Monthly Archives: August 2010

Hey y’all! It’s Friday! Yay! Hope you’re having a good one! I took a rest day from exercise after yesterday’s 9 mile run. Surprisingly I didn’t feel that sore today. Just a little stiff when I got up. I must have recovered well! That’s a good sign!

Last night’s dinner was AH-MAHZING! I’ve been wanting to document a trip to Kate’s On State for awhile now but the first time I went I wasn’t comfortable brining out my camera at restaurants and the second time I went my camera was broken!

Kate’s is located literally blocks from our house so of course we walked. It’s a very small and intimate restaurant.

  Since it was pretty early (we’re old and like to eat at 5pm) and a Thursday night we pretty much had the place to ourselves. Very romantic! We started with an appetizer, the Mediterranean crostini which had mushrooms, spinach, pine nuts and feta cheese. So delicious! I also had glass of my favorite Campus Oaks Red Zin.

All of the entrees come with an outstanding salad. There is EVERYTHING on this baby. Kidney beans, soy nuts, pepperoni, mushrooms, you name it! Plus all their dressings are homemade. I had the mango vinaigrette, delightful!

Sorry for the blurry pictures, low lighting! For my entree I had the Seafood and Wild Mushroom Ravioli. The menu description reads: “Scallops shrimp, prawns, mussels, lobster and clams are lightly sautéed and finished in a marsala wine and creamy lobster reduction sauce.”

I had never had mussels before! The first one I tried was a little fishy but after that I just took the meat out and mixed it with the rest of the items and I thought it tasted pretty good. Brian had some special that wasn’t on the menu. Not really sure what was all in it but he gave me a taste and it was very good!

I only ate half of mine because I was saving room for dessert! Their famous pumpkin bread pudding a la mode!

Clearly it was terrible!

Such a great meal and such great service too! They even made my leftovers look good!

Kate’s is pretty pricey especially when you get drinks, appetizers, and dessert but it is really worth it. They do not skimp on their food. I probably had four mussels in my dish, four prawns, two GIANT scallops, tons of baby shrimp, a huge chunk of lobster, and six large raviolis. Plus I got two meals out of it! We only visit Kate’s for special occasions.

Would you believe it? Before I knew we were going to Kate’s on State for our anniversary I made plans with for a Girls Night Out with my friends at Pizza Amore, Kate’s other, less expensive restaurant downtown! We’re going there tonight! I can not wait! I’ve never been there but I’ve heard good things. I’ll definitely be bringing my camera along!

Seriously though, after next weekend’s trip to Door County we need to start reigning in the eating out. Our wallets and our waistlines can’t afford it!   

Catch you later!

Hi! I’m back! Wow this blogging two times a day is fun! If I didn’t have to work I would definitely blog more than once a day!

Four years ago today I married my best friend. Brian is about eight years older than I am so he experienced the weddings of most of his friends. At the time most of my friends had also been married. We had lots of ideas about how we wanted to celebrate our special day. We really wanted to include as many of our friends and family members in our ceremony and reception and highlight their gifts and talents.

The weather was BEAUTIFUL the day we got married. Sunny with a few clouds, temperatures in the high seventies but no humidity. My maid of honor, my best friend from college stayed with me at my parents house. We got up bright and early as my bridesmaids were coming over for breakfast and to have our hair done. My favorite hair stylist form Eau Claire drove all the way to my home town to do our hair. Here’s picture of my practice hair we did at her house.

We decided that Brian and I would have our private portraits together taken before the ceremony. My dad drove me to the church so I could get dressed. My future sister-in-law was my personal attendant met us there to help me get ready.

The church that we got married at was formerly my home parish and where I attended grade school. Sadly it is no longer used as a parish. It is a beautiful church.

Brian was ready and waiting for me at the alter as I walked up behind him to surprise him. He had tears of happiness in his eyes!

Then we headed to the park for our photo shoot!

  We headed back to the church just in time for a light lunch before the ceremony. My brother, my good friends from the first parish I worked at, and one of my favorite professors from college sang and played for our wedding.

