View of the Denver skyline during a sunrise speed workout around Sloans Lake.

Two blog posts in a row. This is a big week for me.

Enjoy these things…

• This cornbread topped skillet chili on a chilly fall evening? Please.
• 8 little ways to simplify your life, especially the solo dates and forest baths. 
• BFF date nights – love it!
• 6 reasons why you should start running.
• This isn’t what my Halloween will look like this year, but maybe one day.

In other news I’m off to Portland tomorrow to run the Portland Marathon! Yikes. Instead of running 5-7 days/week like I should have I opted for the 2-3 days/week route with some Orange Theory Fitness and weekend hikes. At least I’ll get the benefit of sea level air, but my body is going to hurt. A lot. However, my friend Lindsey convinced to me to sign up with the promise that we will run it together “for fun”. So, that’s the plan. Get ready for some marathon selfies!

And in more news, I may not have been posting here that often, but I have been posting bi-weekly over at Minneapolis Running. Check out my latest: Core & Upper Body Tabata Workout for Runners.

I’m in Minneapolis right now – meeting up with friends, visiting my old stompin grounds, and feeling all nostalgic. I forgot how much I truly love this city and loved my time living here. However, I fall for Denver more and more with each day and am excited about where that journey will take me.

And I’m excited to share these Thursday Things with you:

• No bake desserts. I was these all: raw blackberry coconut cashew slice, no bake lemonade tea and coconut bars, and no bake strawberry cheesecake bars.
• Important information: how to make a charcuterie board.
• It does not at all surprise me that Denver is #3 and Minneapolis is #2 on America’s Fittest Cities
• This video with Amy Schumer and Lena Dunham on shopper shame is funny, sad, and true all at the same time.
• I wish I would have had this visual for how to write a wedding speech last week. My Maid of Honor speech at my sister’s wedding was… well, people said I did a good job. Were they laughing with me or at me? I’ll never know.

Speaking of my sister’s wedding, it was wonderful and beautiful and all sorts of perfect. Here are some pictures to prove it.

PS – how gorgeous is my little sister??!?!?!

LOL (as in “lots of love”)

jenna

It’s been such a flurry of fun things over the past few weeks!

Here’s the low down:

• My sister’s bachelorette party was two weekends ago. 10 awesome ladies spent the weekend in a house in Breckenridge celebrating Jaci’s upcoming nuptials. It was overcast and snowy the entire time, so no one could actually see the mountains (a huge shame), but we still managed to have a great time. There was champagne, gold dipped wine glasses, lots of snacks, hot tub time, a ridiculously difficult puzzle, movies, more snacks, “Cheers Bitches!”, goldschlager, and an experience with the Breckenridge night life. Too much fun.
• Work over at noosa has been steadily increasing, which is definitely a good thing. I really like working for such a fun brand with such great people. Two articles recently came out about noosa that I thought I’d share: noosa’s Playbook for Gaining Ground on Industry Giants and CO Biz’s 2016 Entrepreneur of the Year.
• I’m trying to increase my running, strength training, and overall activity. I recently joined Class Pass and am loving exploring the fitness scene in Denver. I joined a Thursday night 4×4 volleyball league, which so far (one week in) has been equally about beer and volleyball. I think it’s just a nice excuse to spend the entire night outdoors. I also signed up for the BolderBoulder 10K and Garden of the Gods 10-Miler with some friends, which I’m super excited about. I just got my monthly average up to 100 miles of running and feel that my body is finally accustomed to the altitude. Now I just need to keep running more and keep trying to get faster – a work in progress, always.
• Speaking of running, Nathan (from Minneapolis Running) and I launched an ebook yesterday – A Runner’s Week Of Good Eats! It’s a meal planning guide for runners to help you spend less time in the kitchen and more time working towards that PR. We put a lot of time into this project and I am so excited that it is finally out in the world. Read more about it here and then go buy it here.
• Finally, I am flying home to Minnesota today (chilling at the airport right now!) and then driving down to Sioux Falls for MY SISTER’S WEDDING! My little beanie is getting married and I still can’t wrap my head around it. Her and Seth are going to be the most beautiful couple! I feel so honored to be a part of their day and can’t wait to celebrate with them. I just hope I can keep myself pulled together and not be a puddle of emotions on the floor. We’ll see. My cousin gets married in Minneapolis the next weekend (which I am also super, super excited about), so I get to spend the whole week in between working from home/Minneapolis and meeting up with friends.

