This past weekend, I was able to immerse myself into the beautiful Boulder, CO scenery while I connected with amazing, creative women.

Blend 2015 was the first blogging retreat I have ever attended, so I honestly didn’t know what to expect.  While many blogging conferences focus on education, inspirational speakers, and working breakout sessions Blend is very different.  We didn’t focus on any “work” stuff at all!  Sure, there were several sponsors and companies at the event to meet and chat about future collaborations with, but the real theme of the weekend was relax, enjoy yourself and have fun.  Even the company owners were hiking and trail running with us 🙂

I had a really great time, and I wanted to share a few pictures and details of the weekend with all of you!

Let’s start at the beginning, shall we?

Friday

Friday afternoon Marisa picked up Krista and me in Denver so we could make the quick (about 30 min) drive to Boulder for the first evening of Blend.   Because we are local, we simply commuted back and forth rather than spending the night at the cabins.  I really didn’t feel like there was much we missed out on besides a little pillow-talk before bed!

We were greeted by the smiling faces of Lindsay, Janetha, and Lauren as we received the notorious “swag bags.”  WOW! The sponsors were SO generous! (we were thankful we drove so we could cart all of our goodies home!)

General Mills was hosting a trail mix bar (adorable!) and a trail run, so we got busy creating our trail mix snack before hitting the trails.

While I was excited for the trail run, I was a little apprehensive because the weather looked like rain.  Well, I think we definitely got SUPER lucky all weekend with the weather because it didn’t rain for the trail run or any other outdoor event throughout the weekend.

The girls attending the event were at all different fitness levels, so there were always options to make things harder, easier, or stick with the original plan.  While I stuck in the running group that took a bit of a longer route, there were tons of girls that were in the mood to walk and cut the path a bit shorter.  Either way, we all had a great time 🙂

After the run, it did start to rain a bit, but stopped right before the cocktail party (perfect timing!).  Because Krista, Marisa, and I didn’t have a cabin to shower and get ready in we paid a $7 drop-in fee at the University of Colorado Boulder campus to use their facilities.  They were clean (and empty!) and it was great to have our own space to get all dressed up.

Once we were dressed and ready, we headed back to Chautauqua Park for the evening festivities.

I ended up winning the WANU instagram contest! 🙂 Thanks for the wonderful backpack and case of WANU water!

Saturday

Saturday morning, Marisa and I headed back to Boulder bright and early for one of my favorite early morning activities…a boot camp workout led by Kyndal (or should I say Taylor Ryan?) of Lifting Revolution!

It was so great to meet her in person…oh yeah and the boot camp was really great too!  It was a partner style workout filled with creative bodyweight exercises.  Just what I love!  After boot camp, we were all more than ready for a delish breakfast.

I was so impressed and happy to see so many Colorado companies on the menu (LOVE Grown, Justin’s, and Flapjacked!)

We ate with the ladies of 34 degrees crisps (another Colorado company!) and LOVE Grown 🙂

While we ate our delicious morning meal, THE Justin from Justin’s nut butter showed up!  So cool!

After breakfast, it was time to lace up our hiking boots and hit the trails for a beautiful mid-morning hike.

It was so great to finally meet Maddy in person after being social media friends for so long 🙂

Just like the trail run, there were faster hikers, slower hikers and inbetween hikers.  Everyone had a little group to be with and I don’t feel like anyone felt left out 🙂

There were definitely challenging aspects of the hike due to the wet, muddy ground but the views were incredible and so worth it!

Once the hike was complete, we all headed back for a little snack and a chance to chat with the companies sponsoring the event.

After that, we were pretty much done with scheduled activities for the day so Marisa and I showered up and just relaxed in downtown Boulder for a bit.  Believe it or not, we were pretty worn out after the days activities!

Almond milk lattes at The Cup on Pearl Street

After resting and caffeinating we headed out to dinner with Maddy and Maureen of LOVE Grown Foods and Kate of Peace, Love and Oats.

We ate dinner at Zeal, and I highly recommend the restaurant to anyone looking for delicious, innovative, healthy meal options while visiting Boulder!  It was SOOO good!

I built my own bowl with brown rice, shrimp, roasted veggies and Thai peanut sauce.  YUMMMM!

OK, now of course the food was delish, but let’s be real…the company was SO much better! I loved getting to know Maddy and Maureen in person!  I’ve e-mailed them a billion times but actually sitting down to chat was such a treat.  Kate was also so sweet! It was seriously the perfect way to end our amazing Saturday at Blend 🙂

Sunday

Sunday morning, I headed back to Boulder by myself for the final day of events.  Marisa had another commitment, but making the drive alone wasn’t bad at all 🙂

We started out the day with an absolutely beautiful yoga practice sponsored by Bhakti Chai.

The sun was shining, the hot chai was flowing…it was absolutely perfect.

Have you guys ever heard of Bhakti Chai?  This was my first experience with the delicious, spicy tea but they are a local Colorado company too!! I loved their Toasted Coconut Almond Blend ready to drink tea.  There is no added sugar or sweeteners and it is super gingery.  YUM!

After yoga, we enjoyed another delicious breakfast then headed out to the closing ceremony.

Closing ceremony photo courtesy of Blendretreat instagram.

The weekend really went by so fast because we were having so much fun.  I loved meeting so many people in real life (#irl) for the first time after connecting online for YEARS!

So great to meet the fabulous Lindsay!

It was an fantastic and memorable weekend and I am so happy and feel so lucky I was able to attend this year.

Question of the Morning:

• Have you ever attended a blogging retreat (or an event catered to your favorite hobby?)
• Have you ever met someone that you connected with online first?
• What did you do over the weekend?