My brother and his wife live really close to Sloan's Lake in Denver and around the lake is a wonderful park.  And my sister-in-law's birthday was last week, which was a perfect excuse to have a party in the park.

P.S. I asked my brother what his wife wanted for her birthday.. he said earring backs (really? c'mon).  So I prodded a little more and asked her where she buys clothes from and he said she doesn't like to buy clothes (Lie #2).  We were stuck with a gift card.

The day turned out to be just great with beautiful weather and a cool mountain breeze.  It was the temperature where you didn't know if you should take off your sweatshirt or leave it on.  We at some delicious grilled food, played volleyball, canoed, tossed a football, and a few lucky guests kung fu'd a pinata.  

It was highly amusing.


Oh, and someone brought a unicycle.  

If you want to add instant humor to any party add a unicycle.  I'm not lying.

Anyways, pictures are below.  And below the pictures is a recipe for Monster Cookie Bars.  They were monstrous and delicious.  I will definitely make these again.  You really can't go wrong with peanut butter, chocolate, and more chocolate.... AND because they're bars, you don't have to sit around making multiple pans of cookies, ultimately resulting in burning the last batch because you were tired of watching them.

We went to dinner at my parent's last weekend.  Actually we just needed to pick up tools but we make sure to plan these things around food because Mama cooks the best.  On the way back home we found ourselves in the middle of Fast and Furious 21- Mile High edition.  It was terrifying.  Cale gripped the steering wheel and tried to never turn, speed up, or slow down because he was avoiding death at all costs.  Summer as begun and speed racers are out full force.

I have 3 secrets to loving Friday nights, even when I have to work on Mondays.  It's called grocery shopping (it's true, I love this.  Grocery=food. Food=love. Grocery= love (check my geometry.. this works)), treats, and dinner out.  Dinner out doesn't always happen, but I purposely fed my husband leftovers for 3 consecutive days (lunch and dinner) so I didn't even have to talk him into going out.  He decided all on his own.  

My plan worked out perfectly.

Also my legs are super sore.  This has nothing to do with anything.  But when I hopped (that may be too energetic of a word) on the treadmill this afternoon my feet felt like bricks and I could hardly move... so I turned it up faster.  Punishment people, punishment. 

I think they may be sore because of the accidental 9 mile hike, the accidental 4 mile run, and the not quite accidental yoga session.  Yikes.  Need to get in shape now.

Related but not related... I told my husband I've gained like 100 pounds since our wedding.  He said.. no freaking way.  And I sad yes because the jeans I was wearing in our engagement pictures were loose and now they are butt tight.  Dang it.

It could be because cookies were for breakfast.  I try to eat healthy but they looked so fabulous on the counter this morning and I was running late.  It seemed like the wisest decision for breakfast on the go.  Because we all know it's really unhealthy to skip breakfast.  This also may be part of the reason I think I'm getting cavities.  I'm too afraid to go to the dentist to find out.  I only go to the dentist if I know I have perfect teeth.  I hate getting scolded.  They're my teeth, yo, just leave me alone and fix them. :)

And because I didn't have to officially keep track of our grocery budget for the public (you) to see... I made sure I got some delicious snacks.  I'm my own worst enemy.  However, instead of eating less I'll just plan to work out more.  

Life is more fun that way anyways.

Thursday night's are yoga nights.  It's my private yoga lesson night.  Except it's not really private.  I'm just the only one that shows up. 

I think it's awesome.  I only feel slightly bad that I'm still only paying 10 bucks for 1 on 1 attention.  I used to hate it but now that I know all the teachers, they accept the fact that my hamstrings are like dental floss instead of rubber bands.  It's cool, I just do everything with bent legs.

And I use garbage bags to improve my range of motion.  I think you're supposed to use a yoga strap but I don't have one. If you don't know what a yoga strap is... don't ask me.  Never seen one.  But I use the garbage bags to wrap around my feet to keep my form correct while trying to touch my toes and other far away objects.

While I may be as inflexible as a wooden board my balance is improving.  (Not that it could get any worse.)  And today my teacher asked me if I was ready for "The Headstand".  I looked at her like she was a crazy person and said heck no.  Okay.. I actually just laughed and said, "I think that would be a fatal error."

