Weekend In The Foothills

someone LOVES bath time! 

Happy Monday friends!

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. Mine was great, Andrew and I went home and spent the weekend in the foothills with my parents. My Dad was out of town this weekend, but we got to spend a lot of time with my Mom, sister, brother in law, and of course Phillip!

Saturday morning we woke up to a beautiful, and warm, fall day. We wanted to go out and get some exercise, so we headed over to Empire Mine for a little hike. The trails there are perfect since they allow dogs, and they're wide enough so it was easy for my sister to push Phillip in the stroller. We ended up hiking about four miles. It was so nice just to be home and with family. Next spring I hope to go back to Empire Mine when the flowers are blooming and take Andrew into the park so he can see what it's all about!

We had hoped to go hard cider tasting at Fox Barrel in Colfax, but when we arrived we learned they closed their tasting room and are working on an expansion. It was a little disappointing, but we just went to the store and had our own tasting at home! I loved the apple, the pear was a little bit on the sweet side. But my mom liked the pear. They also have a blackberry, but we didn't try that one. A few years ago they had a pomegranate that was really good! They've now merged with Crispen so all of the Crispen label products are apple based cider, while the Fox Barrel labels are pear based cider. Interesting, I'm looking forward to when their tasting room reopens so we can go check it out!

After Phillips nap, my sister and brother in law came up to my Moms for dinner. My sister BBQ'd steak that we topped with blue cheese, it was so delicious. She is the grill master. My mom made a really great butternut squash and black bean salad with jalapeno-lime dressing. It was a really unique flavor combination, everyone really liked it. We also had a green salad, and I made an apple crisp for dessert! It was a simple and delicious fall dinner.

We had a leisurely morning on Sunday and relaxed around the house before going on a short hike along the canal behind my parents house. Then it was time to head back to the city.

It was such a relaxing weekend. I'm so happy Andrew enjoys going up to spend time with my family as well. And this time, we got to bring Louis to get him acquainted with my parents house before Thanksgiving! He likes it, even though we wore him out with our hike Saturday and he was limping the rest of the weekend :( Hopefully he'll be back to his old self tonight when we get home from work.

I hope you all had a great weekend too! I feel recharged and ready for a productive week ahead!