dance party – Burpees to Bubbly

Good morning! After I looked back on this past weekend, I realized how blessed I am to have such a wonderful family and place to escape to during the hot, crazy days of the summer. Since I had to teach on Saturday morning, I hadn’t planned on going to Maine until late Saturday afternoon to wait for the traffic to die down. My office closed at 11:30 on Friday, so it was nice to have some time around my apartment to relax, get caught up on stuff and even meet my sister at the beach (love having a BLL at the beach!).

That evening, my sister and I went up to Lisa’s deck for cocktail hour. Lisa lives on the 3rd floor in my apartment building and it’s so fun that we’ve become friends throughout the year. Our 1st floor neighbor, Lauren, couldn’t join us, but it’s so awesome to have 2 other girls in the building that are not only neighbors, but friends!

How about that view?! I love it! I also made my first real sangria and can’t wait to share the recipe with you- I think it came out pretty darn tasty!

We decided to head down to Kelly’s Pub for some pizza (I hadn’t had REAL, non gluten free pizza in ages!). It was such a fun night!

After teaching on Saturday, I treated myself to a pedicure. With all the working out I do, my poor feet need that kind of TLC every few weeks at this point!

Danielle and I headed north around 3pm to wait out the weekend traffic- it was a perfect idea! We didn’t hit a stitch of traffic. We even had time to grab an ice cream- yum!

Saturday night was SO MUCH FUN!!! We ate, we drank, we laughed, we danced. I just love when the 4 of us get to be together!

The pizza came out AMAZING!!! And it was so nice out so we decided to dine al fresco on the back patio. Dad had gotten the bonfire going so it was a perfect place to eat!

We definitely had a dance party post dinner as well- so so fun!

Sunday morning wasn’t as sunny as we wanted, but it was still a good day! I filmed some videos for the blog and then we headed to the Mahoney’s for their annual Labor Day BBQ. It was a small crowd, but we still had a blast! Emma is at the age where she’s super active and so funny with the things she says and what she does!

Waking up on Monday morning, I was so happy to see that the rain had stopped, the skies had cleared and the sun was shining! We packed up and headed to the beach before bringing Danielle to the train. Going to the beach with my mom is the best- she is always stocked with drinks, treats and magazines. Anything you might need or want, she has- it’s awesome! Nothing like some sun and bubbly!

After dropping Danielle off, we headed to the hotel where my aunt and uncle are staying for the next 10 days or so. Since I won’t be able to go home this weekend because I’ll be on the cape, it was good that I was able to visit with them for a bit on Monday while I was around!

Monday night was quiet and relaxing- the most perfect way to end the day and weekend home. I decided to get up on Tuesday morning and drive right to work, which was so much better than stressing about the traffic on Labor Day. Such a fun, fun weekend- I’m so lucky to have such wonderful people in my life and such a great place to call “home”.

Questions for you: What was the best part about your weekend? Did you go away for Labor Day? Do you bring drinks to the beach?

As I mentioned yesterday, my 4th of July festivities continued throughout the weekend, which was awesome! Everyone at home was either retired or had Friday off in addition to Thursday, so we were all in “vaca mode”. Originally, I hadn’t planned to be around Maine all weekend since I had to teach my kickboxing class at 10am on Saturday, but my other plans fell through and the heat wave was still in full effect, so I decided to just come right back to Maine after teaching. For me, in the summer when it’s really hot, I can’t think of any place I’d rather be than in Maine- either at the beach, at the lake or at the pool.

I met mom and Danielle, the Jean’s, Colleen and Emma at The Backstreet Grill for beers and lunch. The BSG has a summer series going where every Saturday a brewery sponsors the afternoon and there’s a band playing and everyone hangs out on the patio. Saturday the brewery sponsoring the afternoon was Shipyard, so I was handed a Shipyard Summer immediately upon my arrival- loved it! We hung out there, listening to music, snacking on food and gabbing until about 2:30 when Danielle and I headed up to the lake to go out on the boat with Sara and Amy (and the rest of the gang).

There’s nothing like an afternoon on the lake! Especially when we get to snuggle the little Zeke love-bug!

He’s just too sweet for words! Once everyone had had enough of the lake, boating and tubing, we headed back to shore. My parents were already at Chris’s “pre-gaming” for the BBQ. Ok, they weren’t pre-gaming, but they were enjoying cocktails on the deck waiting for all of us to arrive.

I wasn’t far behind them with the cocktails- mom is so good at pouring me a wine right away!

Chris left for a vacation on Monday, so she wanted to have all of us over to help her eat all the food she had in the fridge. She was the grill master! We literally had a little bit of everything- my favorite way to eat!

Too stinkin cute! Almost as cute as this little one

I FINALLY caught him with his eyes open! His little green and white striped outfit was too cute for words. He looked like a little frog when he was sleeping! I spent lots of time with Zeke so Sara could have some time to eat without a baby in her arms- it was fun playing mom for a little while, but I am certainly not ready for my own!

What a fun night! We ate, we drank, we danced, we made s’mores. The perfect ending to an already wonderful 4th of July “vacation”. Monday was a rude “reality check”; I was not ready to jump right back into the grind of working. Whomp, whomp.

Questions for you: What was the best part of your 4th of July weekend? Any good BBQ’s? Did you see the fireworks? Do you like to burn marshmallows or slow cook them? I like to eat then “raw”, meaning I don’t like to cook them 🙂