My future niece was our flower girl

  The first priest I ever worked for officiated and the nun who I also worked with at the parish assisted him. My aunt/godmother and Brian’s cousins did the readings. Of course my mom and dad were a little emotional walking me, there only daughter, down the aisle.

Our wedding party included my best friend from college, Kari, my cousin Jill, my three best girl friends from Girl Scouts Marianne, Amy, and Becky, Brian’s brother, his four of his friends from high school Joe, Trent, Bob, and  Eric from the boat and our ushers Ike, Gardner and Todd.

Brian’s cousin made my bridesmaid’s jewelry and my other future sister-in-law made our cake.

  Everything was just beautiful! We did everything our way and that truly made it memorable and special to us.

Our reception was at Maple Grove Country Club which was large enough fit all our guests. We ate dinner and then danced the night away!

Even though it was four years ago I can still remember what a wonderful day we had and afterwards we knew we would get to spend the rest of our lives together.

Thanks for sharing my memories with me this week! We are going out for dinner to celebrate our anniversary. Stay tuned for a recap of our yummy meal!

Hi! How are you this fine day? I’m better now that my 9 mile training run is OVER!

As you can guess from my post title my 9 mile run did not go so well. As I was struggling through the miles I began to think of reasons why this run was so tough! Here’s what I came up with:

1. The weather. All though it seemed nice out and was only 70 degrees I think it was a little more humid then I expected. When I walked the dog as my warm up it didn’t seem that bad but within a mile of running I was dripping with sweat. In hind sight I think it was a good thing that I was forced indoors for my 8 mile run last week because of the storm. I really don’t think I would have been able to do it in that heat!

2. My legs were tired! Before my other long runs I usually took a rest day before the long run. This week I ran AND taught Zumba on Tuesday. I taught cycling for the first time in two weeks yesterday morning, went to yoga at noon, and then for some reason felt compelled to practice more Zumba dances after work last night. My legs were definitely not fresh.

3. I have NOT been keeping up with strength training. I fear this is a huge mistake. I haven’t been doing not because of time. I could easily fit it in to my schedule but it would usually be the day before a long run and I don’t want my legs to be sore before the run. But overall I know that strength training is very helpful to running. Not to mention starting in September I’ll be teaching Group Strength 1-2 times a week, I sense some very sore muscles in the near future.

4. I miscalculated my route. I made a HUGE loop and realized I got pretty close to home and still had about a mile to go! This is VERY mentally challenging! In your head you think you are almost done but still have a ways to go. I almost quit at this point but didn’t want to stop short of my goal.

5. My blisters! I got some pretty nasty blisters after last week’s run. They are not fully healed. On my shorter runs this week I used moleskin and a special band-aide for blisters and it seemed to work. Today I used the moleskin again but towards the end I could still feel the pain in my feet even with the moleskin. This is a really frustrating problem to me. I never got blisters before. They are in a really odd place, the inside edge of the soles of my feet. I’m a little worried that it’s my shoes as I bought two pairs of this kind and can’t really afford a new pair. Perhaps I’ll try wearing two layers of socks.

So despite all that I made it. It took a lot of positive self talk and mental strength. I kept thinking about the wonderful dinner I’m going to have with my hubby tonight. I thought about how many people this morning are not running 9 miles, especially the people I saw turning into McDonald’s for their breakfast (yuck!). I also realize this is just one run in the grand scheme of things I just wanted to get through.

I took a lot of walking breaks and my average pace was 10:30/mile. In total it took me 1 hour and 34 minutes. I took in a full bottle of Gatorade, and a full bottle of water plus some sips from two fountains along the way. I had two energy bites (from the Co-Op) at mile 5 and less than half of an energy gel at mile 7.

So, after a lot stretching, a nice cool shower, and a green smoothie I’m feeling a little better. My legs are really sore so I plan on taking it easy for the rest of the day!

See you late today for The Girl With the Pink Sneaker’s special edition out wedding day!

Hey there! What’s happening in your neighborhood today? Not much new here! There’s construction going on at my work place and it was particularly loud today! Plus for two days I’ve been without Internet! Tomorrow our whole building won’t have electricity so I’m staying at home. This works out perfectly as I’ll have time for my nine mile run!

