This is meant to be upside down. Haha. My grandpa has some great brick walls at his house. 🙂
This past weekend was another visit to New Mexico. Road trips can be pretty fun! We celebrated my aunt and dad’s birthday on Saturday and then just spent quality time with family which is always good. 🙂
We left on Friday with my whole gang, dogs and all and enjoyed a nice and cool drive down to Farmington, New Mexico. We made our regular stops at Gunsmoke outside of Buena Vista, Colorado, South Fork, and the McDonald’s in Pagosa Springs, Colorado. Marty and Boo, my doggies, always enjoy road trips, and Marty has always really enjoyed getting to stick his head out. Both Marty and Boo really enjoy getting to eat the occasional French fry too, after our McDonald’s stop. Haha.
Friday night we enjoyed a great dinner with lots of veggies from our garden and angel food cake for dessert. The angel food cake with fruit was a highlight for sure. 🙂
Saturday was my dad’s birthday as well as my aunt’s birthday. We spent the day relaxing, eating more good food, and playing Uno. There was just a lot of good time with family. We also went dorm room shopping at Target. Shockingly, the Target in Farmington had better options than the ones back in Broomfield! We also did some shopping for my aunt’s new kitten. She’s a cutie!
For the big birthday dinner that night, we had root beer floats and a delicious peach cream pie for dessert. Safeway makes some delicious and cute cakes nowadays, let me tell ya!
With the birthday festivities over, Sunday was spent getting ready to go back to Colorado and just like that, our fun, family weekend was over. We were welcomed back to Colorado with a lot of rain and cooler temperatures which is always refreshing. The road trip back to Colorado is always really long (it has always been 7-8 hours but the desire and anticipation to get home seems to make it longer). The views are always beautiful too. Some of the drive can be boring, but it has always been fun to see what’s out there.
I’ve really enjoyed the time my family has spent in New Mexico. I wish that the visits could be longer but the time my family and I spend together is always great and so worth it. Family is so important and will always be.
It’s crazy to think that summer’s almost over now! I’ve got one more week of freedom, ahhhhhh. I hope you all have a great week!
Allyson and I have been going to the pool a decent amount this summer but since that’s really all I had going on this past week, I figured I would share our pool adventures. 🙂
My family and I are members at a country club in our area and that’s where we play tennis, eat sometimes, work out, and also take advantage of their wonderful new pool and poolside grill! The weather was finally perfect this past week and neither Allyson nor I had work or class on Wednesday, so it was a perfect pool day.
Of course swimming happens while you’re at the pool but it’s also fun to just chill in a chair in the shade while letting your feet tan in the tiny bit of sun in your area. Allyson and I will typically be in the pool for about 30 minutes to an hour and just mess around, splashing each other, and also just relaxing. I can’t ever convince Allyson to go into the deep end with me, but I think I’ll get her one of these days.
Allyson and I have also really enjoyed the food served by the poolside grill whenever we go. This past time, we ordered smoothies when we first got there and then later ordered buffalo chicken tenders and what our country club calls the Cali Chicken pizza which has chicken, avocado, lettuce, bacon, cheese, golden cherry tomatoes, and ranch on it. It’s a really good pizza. After eating all of that and swimming for a bit, we also ordered a skillet cookie with ice cream. Yummy!
I’ve really enjoyed being able to just relax and spend more chill time with Allyson this past summer. I wish we were able to go to the pool more often than we have, but the times we have been were totally worth it. We’re trying to squeeze in a few more trips to the pool before we both go off to school. It’s coming up so soon! AHHH!
I hope you all have a great week! Don’t forget to wear sunscreen and take a hat. 🙂
I would also like to say that my thoughts and prayers go out to those affected by the shootings in Ohio, California, and Texas. Let’s be good to each other and take care of one another. ❤️
My mom and I recently have been trying a bunch of different healthy recipes and one of my favorites has been the hummus and beet wraps. If you’re interested in trying it out, here’s the recipe below! My mom makes the hummus that we add to our wraps, but that recipe is not included in the recipe I’m providing here. Any hummus that you enjoy can work. 🙂
4 cups of arugula (roughly chopped)
1 beet (grated)
2 tbsp of low-fat feta cheese
2 tbsp of hummus
Sprouted grain tortillas (my family and I usually get the tortillas by Simple Truth)
Wash the arugula prior to assembling your wrap. Place a tortilla on a place. Spread hummus on a tortilla, leaving at least an inch border. I like to add enough hummus that it creates a decent layer on the tortilla. Taking about a handful or two of arugula sprinkle it evenly around the tortilla. Add some of the grated beets on top of the arugula. I don’t tend to add too much of the grated beets as a preference thing, but you can add as little or as much of the beets as you would like. After the beets, sprinkle feta cheese on top. Once all of the good stuff is placed as you like it, assemble the wrap and enjoy!
