The smoke from wildfires in the West have made it pretty gross outside in Colorado, but we still made the most of it when we had some besties visit from New York last weekend.
I used to think that it was preposterous to even think about school/fall/the end of the year before Labor Day, but as Instagram has taught me, it’s actually fairly common for schools around the country to start before then. Here in our little slice of Colorado heaven, Lotte will be starting kindergarten (SOB) and Grace will be back to preschool starting next Tuesday.
Le sigh. Summer, where did you go?
Besides our big ole’ road trip and Lotte’s 5th birthday, this summer has been but a blink. We’re looking forward to the girls getting back to school (even though they loved summer camp!) and seeing all their old friends, and we’re hopeful that this school year will see some semblance of normalcy. There will be masks, of course, but if we can just keep the kids in school, that would be such a blessing.
Again, le sigh. The world we live in these days.
Anyway, we had one of my good friends and her daughter — Lotte’s best NYC friend, she informed me — visit last weekend, and today was the girls’ last day at summer camp. We’re soaking it in, and keeping our fingers crossed for the fall future.
Bis bald, friends!
Lotte had the best time trying out track this summer, and we had the best time watching her!2nd and 3rd place in her races … wahoo! We didn’t get around to our annual paddle out on Standley Lake yet, but we did pal around the lake quite a bit, which is always a delight.There were a lot of porch hangs, as well <3And a LOT of cuddles with this treasure…Peak summer vibes right here.We went to a children’s concert in Boulder when our NYC friends visited, and it was so stinkin’ cute!Taking it all in while avoiding the crowds, something I’m sure you’ve all come to excel at, as well. Smokey mountain views.Someone thoroughly enjoyed her first concert experience!Dad and daughter <3Our “strolley” (as Chris lovingly refers to the collapsible Radio Flyer we have) is such a game-changer every single place we go. Fine, Chris, I admit here, in public, that it was a great purchase!Fiona brought flower crowns for Lotte’s birthday!The sweetest!Nothing says summer quite like a run through the backyard sprinklers.We headed into Golden and hit up the Golden Mill one of the days that Carla and Fiona were here. This place is quickly becoming one of our must-hit spots for guests.The ice cream there is a must!This trio agreed …These guys were just the sweetest … even given the occasional complete meltdown 😉Carla and I were roommates our freshman year of college, then worked one street away when we both started our careers in Manhattan. Now her daughter is five months older than Lotte and her son is two months younger than Grace. Love her to stinkin’ bits!I don’t know what they were judging here, but something about this photo is very sweet to me.We saw so many people tubing down the river while in Golden. It was very fun to sit in the park and shovel ice cream into our faces while watching other people exercise.Last day of summer camp calls for cute summer dresses!G sure does love a chocolate treat.This one <3
Happy day after Father’s Day to all you dads out there! I hope you were thoroughly spoiled and had just the best time with your loved ones. We’re in full-on packing/planning mode for our trip over here, but we did manage to get out to celebrate Chris for a bit, which was lovely. It was bagels and presents in the morning, followed by a short hike/walk to New Terrain Brewing Company, then a movie and dinner ordered in.
Glorious.
Anyway, wish us luck as we continue to prep for our cross-country adventure! Any advice for long car trips with littles? Send ’em my way!
Bis bald, friends!
Chris went for a run in the morning and came home to three very excited little ladies .. and the presents they had painstakingly picked out for him 😉You can park about a half mile from New Terrain and walk to the brewery, which is always a lot of fun. You walk behind an archery course, a dog park and a bike park, so there’s no end of things to keep the kids occupied watching.Someone was particularly mesmerized watching the archersIt was Em’s first brewery experience, and she approved.The girls have also been happy to get back out into the world, I think. They’ve been pretty happy with the outings …Particularly where treat are involved!
Living that post-vaccine life … or getting there, at least!