And now for some Thursday Things:

• Springtime salads: Greek green salad, cucumber, basil, and watermelon salad, rosemary chicken salad with avocado and bacon, chopped Thai salad with crispy shallots, loaded Greek quinoa salad, and citrus avocado salad with a lemon mint vinaigrette.
• Glue guns are the classic crafting tool. Use it for all of these 18 projects.
• Two great articles about friendship: The Unique Importance of Adult Best Friendship & Things Everyone with a Long Distance BFF Understands.
• After listening to this episode of Comedy Bang Bang, I finally started watching Silicon Valley. It’s both hilarious and painful to watch. I’m obsessed.
• Let’s start everyday with a positive affirmation. I am an unlimited being.

Have a beautiful day!

xoxoxjd

It’s spring. It’s winter. It’s spring. It’s summer. Then it’s winter, but then spring! And then there is another looming winter storm… just in time for my sister’s bachelorette party in Breckenridge. Boo.

I’m not (nor are any of the 9 other girls) going to let the crummy weather ruin the fun. We’ll hang out in our little house in Breckenridge sipping champagne by the fire or enjoying wine in the hot tub. We’ll snack and snapchat and cheers and celebrate. It’ll be the best. I.cannot.wait.

Is it tomorrow yet?!

And here are these things:

• Craving margaritas after seeing all of these: jalapeno mango margarita popsicles, blood orange jalapeno margaritas, fresh mango margarita frostys, blackberry tomatillo margaritas, frozen strawberry margaritas, anndddd margarita cupcakes.
• This barn wood wine rack is kind of amazing. I’ll take all of that Sterling too.
• 11 Women With Their Shit Together – “Keep the things that you value most central in your life, surround yourself with people who motivate and inspire you, prioritize your physical and mental health and always be authentic.” YAS.
• Dating pretty much sucks and then there are cakes like these and stories like this.
• Currently reading (and loving) Fates and Furies.

xoxojd

My birthday was on Monday. I had a great time closing out 28 and ringing in 29. It all involved lots of good food, beer, and people.

Over the weekend there was this homemade sweet potato gnocchi followed by wine and a beer at Wash Park Sports Alley in pajamas. The next day there was a run in the snow, impromptu homemade eggs benedict, yoga at a brewery (followed by an intense game of clue), a little brewery crawl (Beryl’s Beer Co -> Epic Brewing -> Ratio Beerworks -> Our Mutual Friend Brewing) with great ladies, this cake, and the movie Shrek. I rounded out the weekend with a bomb Sunday morning brunch at Denver Biscuit Co.

On my actual birthday my manager made me cupcakes (shown above) and gave me a balloon and card from the Noosa team. Then I went home and baked this cake (<- omg, so good!!). Shortly after I pulled it out of the oven my favorite ladies in Denver came over to drink wine, eat cake, and hang out in sweat pants.

It was all pretty awesome.

And these things are cool too:

• Strawberries and rhubarb: rhubarb crumble, juicy strawberry pistachio bake, strawberry rhubarb cobbler with honey butter biscuits
• A grown up slumber party and an adult dinner party. Both of them sound fantastic.
• This clip is a little inspiration for all you haters of running out there. I used to hate running too.
• Funny guys are the best type of guys.
• All this embroidery.

And some fun pictures from the weekend:

Bye!

On Sunday a bunch of friends and I went to the Rockies Game at Coors Stadium for opening weekend. It’s a very summery thing to do, is it not? Especially on the day after a hike. The day started out pretty overcast, but while we were at brunch enjoying some bottomless mimosas things really cleared up, so it was gorgeous while we were at the game (and then it poured afterwards).

It was a great Sunday Funday with some pretty fab people.

These things are fab too:

• It was National Grilled Cheese Day earlier this week, so there were lots of tasty look sandwiches posted: grilled cheese with havarti, sun dried tomatoes, and proscuitto, jalapeno popper grilled cheese sandwich, chicken florentine grilled cheese, ground philly cheesesteak grilled cheese,cheese curd grilled cheese, and fig and bacon grilled cheese. Eat them all at an adorable modern grilled cheese bar.
• This ladies who laptop series is always a fun read. This interview with Sarah Boyd was no different.
• It’s time to start perfecting those beach waves.
• The Overheard LA Instagram account cracks me up.
• Currently obsessed with The Lumineers new album,Cleopatra.

This girl and this girl are coming into town this weekend and I am so, so excited. The weather is supposed to be rainy and cold, which ruins my birthday weekend plans of “do everything outside in the sunshine the entire time”. But, whatcha goin to do. We’ll still have a wonderful time.

Byyeeeeeeeee. -jd