I find that just one wrap can be quite filling, but if you want another, that’s okay too! I’ve never really been a fan of beets, but this recipe has helped me come to terms with them. So I hope you give hummus and beet wraps a try, and if not, that’s okay too. Just throwing out some healthy, tasty options. 🙂 Have a good week everyone!
I’m sitting on a plane writing this and it most definitely won’t be uploaded until late tonight. Oopsies! I just had a wonderful weekend in California. I went to visit one of my really good friends from school. Her and her family live in Sacramento and were wonderful in letting me stay at their house for the time I was there. Just a heads up, this is going to be a long post, so get comfortable!
I arrived late Thursday night and was welcomed by cooler temperatures (in comparison to the oven that Colorado has been lately). On Friday, my friend showed me around Sacramento and we went to Old Town as well as Downtown Sacramento. Old Town was super cute and there was this fun candy store we went into. They had the most taffy I’ve EVER seen in my life. As a recommendation, I ask you all to never never never try chicken and waffles taffy. It’s gross. That’s all I have to say about that.
When we went to Downtown Sacramento, my friend and I stopped at this really pretty place for lunch called The Bank after walking around for a bit. We went to Pressed Juicery prior to lunch and both got rose lemonade and a watermelon pomegranate juice. Healthy and yummy juice options there for sure! I just wish we had one in Colorado. 🙁 I’m pretty sure they’re expanding out of California, but not quite yet…
The best way I can describe The Bank: its an old bank turned into an upscale cafeteria with really good food options. They had burgers, Mexican food, pizza, poke bowls, a bakery, and a bar. The burgers at Station 8 (that was the name of the little restaurant) were what my friend and I got. So yummy too by the way! I got the Bank burger and it came with mushroom gravy and sour cream on it in addition to many of the tradition things you find on a burger. The fries were good too, but too much for one person. If you stop by The Bank, I would recommend splitting the fries with another person.
After lunch, we walked around Downtown a bit more and then my friend took me to the Starbucks Reserve, which is basically a fancy Starbucks. There are only a couple of them in the country, I think. That was pretty cool and then I got a very yummy drink from them and a couple cup to keep (I’m a dork). I got the nitro dirty chai. 10/10 would recommend!
We finished out Friday watching movies: Primal Fear and A Few Good Men and then went to bed because the next day was going to be a long day. We were going to San Francisco!
The next day started around 6:15 in the morning and we went to Chick-Fil-A for breakfast on the way. At this moment, I remember thinking, “Thank goodness Colorado time isn’t too different from California time!” Waking up that early wasn’t too bad. I think the drive was around two hours. After finding parking, we went to Union Square and went to this one mall that had a Nordstrom with like eight different floors. There was practically an entire floor dedicated to shoes! It was crazy. At that mall, we walked around Nordstrom for a while and then stopped by American Eagle and Lululemon. I was very excited to go to the Lululemon. 🙂
After some shopping, our next stop was the Museum of Ice Cream. Wow was that a fun place to go. If you’re ever in San Francisco, PLEASE go. The amount of ice cream you receive and the fun you have is worth the price. You do need to get tickets in advance though, just a heads up.
You enter the museum by going through the “pink portal” which is just a pink tube slide. After that, my friend and I were greeted by a person in a jumpsuit with otter pops. We created ice cream names for ourselves (I was Ana Banana haha) and then moved onto the next room. The next room was a cute little diner where we got s’mores ice cream. The cone was dipped in chocolate and the ice cream was dusted with graham crackers. It fully tasted like a s’more! Room after room, we got more ice cream and got to take so many cute pictures. There was a lot of fun stuff to do in each room too!
Like in one, we got to make bracelets, there was one where we got to play with fun mirrors, there was one with those giant frosted animal cookies you could sit on, there was another with cute unicorns you could take pictures with, and there was another room where you could write words on a wall with magnetic letters. There was also a room with a pool filled with sprinkles that had a slide and diving board. That room was pretty cute too. We got ice cream sandwiches made of chocolate chip cookies and pink vanilla ice cream at the sprinkles pool.