Happy almost summer, friends! This year we have … plans?! For things to do?! And how crazy does that feel after the year and a half we’ve all just had? I mean honestly, a friend of mine mentioned that after she got her first shot she expected balloons to fall from the ceiling and a marching band to play. Obviously that didn’t happen, but what did happen was that we’ve started, slowly, to return to what our life looked like pre-Covid.
Lunch at an outdoor restaurant in Golden when my stepdad came to visit a few weeks ago. It was the first time we had physically been to a restaurant in more than a year, and man oh MAN did it feel good!
It definitely took me a while to get into the swing of things, but I’ve now gotten my hair done, we’ve had dinner at an indoor restaurant and guests and playdates at our home. We’ve started to open our lives back up, and while that’s awesome and amazing and wonderful, there’s a small part of me that still longs for the quiet days. The older girls are in summer camp from now until school starts in the fall, Lotte has started track and we have a monster road trip planned from Colorado out to New York (and back!) to see family we haven’t seen in more than a year, to head to the beach for a couple of days and to attend a wedding.
All of this feels … almost too good to be true. And while I’m grateful to be able to do these things — see our family, most importantly — I’m also staring at our (overfilled) calendar and remembering the days when there was nothing on it but to hang.
So I propose a challenge, dear friends, to bring back the things that give you joy in your life when you feel comfortable doing so, but to also say NO to more things that don’t. That’s a tough thing to do — especially when it involves keeping your littles from doing things — but for me, at least, I think that’s the only way I’ll stay sane as we dip our toes back into life.
Bis bald, friends … and stay safe out there!
My birthday celebration back in April … I felt the same way the girls did about the cake, I just hid it better than they did 😉 Real Simple helped me with our Easter table this year, and I could not have been more pleased. Was it just me, or has anyone else out there become obsessed with home goods during lockdown, as well?Two of my three Easter bunnies <3Outdoor parks and playgrounds continue to be our preferred places to hang, but we’re slowly opening up to indoor playdates and dinner parties, too, which feels oh-so-lovely.Lotte went spring skiing with her dad again at A-Basin, and we even got her a season pass for next year. I love that she’s loving this sport, and I can’t wait until we can all go together as a family!We honored my Mom on the 5th anniversary of her death with a family Zoom and, of course, making her (in)famous cinnamon buns.The girls continue to find happiness in everything they do, which is truly the most inspiring.This crew has become very good at finding new playgrounds to enjoy … and Em is just along for the ride.My stepdad came to visit! We surprised the girls and they were SO EXCITED! It was truly adorable. Not to mention that Grandpa was the first grandparent that Em got to meet. It was a happy, happy time.We headed to Golden with Grandpa, which is one of our favorite spots to bring guests. It truly never disappoints. And we ate at a RESTAURANT! The Golden Mill just opened up along the creek, and it was so lovely to be out and about in a way that we hadn’t in so long.That outdoor beer life <3Emilia, taking in those mountain views.These girls are picnic pros at this point!Our little preschool graduate! Lotte is off to kindergarten in the fall, and honestly, I cannot talk about it … Lotte has also started track! Which of course makes Chris endlessly proud …Track star. Chris & I dressed the girls in their best purple for a little “hike” around Evergreen Lake this past weekend as part of an event that my alma mater — JMU — was sponsoring. It was so nice getting outside with them and sporting those JMU colors!Evergreen Lake views are pretty magnificent.Ever-the-rebel.The majestic mountain/water combo.Evergreen LakeThe perfect day for a lake walk.We also got family photos taken recently to celebrate adding little Em to our family, and I am SO HAPPY with how they all came out!Big & Middle, always being monkeys <3And our newest angel, who is truly just the sweetest child in all the world.Our trio <3 <3 <3Bis bald, friends! Hope your summer(ish) season is off to a great start!
I mean … G is barely even in this photo, but you get the gist — Colorado is amazing in the summer, and summer is right around the corner! I mean, it’s pretty amazing all of the time, but the summer is a great time to check out the mountains, lakes, hikes, breweries … and everything in between.