I hope you’re enjoying my little mini series celebrating my anniversary week.  If you missed it you can read about how we met, and our dating history.

So Brian and I had been dating for four years. I had just finished my first year teaching in Eau Claire and we had survived a long distance relationship. In fact I think being apart made us realize how much we wanted to be together!

After a busy summer we were finally able to get away for a weekend camping Door County. A few weekends before our trip Brian hurt his back lifting his boat of the trailer. I told him it was okay if we didn’t go on our trip but he was pretty adamant that we go. Little did I know what he had planned! We left after work on a Friday. It was a long drive (about five hours). Brian seemed particularly anxious to get there. We finally got there and got our tent set up but had a little trouble with the air mattress. Brian seemed to be getting more anxious. He suggested we take a short hike. I looked at a park map and saw that fortunately there was a short little hike to a light house right from our campsite. We took a little walk through the woods. We got to the light house and it was just about sunset. There was a lookout over the lake. There was nobody around, we had the place to ourselves and that’s when Brian proposed!

It couldn’t have happened more perfectly!  Brian said it worked out really well that our campsite was so close to the lighthouse, he said if it wouldn’t have been he would have driven us there because that’s where he planned to propose. It was also a miracle that the place was deserted, this is a very popular lighthouse and always busy. Since our cell phones didn’t work that far north we were able to spend the entire weekend just enjoying being engaged and talking about the future. It was PERFECT!

This is pretty much the exact spot we got engaged.

On the drive home we called all our friends and family and told them the good news.

The next year was spent planning our wedding. I was still working in Eau Claire so had to do a lot of planning on the weekends. I found my wedding dress over the Thanksgiving  weekend at a local shop Charlotte’s Bridal.

  I loved my dress! I wish I had an occasion to wear it again! I had 3 Bridal showers! One thrown by the girls I use to work with at the parish, one by future sister-in-laws, and one by my bridesmaids.

My girls trying on their dresses at my shower.

And of course I had a bachelorette party!

Don’t worry! Brian had some fun too. At the time his buddies lived in Japan, Alaska, Colorado, and Minnesota. They all came together the week before the wedding for a whole week of bachelor parties!

I really enjoyed planning our wedding. Brian was actually a pretty involved groom since I was living in another town he took care a lot of the details. We tried to us the gifts and talents of as many people that we knew  to make our day extra special. But that’s a story for tomorrow!

Have a great night everyone!

Hey friends! How’s it going today? The hot and humid weather seems to be taking a break! The air conditioning is off and then windows are open! I enjoyed a very nice five mile run this morning. Felt so good to run in this gorgeous weather! I hope it lasts!

I hope you enjoyed yesterday’s post in honor of my anniversary week! Now, where did we leave off? Oh yea. Brian and I dated for four years before we got engaged. A lot happened during those four years. I graduated from college in December of 2002 and immediately began working full time at a parish just north of our home town. Brian and I were both living at home when we met but shortly after moved out me with one of my friends from college and he with Eric. Brian continued to work on the Julia Belle Swain steamboat which was a seasonal job that lasted until about October. This worked out well for him since he loves to hunt in the fall and ice fish in the winter. My grandma died during the spring of 2003 and Brian was such a great shoulder to lean on during that tough time. During the time that we were dating Brian’s brother and sister-in-law had baby number one, Rosalia. Shortly after Brian’s sister had a baby boy! So many more things happened it’s hard to even remember. We got to experience all of life’s ups and downs during those four years.

I only worked at the parish about a year before I was offered a teaching job a the Catholic middle school. I absolutely loved teaching even though I had a tough group of 140 students to work with. About this time Brian quit working on the Julia Belle and opted for a more regular and secure job at Walzcraft where he works today.

Sadly, after only a year teaching, my position was  eliminated due to budget cuts. I was so devastated! I LOVED teaching middle school religion. You know the saying, if you love something let it go. Well, that’s what Brian did for me. He said if I really loved teaching and wanted to teach then I should try and find a teaching job even if it meant moving away. It was a hard decision but I decided to go for it. Fortunately I found a job in Eau Claire Wisconsin which was only about 90 minutes away from La Crosse.