Overall, the Museum of Ice Cream was a super fun, super interactive, and super cute place to visit. If you ever plan to make a trip to California, take your family to San Francisco and this place in particular and be prepared for A LOT of ice cream.
After our ice cream adventure, my friend and I walked around Union Square a bit more and spent an hour inside Tiffany’s. No, we didn’t buy anything, but the gentleman assisting us allowed us both to try on a few pieces which was really fun. 🙂 Maybe someday I’ll be able to afford some of that jewelry.
Our day in San Francisco was still not over! We went to Pier 39, where I got to see Alcatraz from a distance, ate a bunch of mini doughnuts covered in cinnamon and sugar, went on a carousel, and navigated my way through a mirror maze. After our fun at Pier 39, we headed to a small beach where my friend and I took some more pictures and I truly got to see the Golden Gate Bridge.
By now, dinner was rolling around and so we hopped back in the car and took a short drive over to Ghirardelli Square. There, we had dinner at the San Francisco Brewing Company (great pizza and virgin drinks there by the way!), and then went to get some chocolate. I would have ordered a milkshake or some ice cream but I was all ice-creamed-out from my adventures earlier in the day.
After dinner and some more shopping, we began the journey back to Sacramento which began with a stop at a viewpoint of the Golden Gate Bridge. Oh my goodness was it cold and windy, but the view of the bridge and San Francisco as the sun set was spectacular. Lots of good pictures from there! Then it was another two hour drive back to my friend’s house. I crashed that night, that’s for sure. The next day was going to be much more relaxed, THANK GOODNESS.
On Sunday, my friend and I went to see the new Lion King movie which I am proud to say that I really enjoyed. Disney did a fabulous job sticking to the plot of the original movie (which they’ve struggled with in their remakes, in my opinion). That made the movie a lot more enjoyable to me. After the movie, my friend and I stopped for lunch at In-N-Out because what trip to California would be complete without it?
This was my first time ever going to In-N-Out and I was pleasantly surprised by the simplicity of the menu and of course, the tastiness of the food. That was a good burger. Does it beat BurgerFi? In my opinion, no. But it was still a very yummy meal. After lunch, we went back to her house and just relaxed until it was time for me to head to the airport for my trip back to Denver and here we are in the present time. 🙂
To my friend, if you ever read this, thank you so much for showing me Sacramento, San Francisco, and just California in general! I had a blast with you and your family. And thank you to your family for allowing me to stay at your home and have fun with you all for a weekend! California is a fun state to visit and explore and I look forward to visiting it many more times to come. Have a good week everyone!
As of yesterday, my microeconomics class and my technical writing class are COMPLETE! Woohoo! Online classes are DONE! I still have my physics class to finish at my local community college, but I feels nice to know that my load just got a lot lighter.
Eleven credits this summer may have been to big of a task to handle. I’m a bit worried that I’ll burn myself out for this upcoming fall semester. Considering that I will be taking seventeen credits this fall, I feel nervous about what my work ethic is going to look like. I’m a pretty hard-working person so I think I’ll be able to stay strong but we shall see. Haha, I bet you guys will hear about how all of that goes.
Online classes are extremely helpful for people who can only make those work. Or for me, they’re helpful when you add a business minor to your load and still want to graduate early. Online classes are also cheaper than most classes you can take at a community college or university. Super convenient, let me tell you.
One of the biggest things I struggled with in my online classes was actual dedication to the class. Of course I got all of my work done in a timely manner and to the best of my ability but it was hard to find the motivation. I never met either of my teachers (with the exception of a Skype call to my Econ professor) and I never met any of my peers. I personally really appreciate the personal connection that comes with physically being present in a classroom or lecture hall listening to a professor. I feel that I am more involved and present to learn the material.
