Yesterday’s agenda:

~~work our booties off for the next 3.5hrs~~
~~head to Pat + Nat’s [bro in law + sis in law] with my mom to visit~~
~~head to Denver to pick up my~~ ~~mom’s necklace~~
~~head to REI for my mom to try Merrel’s~~ ~~minimalist shoes~~
~~meet up with~~ ~~Melissa + Sammy!~~
~~do some shopping at Cherry Creek Mall~~
~~grab dinner…not sure where yet!~~
see the movie Bridesmaids
~~pick up Chris from the airport!~~

Pretty productive, right?

Here’s a little glimpse at everything on the list!

The work started in the master bedroom.

I attempted to install our ceiling light. First remembering to turn the breaker off. :)

Success! Lovely white light!

Then there was cleaning.

After 1 week of not vacuuming, this is the massive pile of Kenna + Dakota hair floating around the floor. Aren’t you glad I documented this?

Can you tell what’s new in this photo?

Now?

I showed you the new counter the other day, but I just finished painting the underside of the archway!! My mom and I also put together a little flower arrangement.

We decided to go with a very deep blue/gray color for the archway. It contrasts with the backsplash and adds a bit of warmth to the kitchen. It’s a bit brighter in person, and I’m loving it! Such a quick and easy improvement.

Now, to the spare bedroom! It’s coming along!!

We bought dark gray sheets, a polar fleece blanket for under the quilt, matching shams, and 2 throw pillows.

I thought the matching shams might be overwhelming, but I think it turned out great, especially with the throw pillows. It’s hard to tell, but the yellow has lines of white thread running through it. I’ll still decorate a bit more at some point with a few artsy touches, a lamp, etc.

My mom is the best shopper + house helper!

I love when the dining room table is clear. It’s not frequent!

Woof!

A little better show of the archway.

And archway number two! It compliments the gray of the couch + the chair [charcoal grey], without being overly matchy.

da-da-da-daaaaa

Quite the improvement from this!

(7 of 17)

Besides the bedding, do you spot something else that has changed?

We have window trim on every single window!!! My uncle was busy while I was gone in Ohio. He did an amazing job and it really made a HUGE difference. Every room feels MUCH more finished now.

We also picked up cute square base + square shade lamps from target, along with small matching alarm clocks. I was really sick of my gigantic CD player alarm clock from 1999. It’s in the donate pile and Chris’s old alarm clock was moved to the spare bedroom.

The duvet + shams are amazing. The light wasn’t the best when I took these. They have a bit more detail in them than you can tell here. There is a light checked pattern going through the leaves. The duvet is super soft and I absolutely love our down comforter. My parents bought us one from Bed, Bath and Beyond as part of our wedding gift, 3 years ago. We’re finalllllyyyyy getting to use it!

Here are a few better photos showing the rocks in the counter.

We headed to Westminster and had a nice visit with Pat, Natalie, and Nat’s dad. Natalie is due in only 6 weeks!! My mom + dad gave them a very cute bath-time themed gift!

Then we headed to the flagship REI in Denver. It’s probably the most amazing store I’ve ever been in. If you’re visiting Denver, you must check it out! We finally saw the sun, too. It turned into a gorgeous day. [view outside of REI]

Cute momma!

Hat day!

We caught up with Melissa + Samantha at Cherry Creek Mall. Such a little peanut still!!

My mom got her birthday necklace!

We of course had to check out Anthropologie.

It was hard to leave there empty handed! Sammie was perfect. We didn’t hear a peep from her!

Such a nice visit with the girls.

Then the 4 of us headed to Vine Street Pub, in Denver. Such delicious + affordable food. One of our favorites, that we really miss in Ft. Collins. They offer a large menu, with awesome daily specials. They even have a daily hummus! There is something for everyone here. GF, vegetarian, vegan + meat lover friendly

After dinner we headed to the airport to pick up Chris.

Look at this cute face.

I’m feeling a bit like Sammie right now. Sleepy!

Time for bed!

We’re sleeping in tomorrow.