To help you out if you happen to be in the hood, here are a few of our fave hangouts when the weather gets warmer:
Happy Tuesday, friends — and a very happy belated Dad’s day to all the amazing dads, grandfathers, brothers, and male caregivers out there in the world, doing what they do best.
This man above — my husband — has given me the two ultimate joys in my life, my babies. I’m grateful every day for his passion, compassion, sincerity, sensitivity and contagious love of life. These girls are lucky to call him dad.
Sometimes in life, friends, your youngest daughter will voice (loudly) her disdain at the idea of being carried up a mountain by you, and so your husband will take one (or two, actually) for the team.
That’s a long way of saying that Grace basically refused to let me carry her on our hike up South Table Mountain yesterday, so Chris had to carry both girls — one in front, one in back — the entire time. Rock star, he is.
Welcome to Monday, friends! Do weekends seriously scream by, especially in the summer, or is it just me? This weekend was jam packed for us (as is most of our July, actually), but it was a lot of fun. Chris and I split parents’ nights out when he saw a concert at Red Rocks on Friday and I attended the same one Saturday. (Concerts at Red Rocks, by the way, are never bad, even when you have no idea what band you’re seeing, like we didn’t 😉 Luckily the band we saw — The Avett Brothers — turned out to be amazing!)
Saturday we also had a birthday party in Denver for our friends’ 2-year-old, and yesterday a friend flew into town from New York to stay with us for a couple days.
As I said … our weekend was for partying, friends 😉 Hope yours was great, too!
^^ This little girl certainly loved the birthday cake part of the birthday party!
^^ I could stare at Red Rocks views all day, every day. We headed over to the area a tad early so we could tailgate before the show started, which is always my recommendation.
^^ Love these ladies <3
^^ Not the best photo, and it’s really hard to capture the awesomeness of Red Rocks, but believe me when I say you’ll never look at another music venue the same after attending a concert here.
^^ Just making sure our guest Gavin is cool … he is!
Upfront I want to say that this is not an advertisement for Subaru, although we did pick up our new Forester on Friday and take it for a drive around Golden on Sunday, and it was just a little bit of fabulousness!
So this past Sunday, Chris and I decided to make the short drive out to Golden, Colorado. Chris had never been before, and I had only been once when Lisa was visiting, so there were still a lot of things I wanted to try out in the area.
These tours are free, and if you’re lucky you’ll get a fun driver like ours who takes you for a quick loop around Golden and gives you a bit of historical info about the area before heading over the factory. Lisa and I had wanted to take the tour when we were there together, but the line was over an hour to wait, and we felt we could make better use of our time. This time, though, Chris and I went in knowing we’d have a bit of a wait, and it didn’t end up being too bad (probably a little under an hour) after all. A shuttle bus picks you up from the (free) parking lot and drives you over to the factory, which is humongous. The tour is unguided, and you just pick up a headset and press corresponding numbers to display cases as you walk through yourself. I think I probably would have paid more attention had the tour actually been guided, but as it was, the tour was free and it comes with three free beers per person at the end, so really it’s worth doing if you’re trying to kill some time in Golden. (Or if you happen to love Coors beer, of course.)
^^ Waiting in line to catch the shuttle to the factory.
^^ Everywhere you look in Golden you’ll see gorgeous mountains and blue skies. It’s pretty breathtaking.
^^ Some barrels during the tour.
^^ Delicious beer ingredients.
^^ The beers available each day are on display as you get down to the cafeteria area. Chris and I collectively tried the staple Coors Banquet, Batch 19 and the Colorado Native. Batch 19 was my favorite, while Chris was partial to the Native.
^^ The reservoir surrounding the factory is used to cool the machines used by the plant.
