Serious Vacation Mode

Nick’s sister Ava is visiting us (from NYC), and our weekend with her was so much fun! We’ve been celebrating her 30th and partaking in vacation-style shenanigans in general, represented in the photo above: champagne, wine, coffee, repeat. Also, food.

In other news: Harper is a giant moose/dear. Just, look.

The photo on the left (so, so cute) is from Harper’s first day with us. The photo on the right is from Friday. She is HUGE! (She’s still tiny, though. It’s confusing.)

Ava’s late-night flight on Friday got delayed, so we all stayed up until about 1:30 am having a snack and a beer and chatting. Then, after a lazy Saturday morning, we headed to Puppy 2 class at the Denver Paw School where Harps learned a few more tricks and practiced focusing on us in high-distraction settings. Ava watched from the sidelines and snapped the above photo.

This is Harps begging to join everyone on the couch, even though we’re trying to teach her that she can do so only when invited…

Harper, could you simultaneously stop growing and also get even larger, please? Thanks. We’d love to take you on runs with us!

Anyway, Harper is entirely in love with her Auntie Ava, who gifted us with these adorable New York-themed cookies from Dean & DeLuca! They’re almost all gone. Yum!

After puppy class, we left Harps in her crate to take a long, hard-earned nap, and we walked to South Broadway to recreate Vacation Day with Ava, a hardworking lawyer who deserves to be treated to the finer things in our neighborhood! 😉

We took her to Baere Brewing Company, TRVE Brewing Company, Punch Bowl Social, and the rooftop deck at Historian’s Ale House. All the beer! For dinner, we ordered Taki Sushi, opened some wine from Joy Wine & Spirits, and concluded the evening with:

…a chocolate chocolate chip “Happy Winter” cake from Nothing Bundt Cakes. This thing is doubly delicious with the cream cheese frosting on top! Goodness gracious. We finished the night watching Ozark on Netflix, like the 90-year-olds we are.

Early Sunday morning Nick and I squeezed in a run around the park. I was slow but steady; it’s going to take a while to get back into the swing of things after that whirlwind show schedule. We also went for a 4.5-mile loop on Friday evening, which means I’ve got two solid runs in for August so far.  (Sunday’s run wasn’t nearly as painful as I thought, given everything I’d consumed the day before.)

On Sunday afternoon, after a pick-me-up at The Spot Bar & Grill, Ava and I decided we needed manicures and pedicures (need was an apt word when it came to my feet…). I went with an off-white color for my fingers and a purple for my toes.

Nick and I decided to try out a Blue Apron box of three recipes for this week, since we’d be eating out a little more than usual with Ava here and also since we’re going to Philly Thursday night for a wedding and doing a full grocery run didn’t make sense.

Right off the bat we weren’t thrilled with the service: We received the box on Saturday and were told we needed to make a decision about our next shipment by Sunday… the next day. Even if we’d made one of the recipes on Saturday, that’s one-third of the box and not the overall experience. Also: they make you email customer service to learn how to cancel. Not cool, Blue Apron. Not cool. We ended up canceling until further notice.

We did make one of the recipes Sunday night, though: Olive & Pepper Grilled Cheese Sandwiches with Butter Lettuce & Cherry Tomato Salad. I’m not a fan of olives, so Nick and Ava ate those for a pre-dinner snack. 🙂 It was good but also something we could easily make ourselves for a fraction of the price. We determined that what you’re really paying for is the convenience of the ingredients sent to you.

 

 

Anyway: that is the hodge-podge that was our weekend! Oddly enough we didn’t get any photos of us. Oh well! We were too busy having fun and sinking into serious vacation mode. It’s the most relaxed I’ve felt in a while.

How was your weekend?

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