Ashley

I’m such a good sister.

My brother wanted to take me to a vegan + gf friendly restaurant in Lakewood, called The Root Cafe. The only time that would work was Wednesday for lunch. My brother works fro my dad and their lunches typically last about 30min. Lakewood is about a 35min drive from where they work, meaning if we did this, it would take at least 2hrs of time.

I worked my daughter magic and convinced [really it wasn’t that hard] my dad to let my brother have an extended lunch today.

I’m such a good sister.

And Josh is such a good brother! He’s been here numerous times and knew I would love it. Boy was he right! The moment I walked in I loved it. It was a nice large space, with a great atmosphere inside. It felt very cafe-like, but they also have a full food menu and turn into a bar at night.

Their menu ranges from pizza + calzones, to burritos, salads, and sandwiches. Most of the menu is vegan and everything [or nearly everything] can be made vegan. There were even a handful of GF options. A lot of the ingredients come locally and they offer in season specialties as well. They have some standard items on the menu, but many of the items are extremely creative. Their prices were very reasonable, especially for the fresh, high quality ingredients they are using.

There are sandwiches with tempeh, some with hummus, loads of veggies, pizzas with kale + beets, etc. The Root Cafe also has vegan baked goods and they had 1 GF sunbutter cookie that sounded delicious. Next time we’ll have to go for coffee + dessert…okay, and dinner!

I love the restaurants in Ft. Collins, but they really need an addition like this! Affordable, delicious + extremely welcoming. The staff was all smiles and so helpful about making sure I had something that was gluten free.

I decided on the beans + rice with broccoli + a ring of kale. Beans + rice sounds kind of boring and may look a little boring too. However, it was the perfect portion and the flavor exceeded my expectations. Nothing was overpowering, there was the perfect amount of cheese, and the ring of kale was a great crunchy addition. The dressing on the kale was phenomenal. My brother agreed about my meal. He even liked the raw kale!

What did Josh get? A calzone stuffed with:

beets
sweet taters
gorgonzola
provolone
red sauce

Somehow, that combination works. I’m not a beet fan, but my brother raved about it. The calzone was $10, but was gigantic, and my beans + rice were $8.

We also ordered a side of perfectly cooked + lightly seasoned cubed sweet taters. To not be drenched in oil or fried was miraculous. These babies looked oven roasted!

The roasted red potatoes were delicious as well. I think the sides were $1.50-2.00. Not bad at all!

The beet calzone!

And the guts. Literally!

I was one happy foodie in this place. We even got to talk to the super sweet owner, Julie, who reads my blog! If you’re in the Cleveland area, you must check out this place out!

After lunch, we headed to Nature’s Bin, a natural food store in Lakewood. It was like a mini Whole Foods. I love little food stores like this!! Thanks Dad, for giving Josh a largely extended lunch!

What else did I do today?

hit up Trader Joes, to buy my favorite goodies to take home to CO
visited my grandma + grandpa
visited my other grandma
made a gigantic mess in the kitchen
started packing to go home
blog work

Then, after dinner, my mom, dad, aunt, AJ, Jenna + me set off to Jeni’s ice cream again. We were about half way there when we got a phone call from my uncle saying there were severe storms headed our direction. We looked to the left + the sky was turning darker by the second.

We got home as quickly as possibly, with one stop on the way.

Thanks to a few readers who let me know Heinen’s carries Jeni’s ice cream!!! We drove right past on our way home, so I stopped in and picked up a few flavors.

We turned the TV on, and watched a lot of “tornadic” action, but luckily not much happened. The weather around here has been extremely unpredictable lately!

After we saw that we were in the clear, I practically ran to the freezer and started digging in.

Salted caramel – it’s like a slightly burnt, salted, caramelly marshmallow

The Buckeye State – a play on “Buckeyes” choco/PB candy - fabulous, slightly gritty [in a good way] texture, filled with chocolate + pnut butter bits and a lovely vanilla ice cream

[apologies for the horribly lit + grainy photos]