Bride and Groom Gifts and How I Spent My Labor Day

Posted in wedding by Chocolate Covered Race Medals

I hope you all have had a great holiday and enjoyed lots and lots of Labor Day barbecue.

We didn’t have any of the good stuff today in our house, but we still enjoyed our holiday.

I spent the morning catching up on the blog-o-world (I missed you all so much 🙂 while enjoying my favorite weekend breakfast.

coffee and a pb bagel. . . you all know I had more than one half. Puleeez don’t worry about me.

Zach and I then took our boy to get caught up on vaccinations at the good ol’ VCA.

It’s wild, Gus has had some awful experiences at the vet (or at least left us traumatized) but still LOVES going each and every time.

We are planning on boarding our boy for a few days during the wedding weekend. This is the first time we’ve ever had to do this (besides medical boarding), so we weren’t really sure what was involved.

We found out last weekend during our travels that in order to board him, he’d need to come in and get updated shots. We immediately made an appointment for today to get him in as quick as possible.

Thank god we have a great vet. It turns out that due to Gusman’s illness, he should not get vaccines since they could potentially trigger another outbreak. So, medical boarding it is for boy for the weekend.

It’s kind of a bummer that he won’t get to play with new fur friends, but they LOVE Gus in medical boarding, and we know they’ll take special care of our boy :).

After the vet visit, Zach and I had a special trip to make.

Bride and Groom Gifts

We stopped at Nordstom this afternoon to pick out wedding day-of gifts for each other 🙂

It was fun! We first set out on our own to find a couple things we really liked. Then met back up and discussed options with the other person. Once we chatted about our front runners, we once again separated to pick out the final winner for each other. We want to leave some surprise for the big day 🙂

We ran and got a redbox after our little shopping field trip then headed home for a few more cinderella duties

vacuum
laundry
getting rid of boxes
unloading our new favorite items:

Our new wedding everyday china!

It’s beautiful and I could not be more excited about it. Zach and I spent some time this afternoon boxing up and washing our new dishes, but even that couldn’t contain my excitement about the new goods.

Out new set includes:

large plates
medium plates
deep bowls
coffee cups

I love the white and pristine look of the set and could not wait to start photographing all my grub on it!

And what else but our favorite homemade dinner for the new sets premier use:

Homemade pizza!

Tonight’s pizza included:

one golden beat, steamed
fresh cherry tomatoes from the garden
fresh garden basil
2 garden peppers
Mozzarella and parmesan cheese

I was starving because since my PB bagel, today’s eats have been pretty embarrassing.

Trail mix with extra chocolate and a few skittles thrown in, then little cherry sours from the vet (hello, I only got 4 for 25 cents. CHEAP).

At least I also grabbed a kombucha to help reset the digestive tract after a weekend of drinks and not-so-healthy grub at times.

Needless to say, the pizza hit the spot and Zach and I enjoyed our first meal on the new wedding china!

Baking Bug

A day of relaxing and once again having access to my kitchen left me itching with the baking bug.

Stock picture, real pictures to come with recipe!

Small batch of chocolate cookies to the rescue 🙂

These are much more like your mother’s cookies than my standard, but you know I still healthified them 🙂 I’ll be back tomorrow with the recipe!

Other posts on deck for this week before the craziness:

Final recap of New York, includingi my favorite spots, working out on vacation, and highlights
Review of GONE GIRL (yup, finished it)
FInal wedding thoughts

Enjoy the last bit of your labor day everyone!

Question of the night: What was the highlight of your Labor Day?

Bride and Groom gifts for me 🙂 And pizza, OF COURSE!

2Sep2013

A New York Wedding: Recap 2

Posted in Travels by Chocolate Covered Race Medals

After a long day of travel and AM run around Hudson, Zach and I were ready to begin celebrating Saturday!

Unfortunately I don’t have pictures from the first day of breakfast, but know that it was delicious. Our Bed and Breakfast was seriously amazing, cannot say enough great things about hudson b and b.

Both mornings, our breakfast was started with a dish of fresh fruit with yogurt and granola to add to taste.

While we enjoyed our fruit, breakfast was made to order. The first morning, Zach and I split a 3 egg omelet with mushrooms, spinach and cheese with a side of toast and bacon. Delicious and perfect fuel for a busy day.

