clam pizza 😋

Labor Day! We had a small list of things we wanted to get done and except for packing our hospital bag (which I’m hoping to still do this week), we got it all taken care of. First, we grabbed coffee at Black Eye (which is finally back open!) then ate breakfast and watched The Kitchen before installing both car seats in our cars. Please don’t judge our fake baby because Joey kept making jokes about getting one until I finally actually got one 😂 Andi was acting like a total weirdo and just sitting straight forward next to the car seat and we thought it was really funny! Hopefully the car seats pass inspection 🤞

The rest of the day, we sort of alternated between relaxing on the couch and getting stuff done. I made us some graham crackers for dessert later and Joey cleaned the bathrooms and covered up our garden/flowers because no joke, it was supposed to go from 90 degrees to 37 degrees with a chance of snow!!!! I’ve seen some whacky weather in Colorado but this tops the cake. Those fires sure could use some moisture though, so I’ll allow it. I took a quick photo of the planter my sister got me just in case it didn’t survive, so I could see just how much it’s grown since she first gave it to us!

Then we tag-teamed dinner again. Joey made us these killer Honey Bourbon Chicken Pops and I made this Sesame Corn and Basil Saute for the second time in a week because it’s so so good and easy and altogether this meal made me so happy!

It was already sort of windy and the air quality was not great, but we sat outside just long enough to roast some marshmallows and toast our S’mores to a wonderful Labor Day Weekend ❤

Memorial Day Weekend 2019

Lauren1 Comment

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!