After the tour (which took us about an hour and a half), we drove over to the adorable Golden City Brewery. This brewery is essentially in a back yard, with picnic tables and wrought iron benches, flags and soft white lights hanging everywhere. The vibe here is so laid back and casual, it’s impossible to not feel like you’re just drinking some beer in your own backyard with friends. I’ve heard there’s usually a food truck parked outside, but there wasn’t one the day we were there. The brewery sells a small assortment of food (hotdogs, pretzels, a meat & cheese plate), but I would definitely recommend eating before you come if you’re hungry.
^^ We drove up the loop for quite a while, and you can see different things from different stops. That’s the city of Golden down there, and in other spots you could even see Denver in the distance.
And that was our lovely little Sunday, friends. The Coors factory, a brewery and a scenic walk/drive? I’d say a weekend doesn’t get too much more Colorado than that 😉
^^ This past Sunday Chris and I took hopped in the car and drove about 20 minutes to Golden (which you may remember I also visited when Lisa was here). This trip was full of new adventures, however, including the free Coors Brewery tour. I’ll be back later this week to blog about all the amazingness we got up to in this adorable little town.
So I just dropped Lisa off at the airport. Gosh golly I hate good-byes! We had a ton of fun while she was here, though, and I’m eternally grateful for that. I actually ended up doing a whole bunch of new stuff while she was in town, as well, which I wasn’t expecting, and that was a nice little added bonus.
I figure I’ll break her visit up into two posts, since we did so much, and I’ll cover things that were new to me more in depth than those things I’ve already talked about here.
So buckle up, friends — you’re in for quite the ride.
Lisa arrived late on Thursday, so we basically chilled for most of the afternoon, and then headed to Rio for dinner that night. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again — if you’re in Denver and you like Mexican, Rio is a must-hit.
Friday: On Friday we headed to Red Rocks in the morning (which is always an amazing time), and then drove the short distance from Red Rocks to Golden, a small, cute little Colorado town where the Coors Factory lives. They give free tours there during the day, but the wait was about an hour and we thought our time would be better used by exploring the town a bit via car, which turned out to be pretty stinkin’ cute. I’ll come back for ya, Coors tour! We ate lunch at the Old Capitol Grill, too, and the waitress assuaged our fears of the tornadoes that were touching down in towns all around both Golden and Denver. (They ended up heading out East, so both Golden and Denver were spared.)
We had Slice Works pizza and garlic knots for dinnerthat night, which is always a hit.
Saturday: Saturday turned out to be a day filled with new adventures. Lisa had discovered that one of her favorite brunch places from Louisville, Kentucky— Wild Eggs — also has a restaurant in Denver, so we hit that up for breakfast, and then while driving Lisa through the Capital Hill neighborhood and Cheesman Park, we drove right by the Botanic Gardens and decided to just stop on in. It was a gorgeous day, and Chris and I had never been to the Gardens before, but it turns out this little piece of heaven is quite the quiet sanctuary, and I think it’s safe to say I’ll be back.
^^ My Bennies Gone Wild with wild mushrooms and a side of biscuits. Yum.
^^ We celebrated combined missed birthdays with beer and birthday hats at Wynkoop. There’s nothing even remotely silly about this photo, right?
^^ Our paintings came out pretty darn good, if I do say so myself …
^^ For our cheese plate at The Truffle Table we ordered Avalanche Goat Cheddar from Basalt, Colorado; Brillat Savarin from Normandy France (a cow’s milk cheese); Tete du Moine from Switzerland (another cow’s milk cheese); Cana de Oveja from Spain (a sheep’s milk cheese); and Quatizo Gouda (a water buffalo and mixed milk cheese). Of course we had no idea what any of these cheese meant, but our waitress was fantastically knowledgeable and we were all extremely happy with what she thought we might like.
And that, my friends, is where I’m going to leave you regarding this visit, for now. I’ll be back later this week with our shenanigans for Monday and Tuesday, Lisa’s final days in Denver.
^^ I let the hubs do the heavy stroller lifting these days 😉
^^ That’s Denver there in the distance … oh hey, Denvy!
^^ A pixelated up-close view!
