Evergreen Lake Archives - Weary Wanderer

We dragged Grandpa to an 8-year-old’s roller skating birthday party. You KNOW he loved it <3

It’s almost the end of February, friends!

To be honest, January flew by (because we spent every single weekend in the mountains, so that helped), while February has felt somewhat slow. Having Grandpa visit us from New York for the past week has been a blast, though, and helped us break up those mid-winter (I mean, WHERE IS OUR COLORADO WINTER, THOUGH?) blues.

Here’s a bit of what we got up to!

We went to check out the “Oh, The Places You’ll Go!” exhibit at Center for the Arts Evergreen, and although I wasn’t sure what to expect, it was fantastic! (And free!)

I definitely wanted to buy this Berthoud Pass painting!

We ate lunch at Willow Creek Restaurant at Evergreen Lake afterwards, and it was the cutest spot with the most delicious food. I will be back, for sure.

Chris & I snuck out for a date night on Friday to Ash’Kara, a three-time Michelin Bib Gourmand award winner in Denver’s LoHi neighborhood. It was the hummus dinner of my dreams.

The big girls started their ice skating lessons at the Apex Center on Saturday, which was so fun to watch!

Grandpa was served up a heavy dose of Instagram advertising on the Museum of Illusions in Denver, so we went! It’s super creepy that our phones are spying on us, but also super helpful when they actually suggest fun things to do. It’s basically 50/50.

I’d say plan for about 45 minutes to an hour, but it’s on the 16th Street Mall, so it’s a really fun spot to check out if you’re with visitors, anyway.

We ate at Sam’s No. 3 after the museum, which has basically every single food item that has ever been invented on the menu, as well as Bloody Mary’s the size of my head, so that was a lot of fun.

The main reason Robert flew out was to watch Lotte perform the Star-Spangled Banner with her choir at the CU Women’s Basketball game on Saturday night. It was SO SWEET (and emotional for me!), and the game was so much fun, too!

We had so much fun at a birthday party for one of Gracie’s little friends at Skate City! Chris finally got to use the roller blades he begged his parents to bring with them from Australia about a million years ago, so that alone made it worth it.

Emilia skipped school on Monday to hang with Grandpa at the Denver Zoo. Hey, you know when’s the best time to visit the zoo? When everyone else is at school.

The new art installations they’re putting up all around the zoo are incredible!

Thanks for helping us get rid of our winter blues, Grandpa! Next up … spring break!

Until then, Bis Bald, friends!

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!