Weekend Recap: 4th of July Festivities

GOOD MORNING!

I’m clearly in a good mood (and/or buzzing on my new addiction: iced coffee sweetened with vanilla and a splash of soy milk).  I just went on a lovely 4-mile run and caught up on everyone’s holiday weekend happenings.  I firmly believe happiness is infectious, so reading about all the fun everyone had has certainly added to my good mood.  Let me pass on the love 🙂

Tomato salad, courtesy of my mom.

Let me be honest and admit that I’m guilty of having big expectations for the 4th of July every year, only to be disappointed when rain pours and plans fall through and I end up spending the night bored at home.  This year was different.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my (almost) 22 years on this Earth it’s that:

Big expectations —-> big let down.

So this 4th of July I just went with the flow.  No plans, no expectations.  Just a positive attitude.

And good food!

Oh pancakes, how I missed you.

And since it was a holiday and all (and yes, the whole weekend counted as a holiday), I decided to let loose.

Soda?  Who am I??

I felt like the 4th of July wasn’t complete without some cold cream soda.  And hey, the ingredient list wasn’t half bad.

And while I’m usually against frozen packaged foods, I couldn’t resist these.

Or this.

This should last me all of a week.

Sunday night dinner (hey, I cooked!) consisted of burgers and watermelon.

These chickpea burgers are hands down the best bean burgers I’ve ever made.  Joey agrees.

And yes, yes that is the famous garlic scape pesto.

Nothing says summer like fresh juicy watermelon.

And because I hadn’t gotten crazy enough with the cream soda and frozen fries, I went ahead and had a bratwurst on Monday. 

“Lauren, you don’t eat meat!” 

“Au contraire, mon frère ami!”

Bratwurst = 4th of July staple.

Red, white and blue potato salad.

After chowing down on some BBQ goodies, the family and I ventured into Boulder to catch the fireworks show at Folsom Field (the University of Colorado football stadium).

It was actually a lot of fun!

We participated in a giant sing-a-long.

Why is there a wolf on the stage?

Watched Ralphie the Buffalo (#1 mascot represent!) run across the field.

Whoops, blurry!

And enjoyed a spectacular fireworks show, albeit one with the worst accompanying playlist ever.

And it was at this point that I realized trying to get firework pictures was just a waste of time.

Enjoying fireworks in real time > trying to get a decent photograph of them.

It’s going to be a great (and short!) week, my friends.  I’m off to turn in some paperwork at our new apartment (hurray!) then to get my haircut (double hurray!) before leaving for our trip to Santa Fe at the end of the week (yet one more hurray!).

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What did you do this weekend/4th of July?

What puts you in a good mood?