CELEBRATIONS GALORE!

This weekend included an anniversary dinner to die for, the cutest 1-year-old’s birthday party, new running gear, delicious food, and more!

Take a look…

A NEW WATCH

This weekend I got to really put my new Garmin Forerunner 230 to the test! The man has had one of these for a while, and it’s been so much fun learning how it works. He let me wear it for a few of our long runs together so that I could pace myself well, and then he offered for me to wear it during the Colfax Half Marathon. It was extremely useful in knowing whether or not I was on track, and in knowing if I should slow down or speed up.

Love it!

A DYNAMITE DINNER

On Friday night, the man and I celebrated 6 months of dating (dorks) at Barolo Grill Denver, an award-winning restaurant in Cherry Creek North. (I wore my new purple Stitch Fix score.) This was the most delicious and authentic Italian food I’ve had in a long time. I didn’t snap many photos,  but I’ll tell you what we ate and drank:

• a surprise celebratory glass of Prosecco when we were seated (the man gets all the awards!)
• their complimentary bread sticks and dipping sauce (parsley/parmesan puree)
• the Soufflé Pomodoro appetizer: heirloom tomato & caciocavallo cheese soufflé, tomato emulsion, tomato conserva, smoked sea salt
• the Formaggio di Capra con Verdure salad: whipped haystack mountain goat cheese, roasted summer vegetables, petite field greens, balsamic dressing, herbes de provence tuile
• the Tagliatelle ai Funghi pasta dish: chanterelle mushrooms, ricotta salata, housemade tagliatelle & shaved summer truffles
• the Tortellini di Capesante e Granchio pasta dish: scallop & crab filled tortellini pasta, agro dolce peppers, citrus crema, basil
• Ippoglosso con Crostacei Bisque: seared alaskan halibut, asparagus, broccolini, black rice, shellfish bisque & edible flowers
• complimentary dessert of chocolate truffles and coffee liqueur

All of that indulgence was washed down with an incredible recommendation from a friend: Ribolla Gialla/Rebula, ‘Rubikon’ Edi Simcic, a white wine from the northeastern region of Italy bordering Austria and Slovenia. SO GOOD!

PAJAMA BAKING COMPANY

We woke up on Saturday ready for breakfast, surprisingly! We were horrified to see we were out of bread, which is basically a sin around here, so we drove on over to South Pearl Street to visit Pajama Baking Company (after a failed attempt at procuring bread from Trumpeau Bakery; they’re temporarily closed until August 22nd!).

We scored some day-old bread on sale: a challah loaf and a ciabatta loaf, for $3 total!

We finally made it home and (break)feasted on eggs with all the veggies in the known universe + heaps of ciabatta toast with butter… and coffee, duh.

THE CUTEST BDAY

After that, we did some chores before hopping on over (heh) to our friend Bonnie’s 1-year-old’s birthday party. Her boy’s name is Oscar, and he is the cutest thing you’ve ever seen! Bonnie is a party-planning queen, and the theme was Peter Rabbit.

(Bonnie’s younger sister Blair is my good friend and work wife, and she’s also the one who introduced Nick and me . )

There was a lot of food…

On top of that gorgeous garden cake you saw above, there were also these carrot cupcakes!

(Look at that bow tie!)

Oscar and I hung out for a while… until he found something far more interesting:

It was fun day… but at this point, the man and I were feeling heavy stomachs and an itch for movement.

A LONG RUN IN WASH PARK

After taking a few hours to decompress and digest, we headed out to our Wash Park route to clock in some miles. I hadn’t done more than 4 miles outside since before my fainting incident, so I decided to make this weekend the first of my long-run increments. We did an easy 5 miles, which felt really solid (although I still felt full afterward!).

How cute are our matching Garmins? 🙂

A LONG WALK AROUND WASH PARK

Sunday morning, the man went to Boulder to run a measly 22 miles, so I decided to go for a long walk in Wash Park and catch up with my momma on the phone!

 5.5 miles later, I was ready to go home and hide in the shade.

A SECRET MEAL

Sunday night we made a quick trip to Sprouts and whipped up a delicious (and super-easy!) meal from my NomNom Pinterest board. This meal was so absolutely beautiful that I’ll be dedicating a whole post to it soon.

And that’s a wrap.

WHAT DID YOUR WEEKEND LOOK LIKE?

This post is a part of the Weekend Snapshots link-up with HerHeartlandSoul.