The end of class is my favorite because we lay down and relax our bodies.  She says something like, "Relax your toes, relax your quads, relax your calves, relax your stomach, relax your face, relax your jaw....  

Whenever she says relax your jaw I think of the ugliest, double chinned face I can make and I do it.  I hope she goes home and talks about me.  Because my face has to be ridiculous.

For some reason today in particular my body was burning up and I got so sweaty and gross. And of course I wore a gray tank top. No hiding sweat in that.  Gross.

At the end of class the teacher suggested Hot Yoga.  

Does it look like I need Hot Yoga?

Actually, she probably suggested it because I was already a sweaty mess so why not. 

I think I may pass out and faint at hot temperatures.  I get that it's good for your muscles but only if you can stay standing.

Finally, I did my worst pet peeve.  I went to the grocery store in yoga pants.  Is this a trend in just my town or is it everywhere? Not just grocery stores either, I may or may not have seen this in church.  And not like they just worked out yoga pants (like the super tight, how did you get those on, yoga pants)... like matching workout gear with perfect hair and make-up. Just so people weren't confused, I made sure I was still extra sweaty and didn't bother to redo my pony tail.  I also hightailed it out of there after grabbing some milk because I didn't want to run into anyone vaguely familiar.  

There are already too many people walking around with tight pants and I don't want to be a member of the club.

Amen.

This may be a blanket statement.  I'm not really sure if I like Wednesdays at all but today was a particularly good one.  Especially after the hour of 5:30 when I was off work.

My husband had a snack ready that a scarfed down before a nice little jog.  We're starting to like these better because the weather has been perfect and we get to spend time with each other and get something done.  

I love multitasking.

Then when we got home we ate dinner (frozen leftover spaghetti sauce) and drank an ice cold Coke from a glass bottle.  

Yes these are infinitely better than plastic bottled soda.

Then, to cap off our wonderful evening we spent 2.5 hours deep cleaning our kitchen.  This is how the numbers played out.

Number of times sweeping the floor                    4
Number of antibacterial wipes                              36
Number of appliances moved                               2
Number of SOS pads                                              1
Number of willing participants                             .75  (my legs were still tired from hiking... and running)
Number of times the word gross was used        15
Number of toothpicks used for detail work        2

Seriously, we moved and scrubbed everything.  If you do this on a regular basis you're either my mother, a maid, or superwoman.  

And never invited over to my house.

Just kidding.

We're still feeling the hike and both allergic to pollen?  Who knew... at least we're saying we're allergic to pollen because we refuse to believe that we have colds.  Plus, pollen is at a high in Colorado.  So actually our hypothesis makes lots of sense.

Starting in May, we're going to do 2 months of lowest spending ever.  Really as a challenge but we're trying to save for about 5 different things right now so hopefully this will give us a little mid year leap in our savings plan.  While the challenge will be fun, it means going back to eating college food style.  Not that we were eating much better than that but occasionally we'll spring for salmon or steak.  No more. Darn.  My goal is to publish my weekly grocery bill and menu to see how we do. 

Also, it means kicking my caffeine habit like yesterday.  

Good thing the new Noodles and Company just opened today (!) so we can go once more before the eating out ban happens.

Wish us luck.

Anyways, for good practice I remembered this easy pesto pasta that I used to make and this week I made it with leftover everything.  Sweet.

For this recipe you'll need some of this stuff....

Above are leftover spicy italian sausage/brats, some parmesan cheese, grape tomatoes, frozen peas and carrots, and the pesto mix.

Not shown are 3 almost empty pasta boxes (probably 3/4 pounds in total).   

Start by boiling water and cook the pasta.  Drain when finished and return to pot.  While the pasta is cooking, reheat the sausage (or brown the sausage/ cook the chicken, etc.), empty the sausage onto a plate and make up the pesto sauce.  I found this in the Italian aisle of our local natural grocery store.  (To make this one I mixed 2/3 cup of water, 1/4 cup of olive oil, and the pesto mix in a sauce pan until just boiling).  

Mix everything together with the pasta (frozen peas & carrots, sausage, tomatoes, pesto sauce and a handful of cheese) and heat until warm.  Serve and done!

