Rocky Mountain Fiiiiiiiiive

Morning and happy Friday, bunnies! Holy guacamole I'm excited for the weekend. Am I the only one that feels the pain of the first week back to work after vacation? Please tell me I'm not alone. It has been mega tough to get back into the swing of things after our amazing 10 day adventure in Colorado and I'm hopeful a weekend of rest and relaxation will help get me back on track.

In place of my normal Friday Faves, I'm recapping my Colorado trip for y'all today. It was such an amazing time away and it was so refreshing to be in such a beautiful state. Le Husband's aunt and uncle have a second home in Breckenridge and they graciously allowed us to stay in their home and use their car while we were in Colorado. We were ever so grateful because their generosity, coupled with the fact we used our frequent flier miles for our tickets, made our fabulous vacation a lot nicer on our budget. I would pay through the nose to go back though, we had the best time and here are my five favorites of our trip. Hopefully you are ready for a lengthy recap, because that's what you're getting :)!

The Views: This is probably no news to any of you, but Colorado is just gorgeous. I thought it was beautiful in the winter, but it is just as fabulous in the spring and summer months. The mountains create the most majestic background and the snow capped peaks bring up fun thoughts of skiing. Everywhere you look there is a big sky, mountains and beautiful lush green trees. While the altitude is no joke, the fresh air is divine and the scenery makes my views at home extremely lacking. #takemebacktothemountains #clearaireverywhere #noconcretejungle

This pictures was taken our last day in Breckenridge and I sorely miss having such a beautiful horizon to gaze upon everyday. I used to believe I was a beach girl, but I'm learning more and more the mountains make my soul sing.

The Activities: Even though we were on vacation, Le Husband is not a lounge around kind of guy. We are always doing something active on our vacays and this one was rife with fun outdoor activities. There was quite a bit of rain on our trip, but every clear morning I enjoyed some morning yoga on the balcony. Even though I'm no yogi, it was nice blending into the scenery with some #treepose and rejoicing with a lil #dancerspose.

After spending the 4th in Breckenridge I am quite sure little towns put on some of the best 4th of July festivities. Obviously nothing will hold a candle to the fireworks in Washington DC [hands down THE BEST], but lil towns do it up right. The parade was so much fun and well put on and everyone was so in the spirit of America. Seeing the red, white and blue everywhere made me happy to be a citizen of the good US of A.

After the 4th of July parade and activities, Le Husband and I went on our first hike of the trip and it was a short two hour jaunt. There were many different hiking paths right around our front door and we chose to hike 'backward' going down the mountain first and then ascending it back home. Looking back this was our only hike without rain and even though it was easy breezy it was still a lot of fun. #onlyhikewithoutrain

The next day Le Husband we decided to bike seven miles to the Continental Divide. This was our second lil outing on the bikes, but it was no easier than our first. They call Denver the Mile High City, but Breckenridge is the Two Mile High City and the altitude kicked my lil pink behind. The fact the bike ride was continually uphill didn't do much to help either. I definitely had a few pep talks throughout the ride and there was a time we both thought about turning around, but thankfully another biker came down the path and said it wasn't much further [thankyou whoever you are, you saved our ride]. We were both extremly ecstatic when we finally saw this sign, as you can hear.

Since the ride took so much out of us, we stayed along the divide a bit longer than planned and got caught in a rain and hail storm. Luckily there was a small place to take shelter with our bikes and we just hung out and watch the clouds and rain move around. Thankfully it wasn't too chilly and soon we were back on our way home, before the next storm blew through the mountains.

Even though we were staying away from TV, you know I couldn't miss the Women's World Cup Final. I convinced Le Husband to go into town on Sunday and we found a quiet sports bar to watch the game. Throughout the tournament I had joined many friends at loud noisy bars so watching the final on a small TV in a tiny bar was quite a different experience. I did enjoy one of the best drinks of the trip at the bar and was super stoked when Abby finally got her World Cup. #cheerstotheUSA! #redwhiteandblueprompose

Climbing one of the 14s in Colorado is a big thing for hikers and on Monday we attempted our first hike to over 14,000 ft elevation. It was a bit of a mess with the rainy and dreary weather, along with missing the trail start turn off #directionsareoverrated. Somehow we ended up on the backside of the Quandary hike and attempted to ascent the top before an impending rain storm. This hike had NO trail and we kind of made it up as we were going which was fun, but man was the grade steep. There were a lot of lil stops along the way and even though we didn't make the peak, we did make it to the snow, which was our original goal.

Those clouds became darker quite quickly, so we turned around at the snow and quickly walked down the mountain. We didn't quite beat the rain though, but only dealt with a drizzle until we made it to the car, then the flood gates opened. All we could do was laugh that we were almost that couple caught in the rain. Since we didn't hit the correct trail it was decided that we would attempt Quandary later in the week.

Tuesday was one of my favorite days because we had a 90 minute couples massaged booked and it was HEAVEN. By far one of the best massages I've ever experienced and it was a nice break from all the activities. We enjoyed being lazy and had a delicious dinner and drinks that night on the balcony. #vacationwinning.