I’m not going to lie, the first year I spent up there was really hard. I missed Brian and my family a lot. I spent a lot of weekends driving back to see them. We managed to keep our relationship strong even though we were apart. I think it even made our relationship stronger. We learned that even though we love each other very much and love being with one another we are also our own people and like to do things separately.

The summer after my first year in Eau Claire was a busy one! It seemed there was always something going on, especially weddings! Everyone always asked us when we were going to get married! Amazingly enough we had one weekend free late in August and managed to secure a campsite at Peninsula State Park in Door County. We couldn’t wait for our weekend away! But you’ll just have to wait to hear that story tomorrow! Here are some more pictures from our years dating. Enjoy!

One of our first visits together to see the Gardner’s in St. Paul!

A trip to Eagle River, also with the Gardner’s!

Our nephew’s baptism.

Dancing at a wedding.

Ready to head out to another wedding.

At yet another wedding!

One of my favorite pictures of us! When I lived in Eau Claire I was in a community theater production of Sound of Music. Gotta love kissing nun!

Hey friends! How’s Monday treating you? Good I hope! I spent  the entire day cleaning the house top to bottom! With all the crazy travel we’ve been doing I haven’t deep cleaned the house in 3 weeks! Yikes! I feel so much better now that it’s all clean and sparkly!

This week on the blog you will get a special glimpse into an important part of my past! Four years ago this week (Thursday to be exact) I married my wonderful husband Brian! I thought I’d share with you some stories from our very special day. But first let’s back up to when we first met!

It was summer 2001, the summer before my senior year of college. I was working full time at The Company Store call center as a customer service rep, a job I HATED but kept because it paid pretty well and was flexible with my school schedule. During the second half of my junior year in college I had started hanging out with a young woman, named Emily who taught piano lessons at the University I attended. I started out taking lessons from her but we ended up talking the whole time instead of practicing. We always joke that I paid her to be my friend! We would often frequent a bar, The Recovery Room, located near the University on Thursday nights for Karaoke. One night while we were there we met a guy named Eric who was there with a bunch of his friends. We ended up going back to Eric’s apartment to play cards with him and his friends. After that fun night I headed off to Mexico for a month long Spanish language immersion trip for school. While I was there Emily emailed me telling me she and Eric were hanging out a lot and that he was really fun to hang out with. When I returned from Mexico Emily had left for grad school. I was bored and wanted to go out and do some Karaoke. I was hanging out with another friend and we decided to call Eric up to see if he was interested in going out. He said sure and that he was going to bring a friend from work. Well, that friend just happened to be Brian! Brian and Eric both worked on the Julia Belle Swain, an authentic steamboat that ran out of Riverside Park.

For the rest of the summer it was pretty much a given that we would all meet up at The Recovery Room for Karaoke on Thursday nights. It was a great break during the work week and we always had a good time. Emily and Eric started dating at this time. Brian and I were just friends and he would by me a beer or two and perhaps we would sing a song together. Emily and Eric were always trying to hook us up but neither one of us were brave enough to make the first move. During our friendship I  got to know Brian better and found out what a caring person he was. He was very loyal to his friends and a very hard worker. He also liked to have good time.

Our days of hanging out and being friends continued into the fall. One night another guy from the boat came out for Karaoke He was “putting the moves” on me and since I was unattached I of course flirted back. The next day this other guys calls me and tells me Brian was all mad at him because of what was going on between us. I didn’t really know what to think. I mean it wasn’t like Brian and I were dating or anything. Brian claims that he wasn’t really that angry and he didn’t really say anything to this other guy but I don’t believe it

This was kind of the catalyst that took our relationship out of the friends stage. I talked to Emily about it and she agreed that Brian had no right to be upset and if he really did want more of a relationship then he should ask me out on a real date. She told me she would talk to him about it. Later that week Brian called me at home and asked me if I wanted to do something before Karaoke on Thursday. I was sure that Emily had talked to him and that he finally got the message. Turns out Emily didn’t talk to him and he asked me out because he really did like me more as a friend! We ended up going to an evening parade (the Torch Light Parade) that they hold in our town as part of the Oktoberfest celebration. And that was it, our first date! We ended up meeting our friends for Karaoke. After Karaoke we stayed up until almost 4am talking and we also shared out first kiss !