Another thing that I hated about my particular online classes were the mandatory, weekly discussions. Every week, there was some topic we were required to discuss with discussion group members. In order to receive credit for our discussions, we had to make a post that fully answered the question or questions, respond to AT LEAST two other classmates posts, and then interact with our peers based on responses we got. I was always really good about posting early in the week but oh my goodness, my peers were not. I would answer everything by Tuesday and sometimes Wednesday and wouldn’t hear back from ANYONE until Saturday. Discussions closed on Sundays and I honestly didn’t want to deal with all of that so late in the week, but I eventually just had to because some people are stupid and some are just big procrastinators. Thanks…
Online proctoring for exams creeps me out too. WOW. The process is overkill. I had to be proctored twice for my Econ exams and both experiences with that were just horrendous. It’s creepy that another person can just hack into your laptop like that. I also didn’t appreciate that I practically had to be glued to my seat the entire two hours I took my Econ midterm and final. What if I was uncomfortable how I was sitting, huh? I also found it unnecessary that the proctor had to see my entire room to understand that I wasn’t cheating. I was even asked to take down a tennis tournament draw I have up on my wall from when I won regionals my junior year of high school. How in the world would they expect me to cheat off of that?!
I understand the point of online proctoring, but as I mentioned earlier, the process and extremes to which these services have gone is a bit extreme. Sometimes I just wish people were honest and trustworthy and then we wouldn’t need these creepy, strange proctoring services. Oh well.
Other than these couple of things I mentioned, I’m grateful that I had the opportunity to take a couple of online classes. It has been helpful to my college plans and allowed me to see another side of the academic world.
More importantly though, here’s to a more true start to summer for me! Well, minus physics. But still! Have a good week everyone. 🙂
The Inventing Room: one of the quirkiest and most fun dessert places I’ve ever been to. It’s inspired by the room in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory where Violet Beauregarde chews the bubblegum and turns into a giant blueberry. It has crazy different desserts and used liquid nitrogen to make all of its ice cream and many parts of its many desserts!
My dad decided it would be fun to check out some good dessert place in Denver, and that’s just what we did. We arrived at The Inventing Room a little after they opened, which was around 2 today I think and the place was busy but not packed. The building looks kinda industrial and modern, but there’s also a whimsical and fun vibe to it.
When we ordered, the cashier handed us a bag of popcorn that had been left to sit in liquid nitrogen and it was fun to eat. If you’ve ever seen those Nitro Ball things that are fairly popular, it was like eating those. The popcorn was cold but still yummy and then it was like being a dragon! Kinda fun, right?
I ended up ordering the s’mores cream puff which is one of their best-sellers, my mom got the lemon curd creme brûlée crepe, and my dad and sister both got Butter-beer floats (inspired by the drink in Harry Potter!). Some of the other menu items included a nitro peach pie, a unicorn galaxy tart (which I’m dying to get the next time we go back), Mexican fried ice cream, and a Colorado honey sundae which sounds so yummy. They had ice cream (what dessert shop doesn’t?) and you could make your own sundaes. There was also handcrafted candy which looked interesting and I think it would be fun to try in the future.
Overall, the desserts were yummy, the service was good, and my family and I will be heading back! If you’re looking for a weird but super fun place to go and please your sweet tooth, I recommend The Inventing Room. Parking can be a bit tricky to find, but it’s free so that’s convenient. I would also totally recommend trying the s’mores cream puff (the toasted marshmallow was DELICIOUS) and just going to have some fun. 🙂 The Harry Potter tasting plate sounds like it could be a lot of fun for all of the Harry Potter fans out there.
I hope you all have a good week and I’ll see ya next Sunday! Stay sweet! 🙂
Boo’s got a big day coming up at the dentist this week. When I say big, I mean INSANELY big. Our poor little guy has pretty bad dental disease (dachshunds are more prone to it than most dogs) and it’s finally time to take care of it. His breath has been really stinky and he has been sneezing quite a bit lately, which is an indicator that his upper canines aren’t doing so hot. Anyway…
Boo goes in tomorrow for his procedure and the dentist is expecting to pull 20 teeth! For those of you that don’t know, adult dogs have 42 teeth, so he’s going to be losing about half. We’ve tried a variety of things to keep both Boo’s and Marty’s teeth healthy throughout their lives, but there’s just something about their genetics that has made periodontitis inevitable. From Greenies chews to teeth cleanings at a local dog food shop, to my mom even scaling and cleaning their teeth, we’ve tried a lot.
We took Marty in to see the dentist around this same time last year, so my family knows what to expect. Lots of soft food and rest for the little guy. There’s also going to be a lot of medication. All the antibiotics and painkillers… When we went in to have him first checked last week, the vet even gave us antibiotics to start him on then in addition to probiotics to help his gut stay healthy. I’ve never seen probiotics given to a dog before, but so far, they’ve been wonderful for him to have! Marty even likes the probiotics with his food, haha. I really hope he doesn’t end up losing his upper canines, but I have a feeling he’s going to lose those.