Wednesday we decided to try and tackle Quandary Peak again and though we got a much later start than planned we were both ready to tackle the trail. The weather of course was rainy, but we both remembered the hike in the Alaskan rain so we put on our big hiker pants and headed off to reach the summit.

Y'all this hike was intense, tough and longer than expected. But, it was beautiful and truly an amazing Colorado experience. The beginning was fine, it wasn't until we got closer to the summit that things started to get really tough and the breaks got longer and longer. It was another mental challenge to push through the altitude and steep grade and again we almost turned around but managed to talk ourselves through the task.

Then finally, we were at the summit. We had to walk through snow on the ground and right when we got to the top the clouds really moved in and it started to sleet and snow. We quickly grabbed our pictures and I even FaceTimed my parents from 14,265 elevation because, hello, technology and then quickly began the descent down the mountain.

Our descent was a bit hairy at the beginning because the snow/wind was whipping behind us. Thank goodness we had our fantastic hiking pants and waterproof jackets because otherwise we would have been freezing. Luckily once we got below the treeline the sun came out, and we we saw our beautiful double rainbow which gave me great joy. What did NOT give me great joy was our pesky lil hiking companion. A random dog decided we were his pack and stayed with us the ENTIRE HIKE! Normally I'm a huge fan of dogs, but every now and then he decided he wanted to try and be alpha and that just became annoying. Thankfully we got a hold of his owner when we left the trail and hopefully he's back home where he belongs. After the hike Le Husband and I were extremely exhausted so we ordered in and passed out early, which ended up being a good thing as we left for Denver the next day.

ALL THE AMAZING FOOD: Y'all we Porky Pigged it up on this trip and while the number on the scale annoys me right now, it was sooooo stinking worth it. Le  Husband did some research for Denver and our first stop after landing was Denver Biscuit Company and it was INCREDIBLE! I had biscuit french toast which was the most delicious thing and Le Husband's egg sandwich was phenomenal. While in Breckenridge we chose to cook in the house we stayed in most nights [burgers, steak and grilled chicken], but went out a few times on the nights we were exhausted. Giampietro's Pizzeria was frequented a few times as their pizza, calzones and ravioli were the best ever and we enjoyed a few crepes and ice cream stops for desserts. I hope some of our workouts in Breck made up for the calories consumed and I wish I could say the same for Denver. We ate a lot of delicious food at meet and greets, baseball games and bars and I had one of the BEST burgers ever on Friday night. Le Husband and I have a food ritual before kickball games, but since we were staying in a group house and joined people for a late baseball game we kind of had to go with the flow. Well, that meant no dinner until 9pm and we stopped at the first restaurant we saw that was open, aka Burger Bar. I was a lil apprehensive because everything was kind of rich for so late at night, but the fries and the burgers were fantastic. Ready to start drooling?!!?

The Downtime: Oh my goodness, the downtime was amazing. Our cabin was equipped with WiFi and multiple TVs but Le Husband and I chose to use our vacation to disconnect. Sure, there were a few texts here and there and I totally Face-timed my parents form 14,000 ft elevation [cheers technology], but for the most part it was books and music for the two of us. The only time the TV came on was for the Women's World Cup and when we realized we were missing Shark Week, because hello #sharkweek. I know there are those that love to document their vacations [and honeymoons, what?] on social media, but that's not really our thing. I really enjoyed just being with Le Husband and in nature and not worrying about emails or blogs. Try a technology detox on your next vacation, I bet you'll be hooked :)!

The Kickball: After our seven days in Breckenridge, we drove back to Denver to meet up with a group of friends to play in a kickball tournament. Last year, Denver was one of my favorite tournaments of the year and I can now say the same for this year. The team we played on was a group of people from multiple other teams and even though we started out a bit rough, [holy right field] the day was a lot of fun. I love playing on availables teams because you get to meet knew friends and learn new tricks from people and get a lil outside your comfort zone in the field. Sadly we lost in the finals [dagger! DAMN THE WIND] and it was probably one of the most frustrating games I've ever played in due to the weather, however all in all it was a great end to a fun week away. #squints #imadeoutwithwendypeffercorn #kickballfriendsforever

Many congrats if you've made it to this point, I know that was a long post but we had so much fun on our trip and I don't want to forget it all too quickly. I'm so sad to be back home however my body is ready to get back into my normal gym and workout routine, especially since I have a race coming up quite soon. If you have any questions about anything please feel free to shoot me an email, I'll try to point you in the right direction if I don't have the answer for you.

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I can't let today pass without marking Le Husband and my five year date-aversary! Crazy, just crazy. I know now we are married date-aversaries are kind of silly, but it's still a big deal to me. I'm so incredibly thankful I stepped outside my comfort zone and joined a random team which lead me to Le Husband. Carrots and marshmellows, forever :)!

Hope everyone has a great weekend < 3!


 **linking up  Here  here , here, here, here and, here this week**