Here are some photos from our early dating years! Enjoy!

The night of our first date!

One of our first “fancy dates” Brian took me to DiSciascio’s which has now become one of our favorite restaurants.

Brian and I had my college homecoming dance.

At a fun harvest party at one of Brian’s friend’s farms. 

Almost a year after we started dating Brian’s brother and his wife had a baby! I was Almost Aunt Kristin for a long time until we got married!

Brian and me at my college graduation!

Stay tuned for more stories about our time spent dating, our engagement and our wedding!

Hey everyone! Hope you had a good weekend! Mine was pretty fantastic!

After a some what harrowing drive facing tons of traffic, a traffic jam, bad weather, and some rush hour driving I made it safe and sound to Amy’s lovely condo. We decided to have a girl’s night in. Amy cooked up some delicious turkey burgers and we enjoyed a glass (or two) of Cabernet. Check out Amy’s fun stem less wine glasses.

We also rented a movie and called it an early night since I knew I had a long day ahead of me.

The Aqua Zumba training was AWESOME! I’ve never been into water type aerobics but Aqua Zumba is TOTALLY fun. A lot more fun then I thought it would be and also a lot harder of a workout then I expected. I think I would really like to teach this type of class but I’m not sure if they’ll put it on the schedule at the Y. This means I’d have to get creative with how I could get a class started. Not sure if I have the time or energy for that….we’ll see. The training was really fun though. The instructor was so energetic and a really good presenter. They day just flew right by.

After I got done with the my training I headed back to Amy’s. We decided to head out for a night on the town. When asked where I wanted to go out to eat I didn’t really care where or what type of food but I had two stipulations. 1. It couldn’t be a chain restaurant and 2. It had to be unique to Milwaukee. Amy ran through a list of several different types of restaurants and came up the PERFECT idea, a Turkish restaurant called Tulip.

We started by splitting a bottle of Turkish wine.

Check out the swanky atmosphere (and Amy

There was a guitar and violin players adding some beautiful traditional music to the evening. We decided to split Amy’s favorite dish Iskender and also get an appetizer and salad. For our appetizer we chose the Sigara Boregi which was phyllo dough filled with feta cheese and pan fried.

These were MELT IN YOU MOUTH AMAZING. Seriously I thought I was in heaven eating these. I also got a Nar Salatasi salad which had almonds and pomegranate dressing.

Very light and delightful! But the true star of the evening was our main dish the Iskender. The Iskender was marinated lamb and beef roast, sliced thin and piled atop chopped pita bread. covered with savory tomato sauce and drizzled with butter. yogurt on the side.

Amy suggested taking a little bite of meat, a small piece pita bread, and a little yogurt and eating it all together. I honestly have no words for how amazing this tasted! Seriously! I’ve never tasted any thing like it. The sauce was especially unique and combined with the soaked pita bread and cool creaminess of the yogurt created a combination of flavors like nothing I’ve ever had. I’ll be thinking about this dish for a long time!

After dinner we took a lovely walk along the Milwaukee river.

There are some pretty cool warehouses that have been converted into condos along the walk. We were still looking for some fun so we headed over to one of Amy’s favorite bars Fat Daddy’s.

We were hoping to meet up with some of Amy’s friends but it was pretty dead. We had one drink and then decided to call it a night.

Today after Amy made a delicious breakfast we headed downtown again to check out an art fair. So many talented artists. Sorry no pictures, didn’t feel like dragging the camera long. The weather was gorgeous and we strolled around with Starbuck’s in hand feeling rather trendy as we admired the fun art on display and for sale. Neither of us found anything we wanted to buy and I needed to get on the road.

We headed back to Amy’s condo. I packed my car and got on the road. The drive home was much smoother than the ride there.

Brian beat me home (he was off having a boys weekend with Gardner). I got home we swapped some stories about our weekend and then decided to head out for a short run.

Other than that I’ve been doing some laundry and catching up on things around the house.

I had such a fun weekend with my good friend and learned some great new skills at Aqua Zumba training. I hope they have more training’s in Franklin and if not I’ll have to visit Amy more often!

