Red Rocks – Page 2 – Life as Lauren

Friday, June 1st: Spending half my lunch hour at the grocery store and feeling a bit frantic/impatient standing in line at the self-checkout.

Saturday, June 2nd: Biking to the Farmers’ Market for the first time this summer and feeling like we were back in our summer Saturday morning groove ♥

Sunday, June 3rd: Having the oven on for 2 hours to roast two giant beets, that I definitely should have cut into smaller pieces.

Monday, June 4th: Carrying two Spicy Black Bean Burrito Bowls outside to eat dinner in the back yard and feeling extreme happiness about what was just a regular old Monday, but made better because it was summer and we could eat outside and still have time to walk our pup afterward before the sun went down.

Tuesday, June 5th: Going for my usual Tuesday morning run but instead of pushing myself, I took it at a snail’s pace and then felt really good by the end.

Wednesday, June 6th: Wanting an exact repeat of Monday, then deciding to let Wednesday night unfold on its own terms and hey, we still got to eat dinner outside!

Thursday, June 7th: Laughing really hard with Joey as he told me a story about the chaos that had unfolded at his basketball game the night before.

Friday, June 8th: Feeling my pup’s head resting on my leg when I woke up and realizing his BFF Joey had already gotten up and he hadn’t followed him out of our room for once!

Saturday, June 9th: Feeling proud of myself for going to a social event solo and actually enjoying it!

Sunday, June 10th: Sitting in my car in the Nordstrom Rack parking lot and giving myself a mental pep talk to head to the mall to dress shop when I felt like I had zero energy.

Monday, June 11th: Feeling that “oh shit, I’m leaving for vacation on Thursday!” angst that had my brain creating a to-do list that I couldn’t actually tackle at work.

Tuesday, June 12th: Feeling crabby and on edge all day.

Wednesday, June 13th: Discovering an almost bloomed bud on my sister orchid.

Thursday, June 14th: Eating a homemade burrito in the car on our way to Iowa.

Friday, June 15th: Singing “All I Want for Christmas is You” with a bar full of people.

Saturday, June 16th: Eating a cold piece of Little Caesar’s pizza at a wedding at midnight.

Sunday, June 17th: Watching a low hanging cloud unfurl as we drove through Nebraska.

Monday, June 18th: Taking 8 friends to the Rockies game and feeling like I got to spend time with them all.

Tuesday, June 19th: Feeling rushed and overwhelmed while trying to make lunch salads for the week and dinner all at once in a hot house.

Wednesday, June 20th: Being blown away (again! still! forever!) by Kaleo. This time (like the first time!) at Red Rocks (and with Hannah and Josh), so it was extra good.

Thursday, June 21st: Back to eating dinner al fresco after a few days off and feeling like it was the best way to celebrate the first official day of summer.

Friday, June 22nd: Being in a bad mood for a reason I couldn’t place, then miraculously feeling better once the sun was out.

Saturday, June 23rd: Petting our dog with a shaky hand while we waited to see a new vet for the first time and wondering how Andi would react.

Sunday, June 24th: Thinking pizza sounded good for dinner and just going with it instead of trying to talk myself into cooking something at home.

Monday, June 25th: Making it out of the house, everything in hand, on time for work.

Tuesday, June 26th: Driving home with a book club high because the discussion was lively, the book was wonderful, the friends were a plenty and probably mostly because I ordered a glass of wine with dinner.

Wednesday, June 27th: Stinging sweat dripping into my eyes during a hot and difficult yoga class.

Thursday, June 28th: Driving around for 15 minutes trying to find a parking spot in the Highlands.

Friday, June 29th: Feeling sort of tired but SO THANKFUL not to have any Friday night plans.

Saturday, June 30th: Second guessing myself after buying a veeeery soft cheese for our pre-Shakespeare Fest picnic.

It’s July tomorrow and I can’t even believe it but I’m also incredibly excited because it’s many-a-family-member-birth-month and shockingly, it still seems less busy than June and I’m totally fine with that!

I originally wrote this post earlier in the summer, when I had barely made it through any of the things I had imagined myself doing that season. Since then, we crossed off a bunch of “Summer Bucket List” items, but I wanted to share it anyway, as a reminder that it’s completely okay to take summer at your own pace and maybe not get to all the things you thought you were going to get to. There are plenty of future summers for those things and in the meantime, you might just discover happiness in a whole slue of unplanned activities 🙂

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When I looked at my Summer Bucket List, hanging on the magnetic board in our kitchen, with just two items crossed out, I felt sad. But then I thought of all the wonderful and fun things I did this summer that weren’t on that list and I felt sad no more. I didn’t fail, I just wrote the wrong list!

What if, instead of spending most of our time trying new things, we just fine tuned/perfected/cemented our love for old things/routines/habits/experiences. Getting better at stuff you already know you love is totally an accomplishment to me.

We went to the Farmers’ Market every Saturday we could and knew the best tents for tomatoes and just how much we could fit into my bike basket (even if we still bought more than that every time…).

We watched Dirty Dancing at Film on the Rocks and knew you forego the tailgate in favor of a amphitheater picnic because it means getting in earlier and grabbing a better seat.

I went to Yoga on the Rocks, not once but twice! We went to so many good concerts and even upped our tailgate game by buying an actual table to sit at.

I baked ALL THE THINGS. If weekly pie/cobbler/cake is wrong, then I don’t want to be right. But don’t worry, we still made time for a trip to the ice cream parlor too.

We dined al fresco so many times and didn’t take a single backyard dinner for granted because they are, arguably and low key-ly, the best part of summer.

I read and ran and relaxed. Uptight might be my middle name, but when there’s corn to grill and hammocks to read/nap in, who has time to worry about how clean (or dirty) their kitchen floor is.

I got a new grill and we found that sweet spot between BBQing for a group and just grilling up a quick dinner for ourselves. In the end, that mostly means we just ate a lot of good things this summer.

Don’t even get me started on our little garden that I love with all my heart. We were so much more organized and prepared this year and it was so fun to see new things grow and have that 10-minutes to water and admire all those cute little vegetables after work.

And let’s not forget weddings and vacations and weekends spent with our families that could have been stressful but ended up being relaxing and rejuvenating and a good reminder that despite all the bad things in the world, you have your people and they have you.

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