Once Zach and I finished our breakfasts, we met up with friends at red dot for a quick drink pre ceremony.

from their website

It was great to get to meet a lot of Zach’s friends from college before our own big day. The bar had a great laid back feel. I only had a bloody mary while there, so I can’t speak to the quality of the food, but I was told they have a great brunch.

After chatting for about an hour or so, we each went our seperate ways to pretty ourselves up for the big event.

The ceremony was at one PM at an old beautiful church in downtown Hudson.

The church was absolutely gorgeous. Unfortunately the lighting inside wasn’t great, so pictures don’t do it much justice. Each panel of the walls had beautiful stain glass that added so much character to an already stunning building.

The service was a catholic ceremony, without the Eucharist (a first for me) , and lasted a little under an hour.

The ceremony ended at two and cocktail with cocktail at the reception site not starting until 5 PM. Since we had quite a bit of time to kill, a group of us decided to go to American Glory for lunch and drinks.

I went with my standard riesling for my drink, and split a salad with brisket and a side of cornbread with Zach. We knew we’d be getting appetizers at cocktail, and wanted to save our appetite.

The group actually got to have the entire upstairs area to ourselves due to our size, so we felt very VIP. The staff was very sweet and took great care of us! They even offered to stay open beyond hours for an after party post wedding if we wanted!

At 430, we all started gathering our things to head to the party!

The cocktail hour and reception were held at the Palladian Barn on the Hill in Hudson.

Honestly, this location was BEAUTIFUL.

Palladian Barn is an old barn refinished specifically for events like receptions, with plenty of outdoor space to do outdoor ceremonies as well if you wish.

The dinner and dancing were held upstairs. The dance floor was set up in the center, with both sides being down a half flight of stairs set up for dinner.

Dinner was buffet style and included salad, chicken, man and cheese, potatoes and the standard fair.

The couple and all of their closest friends and family all danced the night away!

My favorite part of the food for the evening was the dessert table that was put out at the end of the night 🙂

I ate my body weight in little mini desserts and left the night filled with love and chocolate.

Unfortunately, due to the very dark lighting inside the site, I didn’t get any pictures of the food or dancing. But I did steal one from facebook 🙂

Pointers Zach and I took away from this wedding for our own:

Make sure to take time for all of your guests! Everyone loves you!
Enjoy the moment – it goes by too fast
EAT

Zach and I could not be more excited for our own big day, and are glad we got to spend this weekend celebrating another amazing couple 🙂

2Sep2013

Back to Normal Business

Posted in healthy living, workout plan for the week, workouts for the day by Chocolate Covered Race Medals

Good Morning and Happy Labor Day!

We are officially back in Denver, settled, and back to normal business after a whirlwind weekend in New York.

Well, it’s back to business for a few days at least…

That’s right all, 5 day. 5 big ones until the big day.

I must say, going to a wedding across the country a week before your own may not be for everyone, but we made it!

This morning, I woke up ready to reset my body and find some routine to settle into until our own craziness begins. After a weekend of exploring a new area by running, by body was more than happy to take a reset with some yoga.

I stepped out into my own personal yoga oasis for a morning of stretching and healing.

Pretty sweet set up I have there on our upstairs patio, huh? 🙂

Workout for the Morning: YOGA for runners.

My travel and running fatigued body was VERY grateful for some TLC.

I spent some time this weekend thinking about how I was going to structure my work outs this week. I know that flexibility will be key, but because I’ve been thinking ahead I’ve structured work outs in a way that I WILL be able to be flexible.

First, I didn’t take Friday completely off like I normally do. I knew that traveling makes me stir crazy, so getting a quick and dirty work out in was best for all involved :).

I skipped a true long run last week, and just integrated some longer runs during the week, and left myself open to do shorter runs over the weekend, when I knew I’d be traveling and have less time and access to equipment.

Overall, it’s worked out very well and I now have a very loose schedule for the wedding week.

Workout Plan for WEDDING WEEK

Monday: YOGA YOGA YOGA
Tuesday: 4 easy miles
Wednesday: Easy day: yoga + strength for arms and abs (8 minute videos anyone? 😉
Thursday: Long Run
Friday: Hike with friends
Saturday: Wedding Run in Golden with my Maid of Honor
Sunday: Back in being a newlywed 🙂

So, yes, it looks very different than my normal schedules, but seems like a good set up for a busy/amazing week. What do you think?

And now, I’m enjoying some morning coffee while chatting with you and planning out our Labor Day.