Hope you were able to have some adventures this weekend!

Hey friends! It’s Friday! Yay! Hope you have some fun plans for the weekend.

I really was hoping to name this post “A Great Eight!” but when you wake up at 3am to use the restroom and hear the air conditioning working with all its might you know it’s going to be a rough run in the morning. I was mentally and physically prepared to take on eight miles in the heat. When I got up at 5:30am it was already 80 degrees! I ate a little pre run fuel (banana with almond butter) and took the doggie for a walk as my warm up. While I was walking the dog and listening to the radio I heard the announcer say there was a severe storm warning in the area until 7am. The skies were very dark and the wind was really blowing. I got back to the house and my hubby said, “I don’t think you should run outside in this weather.” I had two options, I could wait out the storm which meant delaying my whole day and possibly working out in even hotter temps or I could suck it up and run on the treadmill at the Y. I reluctantly chose option number 2. Fortunately I was able to get a treadmill near a television that had Good Morning America on (my favorite morning news show). It really wasn’t that bad, just a little more mentally tough then I would have liked. Other than being bored I felt pretty good. I hydrated often and took half a package of GU at mile 6. I did have to talk myself through the last two miles. The only bad part was I got two HUGE blisters on the insides of my feet at about mile 5. I’ve gotten blisters before but on my last long run used Vaseline which seemed to do the trick. Today, not so much. It was super painful those last 3 miles. I must figure out how to prevent this in the future! When I got home and into the show I also realized that I had some chaffing under my arms from my sports bra. I’ll have to figure out how to prevent that too, it is not very comfortable! So over all an okay run. I’m glad I chose to go indoors because the weather was CRAZY out. High winds, flooding, lightening and hail! Plus it didn’t stop storming until almost 10:00am. I ran the eight miles in about 1 hour and 20 minutes keeping a comfortable 10 min/mile pace.

So other than my run this morning I’ve been doing a little of this,

packing for my trip to Milwaukee this weekend. I’m doing an Aqua Zumba training in Franklin Wisconsin (near Milwaukee). I was lucky to enough to have a friend who lives in Franklin about 10 minutes away from where the course will be held who is letting me stay with her. We should have a fun time! I’m driving solo on this one. I’m a little nervous about driving this far as I don’t do much interstate driving and Brian is usually the one behind the wheel. I did get some practice in on our drive home from Colorado. I’m sure I’ll be fine.  Like how Izzy chooses to lay right next to the suitcases? She doesn’t like it when we leave her

I’ve also been doing a little of this,

  These are Angela’s Pumpkin Pie Banana Chunk Oatmeal Cookies and they are OFF THE HOOK DELICIOUS! I made a few changes based on what I had in my kitchen. I used dark chocolate chips instead of the cacao nibs, I used one TBSP of chia seeds instead of the walnuts and I used honey instead of maple syrup. These were super easy to make and taste really good. I’m bringing some with me to the training.

I’ve also been keeping up with all the going on’s at the Healthy Living Summit. Not going lie, I’m a little sad and jealous that I am not there right now. I seriously considered going since it was in Chicago which is within driving distance of my home town (not that I would really want to drive in Chicago) but a few things held me back. For one I didn’t think I could really afford the ticket or the hotel costs. Also it was my ONLY free weekend in August and I didn’t want to fill it up (which obviously I did any way), but mostly I was shy and a little scared. When the info and the tickets sales went out I had just started the blog. I guess I didn’t feel like a real blogger. I don’t even know anyone in my real life that blogs so I would have had to go alone. I didn’t know if I would fit in with the other bloggers or if I would have a hard time making friends. Silly, I know but also true. I’m kind of regretting it now but oh well! If I would have gone to the HLS I wouldn’t be doing Zumba training and hanging out with my friend. I’m sure it all worked out the way it was suppose to!

I still haven’t decided if I’m bringing the computer with me this weekend and I need to start packing the car soon. I might not see you until after my weekend adventure! Have a great weekend!

Hey there! I hope where ever you are you are staying cool! It is so GROSS outside today! There’s even a heat advisory in effect! There is no Internet, phone, or air conditioning at my office today!  We are suppose to go to a baseball game tonight, I don’t know how I feel about this.

