Tag: the Beatles

Weekend Things

Lauren1 Comment

Okay, it has been rainy, cloudy and mild all weekend and, I’m just going to say it, it feels like FALL.  I know, I know, it’s only the end of July, but this change in weather (albeit temporary) totally has me giddy.  If the remainder of the summer feels this way, I will not mind a single bit.  Other things that had me giddy this weekend included Friday night at the ballpark, my mom’s birthday on Saturday and lots of fun running around on Sunday.

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And oh hey, we actually won this game.  By a lot!  We ran by Vitamin Cottage on our way home from work to buy some rolled oats — because that’s what everyone does to kick off the weekend, right? — and decided to pick up some dinner to bring to the game too.  For the record, a pita wrap filled with hummus, falafel and veggies is where it’s at.  We sat right above the Rockies bullpen and one of the pitchers tossed a ball up to Joey.  I made the executive decision to give it away when a little boy who sat down next to me a couple of innings later.  It was the right thing to do.

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Saturday was my mom’s birthday and it only felt right that I make her a red velvet cake since she made me one for my birthday.  Plus I badly needed an excuse to to bust out my new mixer.  It worked amazingly, in case you were wondering.  Above is a picture of my sous chef, ahem, sleeping on the ground just outside of our kitchen.  He’s fired.  Anyways, the cake tasted amazing but I didn’t give myself enough time for the cake to cool before frosting it and it turned into a melty mess.  You won’t be seeing pictures of the finished product.  It’s for your own good.

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Back in the day, my family spent every birthday celebration at the Olive Garden.  These days, we’ve become a little more food sophisticated and the Med is our new birthday dinner restaurant of choice.  And yes, I was just celebrating my birthday there two weeks ago.  Never.gets.old.  The happy hour selection (and prices!) can’t be beat and the food never disappoints.  Except this one time when I had a “salad” made of bread, chickpeas, and red onion.  Anyways, it was an all around hit on Saturday.  Plus the company was great.  We got my mom tickets to a Beatles tribute show at Red Rocks later this month.  We’re all going and could not be more excited.  Viva la Beatles!

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We fully intended on going to the Boulder Outdoor Theater after dinner to see Moonlight Kingdom but towards the end of dinner it started pouring!  We were sitting outside but luckily ended up being underneath an overhang so we got to sit back and watch the rest of the outdoor diners scatter and the servers get totally soaked as they dashed back and forth in the rain.  We still made the walk over to the “theater,” paid $10 to get in, sat in the rain for 10 minutes then decided it wasn’t going to let up and headed home for ugly red velvet cake and Moonlight Kingdom via Redbox.  We walked past this rubber duck in a fountain on the way back to our car.

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The sun finally came out late yesterday afternoon, but most of the day was more rain and gloom.  Joey is training for a half marathon in October and had a 7 mile run on the agenda, so I decided to take a rainy bike ride next to him.  Afterwards we took yet another trip into Boulder.  Mustard’s Last Stand, a old Boulder standby, was celebrating it’s 35th anniversary with 99 cent hot dogs, so it seemed like the perfect opportunity to fulfill a craving I’ve had for the past couple of weeks…a simple unpretentious hot dog with ketchup, mustard and relish.  Craving officially satisfied.  Later we headed over to Joey’s aunt and uncle’s to celebrate the July birthdays (yes that’s me again).  We brought lots-o-guac and enjoyed the fresh fall air out on the patio.

Happy Monday!

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What did you do this weekend?

Do you have a favorite kind of cake?

It’s too early for talk of fall, right?

Vegas Vacation: Part I

Lauren2 Comments

I don’t even know where to start.  Our flight (delayed almost 3 hours!!) got in late last night and we weren’t in bed until 2 AM, so I might still be delirious today, but I had SO MUCH FUN on our Vegas Vacation.  So delirious or not right now, I feel so darn happy and am going to ride this high straight through my recap.

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After one crowded flight (they separated all us “kids” so I was glad the flight went smoothly and I didn’t have to clutch onto a stranger’s hand during any turbulence) and one short cab ride we made it to our hotel, Aria at City Center.  The hotel is really new and really nice!

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This means it’s clean, classy, and well ventilated — none of that smoky smell in the casino! — but it also means a bottle of water costs $8 and proximity to the casino is irrelevant because we couldn’t afford to gamble there!  If I had to do it again, I’d probably stay at the Bellagio or Planet Hollywood instead since we walked over there about a million times.

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First priority after check-in: hit the Strip and find “one of those tall drinks!”  The three of us girls grabbed these at Planet Hollywood for $18 a piece (!!) and 32 ounces later, we didn’t feel a thing.  Except super full and like we never wanted anything sugary again.  Such a disappointment!

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Afterwards, we (and by we, I mean Hannah and Joey) parked it at a craps table while we waited for a table at Gordon Ramsey’s BurGR.  Then the 8 of us (my parents, my sister, my uncle, his friend Michelle, Hannah, Joey and I) feasted on burgers, fries and beers.

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I thought everything, from the sweet potato fries sprinkled with powdered sugar, to my cheddar cheese and butter lettuce-topped burger were delicious.  Plus the price was right (for Vegas, at least) and the beer selection was great.  I was not a fan of Joey’s Arrogant Bastard ale, but the menu description was hilarious.

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We ended the night by watching the fountain show over at the Bellagio (told you we were over there a lot), which for the record, is a lot better at night.  Watching the fountains dance to Michael Jackson was more than entertaining.  For anyone who’s seen the show, did it also make you nervous that there were ducks swimming around in there??  I just kept picturing one getting shot hundreds of feet into the air by the water.

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Sunday was probably my favorite day of the entire trip.  The four of us grabbed breakfast and hit the pool, where we lounged, drank girly drinks (well except for Joey), and cooled off in the water.  Later in the afternoon, we met up with my mom, my uncle and Michelle for lunch and beer inside the Mirage and then lost some money on a dog racing game.  Oh and I bought some Coach shoes on sale, score!

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Since we all had such a late lunch, we decided to grab dinner after our 9:30 PM show (viva late night dinners!), which left some time for naps and then I snuck in some time at the penny slots before the eight of us met up to head back over to the Mirage for Cirque du Soleil Love!

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I, along with the rest of my family, am a huge Beatles fan so I was beyond excited for this show.  Plus half of us had never seen a Cirque show and it had been years since we’d seen one for the other half of us.  I LOVED the show!  I was kind of surprised by how good it was considering the blank expressions on the faces of all the people leaving the 7:30 PM show and the total lack of enthusiasm from the crowd during our show.  Society is so desensitized these days!

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I will say it was a much more music/dance-focused version of Cirque, instead of being about all the crazy acrobatics but I didn’t mind for a second.  The playlist, fashion and classic Beatles characters (think Sgt. Pepper, Father McKenzie, Mr. Kite and Lucy) were all perfect!  I would easily see it again.  We’ll just skip right over that part where my sister left her wallet inside the theater and thought she’d lost it completely.

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Afterwards, we tried to catch the volcano explosion outside of the Mirage but the last show had just ended so we settled for snacks and beer at Munchbar inside Caesar’s Palace.  Let it be known that “tiny grilled cheese” sounds a lot better than “regular-sized grilled cheese cut into smaller pieces.”  Can’t go wrong with a quesadilla though.

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A totally perfect day.