Worth It

Welcome back to the real world after a long weekend when you realize with delight that the work week is already about halfway over after only 1 day of work! Yippee! This weekend we had a wonderful time on a short trip to Boise. At the beginning of July we found out that one of our favorite singers, Sean McConnell, would be performing in Boise. We looked at the calendar and discovered it was Labor Day weekend, so why not? We hit the road Saturday morning and I remembered that there are few things I enjoy more in life than a road trip with the hubs. A stop for coffee and good tunes got us rolling into Boise in the mid-afternoon.

We always wave hello to this giant cow on the highway. It means we're headed North to somewhere fun! 

I love scratch-it's tickets. I may or may or may not have lost $19 on this trip. I chalked it up to car ride entertainment! 

We changed at our hotel and then walked to dinner at a great restaurant called Fork. So....story about Fork. I follow food blogger Two Peas and Their Pod on Instagram and not long ago, she "Insta-storied" her Boise trip and the delicious meal from Fork caught my eye. I told AJ we had to try it and one of his work pals found out and surprised us with a gift card for there! How sweet is that?! (Hey Kandi, you rock!) We both got burgers with rosemary parmesan fries and yes it was delicious! I got a strawberry lemonade vodka soda that was to die for. And of course, the warm berry butter cake is their specialty so we had to try that too. AMAZING!

 After our early dinner, we strolled around and went in some shops. Then it was time for the concert. It was so wonderful. I was surprised there wasn't more of a showing. I am not exaggerating when I say there were only 20 or so people there. Talk about intimate venue! We sat right in the front and when he played "Beautiful Rose," which I've nicknamed Hadley's song, silent tears fell and I squeezed AJ's hand and he whispered to me, "Our trip was worth it just for this moment." I couldn't agree more. There have been a handful of times I have truly "felt" Hadley with me since she passed and in that dark room, listening to the music. I felt her. After the show, we met Sean (remember, less people in the venue than in my 1st grade class) and we told him what big fans we were and about our summer and his inspiring story (he and his wife have adopted a special needs daughter from Ghana) and it was a MOMENT, guys. Like an unforgettable, amazing moment in time. We headed back to the hotel and fell into bed. I woke up the next morning to a FACEBOOK MESSAGE FROM SEAN MCCONNELL. I mean, come on! He said he was happy to meet us and appreciated us sharing our story and coming out from Utah. Needless to say, it made me realize two big things: 1) Tell your story no matter what. Sean writes music that touches our hearts. Sing your song, dance your dance, tell your story: you never know who needs it and 2) Reach out and tell people if they mean something to you. We told Sean and he reached back to us and it made our day. Gah! It was a love fest!

Princess Baby set! Isn't that awesome! 

I promise AJ was happy to be there 

Sunday morning we headed to a delicious coffee shop that I fell in love with when we visited Boise a few years ago. It did not disappoint. We walked around and did some shopping and then decided to check out Camel's Back park, this big park with a steep sandy incline you can climb. I posted this on insta yesterday and that pretty much describes the symbolism of this climb for me, "I would never have chosen the hard climb. It's so much easier to take the simple path. There's hurt, longing and suffering. But I know, even if it's deep down, the climb makes the view from above that much more sweet. No, I didn't choose the hard path but I did choose to keep climbing and at the top, with shaking legs and a beating heart, I will celebrate. (I did not want to make this steep hike but AJ reminded me that easier is not always better. So up we went. So worth it)."

orange honey walnut scone! 

We drove most of the way home Sunday afternoon in the rain. We unpacked, tidied the house a bit and relaxed and watched "Stranger Things." (I loved the beginning but it sort of lost me there at the end. Suspenseful but not my most favorite, but still watch if you haven't, it's worth it). Monday morning I spent a few hours meal prepping for the week. We are still going strong on our weekday eating clean(ish) thing and prep is so the key to it! We were ready to get back onto plan today (see "warm berry butter cake" above).  Monday evening we went out to dinner with friends and had a great time.

Overall, it was a great Labor Day weekend! Memorial Day to Labor Day sort of represents summer time to me, so bring on FALL!