So, to conclude our great trip to Colorado. On our last day in Colorado we decided to head back to the mountains. We drove back to explore the cute town of Estes Park. We browsed the shops picking up a few souvenirs (T-shirts for Brian, earrings for me). Brian and I also shared the MOST AMAZING caramel apple at Laura’s Fudge Shop! In addition to caramel it also had white chocolate and ground up Oreo cookies! It was unbelievable! I’m glad we split it though since it was really rich.

Then we drove back into Rocky Mountain National park and took a little hike around Sprague Lake. It was so amazingly beautiful! The pictures don’t do it justice.

Of course we stopped for a few photo opps. (potential Christmas card pictures).

Of course we also had to take a family photo of our friends!

Then we headed back for our last night in Fort Collins. We were able to pick up some of our favorite beer that we sample the day before and had a nice cookout with the Vennemen’s. It was the perfect end to a great mini vacation. Monday we drove 13 hours back home to the heat and humidity!

It was so nice to get away and have some fun with friends. August is shaping up to be pretty busy! This weekend I’m headed to Milwaukee for Aqua Zumba training. We have a wedding in town the following weekend, then we’re going on a romantic get-a-away to Door County for our anniversary. Then the crazy business of my work and grad school starts and Brian will be busy hunting! Summer has just flown by too fast! But it’s not over yet and I plan on enjoying the remaining days, no matter how hot they are!

On tap for tomorrow I have an 8 mile (EEPS!) run planned. I hope it’s not too hot and muggy out in the morning!

Hey friends! Is it hot and steamy where you live? The weather has been CRAZY hot and humid here! I did manage to get in a 4 1/2 hill run this morning. It actually wasn’t too bad out but I was a big sweaty mess when all was said an done. I certainly appreciate working in an air-conditioned environment. Poor Brian works where there is no air or ventilation. I feel bad for him! So bad I offered to make dinner twice this week!

So, back to our amazing adventure. On Saturday we headed to downtown Fort Collins to check out the cute shops and to eat at Coopersmith’s. Now, I didn’t bring my big camera but I took some photos on my phone but now I can’t figure out how to get them off of there! Coopersmith’s was AWESOME! They had a ton of really unique beer on tap. I tried a small glass of Sigda’s Green Chili. As soon as I lifted the glass to my nose I smelled the spice of the chili. The first sip tasted like a nice cool light beer but then there was the after taste of a medium-hot chili. It was so weird but cool too! I really enjoyed it! I probably wouldn’t want to drink a lot of that type of beer but a little taste was just perfect. Such a unique experience! I also had a larger glass of their Mountain Avenue also delicious. Their food selection was also impressive. I had a really hard time deciding. At the last minute I decide to indulge with the chicken and brie sandwich with home made apple sauce. Again, sorry not picture. This sandwich did not disappoint! So many good things to chose from though! Wish we could go back!

After lunch we headed back to Trent and Michelle’s. The girls went down for their naps and Trent and Michelle stayed with them while Brian and I headed out to the Larimer County Fair. This was one of the nicest county fairs I have ever been to. First of all it was free to get in and free parking. They had your typical fair rides and fair food. The best part was all the exhibits and animals were in air-conditioned buildings which was a nice break from the Colorado sun. Our main purpose in going to the fair was to attend the Gnarly Barley Brew Fest! For $15 we got a free mug, some coupons and 6 samples of beer from different Colorado breweries. It was so AWESOME. I tried so many great beers! Probably the most unique one was the Kidd from the Fort Collins Brewery. I do not usually like dark beers but this went down so smooth and then left a nice smokey (think ribs not cigarettes) after taste. This would be perfect paired with a nice steak or a pork roast. Again I took pictures on my phone but alas I am still having technical difficulties! I was really glad we got to experience the brew fest, I guess we were just there at the right time!

After a day in the sun sampling beer we were pretty beat! We headed back to Trent and Michelle’s for left over pizza and another movie (Trent just got a Blue Ray player and was excited to use it!). It was a great day sampling some of Colorado’s finest brews!

Stay tuned for a recap of our final day and I promise some more pictures!