For those of you living in America, I hope you had a FANTASTIC 4th of July weekend!

4th of July 2016

My mom arrived in town on Friday around lunch time, so after a quick lunch we started off the holiday weekend by taking Bernie to the off leash area at Chatfield State Park.  As we drove there, the weather was raining on and off and things looked a bit iffy, but as soon as we arrived at the park, the skies cleared up and we had a lovely afternoon throwing the ball for Bernie.  He has recently discovered a love for swimming and fetching, so it was a lot of fun tiring him out in the water at Chatfield.

Bernie and Tara heading to the Dog Park

We then went home to clean up and Brian and I took my mom to The Source.  This was our first ever experience with The Source, which describes itself as an “artisan food market” in a historic Denver building.  The market includes a couple of restaurants, a Mexican taqueria, a florist, butcher, coffee roaster, a cocktail bar, and a sour beer brewery.  We ate dinner prior to arriving, so we walked around and checked out the shops and stopped for a drink at Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project.  I’ve never been a beer lover, but I had heard that sour beer tastes very different than traditional beer, so I was excited to give it a try.

Crooked Stave Sour Beer in Denver

The beer definitely did not taste like traditional beer and did have a sour taste, but to me the beer was not sour like a lemon, it was more tart and effervescent.  We all shared the tasting size of every flavor they offered, so I really felt like we got to experience what sour beer was all about!  There were flavors that we all loved and there were some that we could have done without, but overall we really liked sour beer (and I even ended up purchasing some to enjoy later in the weekend!)  My favorite flavors of the sour beer had raspberry included (the Petite Sour Raspberry and the L’Brett d’Raspberry) but I really enjoyed almost all of the flavors.

Crooked Stave Sour Beer in Denver

Saturday, I had a performance with the Denver Dolls at the Boulder Art and JazzFest right next door to the Boulder Farmers Market.

Denver Dolls

It was a really fun crowd to perform to, and I was so happy to check out the Boulder Farmers Market afterward.  I purchased some fresh squash, tomatoes, and salad greens, sipped on Rowdy Mermaid kombucha and we enjoyed lunch at the market.  Farmers markets are kind of my “thing”, so I really loved walking around and scoping out all of the booths, but it was very hot out and the market was packed with people so after a morning of performing I was a bit tired and ready to head home to relax for a bit.

Rowdy Mermaid Kombucha at Boulder Farmers Market

My lunch was from Tres Papusas, a booth with Latin food that was seriously to DIE for.  Papusas are stuffed corn tortillas originating from El Salvador.  I enjoyed the pinto bean and kale (vegan) and the green chili and cheese option.  By the time I sat down for lunch I was pretty darn hungry, regardless the meal was delicious, unique and satisfying.  The sides were curtido, black beans, and avocado.

Tres Papusas Boulder Farmers Markets

Sunday morning, we woke up SUPER early so that we could get to the mountains and attempt a 14er with my mom.

Grays Peak

A “14er” is a mountain that has a summit that is above 14,000 feet in elevation.  These hikes are NO joke, and we only made it half way due to a bit of altitude sickness, but the portion we did climb was absolutely beautiful (isn’t that sunrise stunning?).  It was a wonderful way to start the day.

Grays Peak

Grays Peak

Grays Peak

Grays Peak

Monday was the 4th of July and my sister and her boyfriend were  in town at this point.  We all headed to the Cherry Creek Arts Festival.  Brian and I first attended this festival when we visited Denver two years ago before actually moving here and we have made a point to check it out every year since then.  There are a ton of booths with all kinds of art (photography, sculptures, pottery, wood work, paintings, etc), delicious cocktails, and tasty food.  There are several streets just filled with booths to explore, so it’s easy to spend a significant amount of time there.  The festival is also dog friendly, so Bernie was able to hang with us too!

Cherry Creek Arts Festival

Cherry Creek Arts Festival

After we left the Cherry Creek Arts Festival, we came home to relax and grill a 4th of July dinner.  Mom made corn on the cob, I made pesto potato salad, and grilled chicken and vegetable kebobs.  It was the perfect summery meal!

Dinner

Tuesday was my mom’s last full day here, so we explored the Red Rocks in the morning with a little hike.

Red Rocks

This is Bernie just basking in a small, cool stream mid-hike 🙂

Bernie

In the evening, we all went to Avanti for dinner followed by Little Man Ice Cream for dessert.  It was so fun to show my family to parts of Denver they had yet to explore!  A fun way to view the Highlands neighborhood is to walk from Avanti to Little Man Ice Cream.  They are just a few blocks from each other, but along the way there are great views of downtown and you get to see what some of the houses and the Highlands neighborhood are like.

Avanti Denver

Highlands Denver

Mom left Wednesday morning, and now it’s back to the grind of school work.  Luckily there are only a few weeks left in the semester, because I am SO ready to spend all of my spare time in the mountains and hiking 😉

I hope you all had a fun and memorable 4th of July weekend 🙂

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  1. Hey,

    Came across your site because a person is using your pic on a dating website (pof). I always do a reverse image to make sure the woman I am about to contact is using her own pic. Anyways, you are gorgeous…Brian is a lucky guy…lol. Here is a link to the dating profile: I found you a match on POF.com! http://www.pof.com/viewprofile.aspx?profile_id=124055619 She may have deleted the pic because I called her out on it already

  2. Bernie is so cute!! What a fun weekend with your mom! I sure miss living in Utah and hiking up the beautiful mountains on the weekend.

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