You could really use any fresh vegetables you have.. I was just using whatever was leftover before they went bad.  If you're using fresh vegetables, I'd saute them with the sausage until for a couple minutes (probably 5-7 min) so they're not so crunchy.

That's about as formal as this recipe gets because I really use as much as my leftovers allow.  It tricks my husband into thinking I made a fabulous meal when really I just reheated leftovers and mixed them together.  

Not that he would notice or care.

{Lots] more frugal meals to come!  

We had mentioned hiking on our day off together and thought that it sounded fabulous.  That was the extent of our planning.  

Last night my parents also mentioned that Rocky Mt. National Park was having free entrance week.  Perfect.  We had a time and location.

That is all the further we planned because we're cool like that.  We woke up and 20 minutes later were in the car.  With nothing packed but ourselves + camera.  We grabbed breakfast on the road and were off!

Our plan was to do nothing too strenuous or long and if we found a nice loop maybe do a little trail run.  We went to whatever entrance was next to Estes Park so we could grab lunch whenever we wanted and hike the day away.  

This morning we found a great little hike and about 250 yards in we saw these!

They were great and after passing within 10 yards of us decided not to chase us.  Which was even better.
 

Obviously we were in the mountains and this trail had some views.

We stopped for a lunch break at a cute little restaurant and went back out to hike.  We headed to a slightly different place because I thought I had found a great loop.

So the plan was to do the Glacier Basin loop (where the lake is near the bottom labeled Sprague Lake) starting at the East Portal trailhead.   The trails were poorly marked and we stumbled across this so we thought we were headed the right way (lots of little loops).

After heading much further than either 0.2 or 0.4 miles, we realized we were not traveling on the same path as intended.  After looking at our map, we realized we were probably on the largest loop on the map (the south end of this loop is under the Sprague Lake words on the above map).

And we had made the wrong turn when we were still able to see the car.

I feel mostly responsible and after Cale said he legs were getting a little tired I felt even worse.   We literally had no idea how far this was, what time it was, or what the trail name to guide us back to our car.  Double dang.  And remember how prepared we were this morning.. whoops.

We finally made it to the turn around and the trails were kind of like this all the way back....

Along the way we debated turning around but the trails hadn't really been groomed yet so we were a little worried that we may be following either an animal trail or no trail at all.  We were laughing pretty hard.  Cale also got attacked by a mama falcon guarding her nest and the distressed cry and mad sprint that we both did following the attack made the trip worth it in and of itself.  So much fun.

We finally found a sign with mileage.  7.2 miles.  For a total of 9 miles of hiking.  Without water.  We were parched.  Our legs are tired. 

And what's even more funny, is this morning we found a 6 mile loop that we decided was too far to go without food and water.  

And we fell even more in love with Colorado!

If you'll excuse me, I'm feasting on nachos and slaughtering my husband in Phase 10.  

I hope you're all having a beautiful weekend!

This title has nothing to do with anything other than the fact that if you YouTube it... you will laugh.  I laugh extra hard because this could be a video of me any day of my life.

I'm subjecting my husband to the movie 'War Horse' tonight.  I'm so glad we're back into our routine.  I'm like a newborn.  Throw me off my schedule, and I may cry.  That is the only problem with having friends.  They want to do things on Friday night.  Which is loosely translated into having a life. Lame.   

My regularly scheduled programming has me going grocery shopping on my way home from work, coming home to spotless house because my husband is AHHHHmazing, unloading groceries, running, shower, make dinner, HUSBAND GETS HOME (highlight of my life), eat dinner, watch movie. Go to bed. 

Regularly scheduled programming has been thrown off for the last 5 weeks or so because we're getting lives.  It's terrifying.  Next thing you know we'll be going to the movie theatre on Saturday nights like regular people.  Scary things are happening people.

I only ran for 15 minutes tonight because I felt like unloading groceries by myself counted for at least another 15 minutes of exercise.  Intense.  I know.  

Conversation in the car yesterday....

Person 1: "Hey, babe.. what are you thinking about?"

Person 2: "Please don't talk to me right now.. you're interrupting my dreams of Mexico."