In the end, this procedure will help his mouth feel a lot better and hopefully help him feel a lot better! That’s how it was with Marty, so I expect the same results for Boo. I’ll be busy spending a lot of time with Boo this week, that’s for sure! Have a good week everyone 🙂
I hope you’re all having a great summer so far. I know it has been one crazy summer for me with all of my classes and everything, but it has still been a fun one. My sister just recently decided to update her website and fully commit to keeping up her blog (YAY) so I invite you all to check it out at allysonhorvath.com!
She’s a fantastic creative writer and she’s planning on posting about regular-everyday stuff as well as her creative writing pieces like poems and some critiques. She has the full layout as to what she plans to post and she also plans to post more frequently than I do, haha. From what I can remember, Sundays will be regular blog days, Mondays will be movie and music reviews, and Thursdays will be short stories and poems. A lot of fun stuff is in store at allysonhorvath.com. 🙂 I’m most excited for the poems and short stories she writes!
She’s had the domain and website up for a long time. She just hasn’t been able to get around to writing and I’m SO EXCITED that she’s finally going to keep it up. She’s a super talented writer and sometimes I don’t think she believes that. I’m hoping you’ll all go show her some love and support and check it out.
Sorry this post isn’t all that exciting I just really wanted to give Allyson’s blog a shoutout today and give her some support. 🙂 I’ll see you all next Sunday!
An oldie, but a goodie. 🙂 This is from Father’s Day like two years ago.
Father’s Day 2019, here we go! Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there! How lucky am I that I get to post about this wonderful day every single year.
In my life, I’m so lucky and blessed to have the wonderful person I call my dad in my life. Dad, thank you for being the best tennis coach, cheerleader, chauffeur, friend, and of course dad that I could ever ask for. You’re an amazing person and I hope that I can one day be as courageous and smart and confident as you are. I’ve recently really come to enjoy our economics talks (I need all the help I can get!) and of course our conversations about tennis and just life in general. I love you so so so much.
When I’m at my best, I’m my father’s daughter.
Anonymous
On our agenda today, we’ve got some tennis planned and then hopefully we’ll go out to celebrate and let my dad pick the restaurant. That’s always something kinda special my family does. We always get a card too and typically get some candy, but this year there was this really cute mug my sister found that came with matching boxers (haha) that we got for my dad that say “World’s Best Dad”. True facts with the statement on that mug, that’s for sure. Allyson has a good eye for gifts, let me tell you that.
I hope you’re all treating your dads well today and spending lots of time with them. Let the dad jokes fly today, and every day honestly! They deserve all the love and appreciation today. Happy Father’s Day 2019! Have a great week and I’ll see you all next Sunday! 🙂 And don’t forget, that every day is truly dad’s day.
We are now two (maybe, three?) weeks into my summer break and I feel like my online classes and physics class are destroying me. Wow. I may be exaggerating a bit, but maybe I’m not. Anyway, summer classes are tough.
Personally, I decided to take summer classes through Colorado State University’s online courses so that I could get ahead with some of my business minor courses and other classes, since I intend to graduate in the fall of 2021.
Currently, I’m taking an advanced writing class, microeconomics, and algebra-based physics. All of those classes add up to a total of 11 credits. Yay me… My two online courses started literally right after Allyson’s high school graduation which was on May 18th and physics started this past week.
There’s always weekly quizzes and discussions for my online classes which take up a lot of my time, but I understand why the teachers and professors do that. It’s tough to be engaged and dedicated to an online class! For physics, I meet three times a week, for THREE HOURS. And on top of that, my professor hasn’t given us breaks during the days where he lectures for the entire time. I’m gonna need a break at some point. It’s so hard to focus for that long, let me tell ya.
One of the hardest things I’ve noticed about all of these summer classes is time management. If I thought I was good with time management before, this whole summer class thing is REALLY testing that. I’ve decided that Mondays and Tuesdays will be dedicated to my online classes and then whatever other time I have will be dedicated to tennis and other fun summer activities.
I really hope that I don’t regret doing what I’ve done. Summer classes will be crucial to my plan for my undergraduate degree but I also want to have a life and spend time with my family and friends this summer. We’ll just have to wait and see how this all goes! Have a good week everyone. 🙂 See you next weekend.
