Ten on Ten :: November 2016

I only took two pictures on November 10, 2016. One was of my #firstredcup in front of the decorated Christmas tree that's already been up at the mall where I work for a few days. I had high hopes for a solid ten pictures throughout the day at that point. 

The other one was this. I posted it on Instagram and Facebook with the following caption:

51 weeks ago, I posted a similar picture bragging about my peers working together to buy over 200 turkeys to help give families in our community turkey for Thanksgiving. So here I am, holding a frozen turkey in front of my face once again. Only this time, it meant a lot more to me. The last two days have been rough. My heart breaks for my fellow Americans who are overcome with fear and who have already been the victim of hate. My heart breaks for those who have reacted to the election results by burning the American flag or have stated the new President Elect is "not my president". Because here's the thing, I'm an American and on January 20, Mr. Trump will be my president. Because of this reality, I want to do everything in my power to show my fellow Americans and the rest of the world that as my president, he does not represent my values. Only I can hold myself accountable for my actions so I will work to bring more love into this world instead. Tonight, I was but one small piece of a group of 18-26 year olds who swarmed the grocery stores of Lafayette and Louisville to provide turkeys for families in need this holiday season. That group included both Clinton voters and Trump voters. The focus was loving and serving our community. That's what I choose to be a part of. If there's one coherent feeling I can actually make sense of this week, it's that I'm out of excuses for choosing not to love and serve. It's more important now than ever, in my opinion. I would urge you who are unhappy with the results to get involved in your communities where you can. Vote in the mid-term elections in 2018. Accept Mr. Trump as your president, but reject the notion that love does not trump hate. Make no mistake, electoral college elected Mr. Trump, but the American people elected Secretary Clinton. Let that be a sliver of hope to you that the majority of Americans did not buy into the racism, sexism, bigotry, and xenophobia. Remember the words of First Lady Obama: "When they go low, we go high." Smile at a stranger. Meet your neighbor. Teach your children to be accepting of everyone. Commit a random act of kindness. Trust in God. 
[Matthew 22:37-39]

November 2010 | November 2012 | November 2013 | November 2014 | November 2015

Ten on Ten :: October 2016

Fall vibes at the barre this morning. 

And fall vibes at Trader Joe's 

I spent half the morning tracking down the package that had our new sock display after it got delivered to our neighbor on Friday. But it was worth it because I'm kind of obsessed. 

Took the scenic route home because construction traffic is out of control. 

Looking ahead to the week...and even a little to 2017.

Luke and I are reading a Proverb a day this month, so today was Proverbs 10.

One of my goals for the month is to get 10,000+ steps every day this month. I'm on 11 consecutive days and I kind of can't believe it. I used to do alright, but then I got into a rut where I was averaging about 5,000 steps. Yikes. 

A nice October evening. 

After dinner, I decided to light a new fall candle and have some salted caramel apple cider. 

Ending the day with some Harry Potter in my reading nook.

October 2012 | October 2013 | October 2014 | October 2015

Ten on Ten :: September 2016

Pre-gaming with sweet potato fries like you do.

Finally wearing my Straight Outta Boulder shirt.

Crossing the river on the way up to the stadium, as always. 

Checking out the new legacy bricks. The 1990's...the glory days. 

Got held up at security for some unknown reason. 

Checking out the new practice facility, which served as the "Buffs Fan Zone" before the game. 

How nice is it that Folsom started selling alcohol again when I was old enough to drink. 

Waiting for kick off. 

It was 49-0 at half, so basically everyone left. CU won 56-7! 

Kind of in awe of this luscious (and bright green) grass.

September 2010 | September 2011 | September 2012 | September 2013 | September 2014 | September 2015

Ten on Ten :: August 2016

I've been trying to be better about what I eat and one of the things that includes is trading my (iced) soy chai from Starbucks for English Breakfast tea with a splash of almond milk. Probably saves a few dollars too. 

Had to go to the bank, so I decided to walk since it's so close and I have the best view in the world.

Another thing I've been trying to be better at is snacking! Last week I packaged a bunch of healthy snacks into baggies of one serving size each. I've also been loving this rxbars. The coconut chocolate is my favorite. (So far!) 

No class for me today. Just observing.

Working on some exciting things for the studio, including launching our campus ambassador program 2.0! 

So remember that eating plan? Yeah, then this happened. I mean, at least it's a salad and small fries (that Sam and I split), right?

 Okay, then this happened. But at least it was a mini cup, right?

 When there's nothing left to photograph, just photograph the cat.

Writing down some prayers and some dreams. 

Sam and I went to Target earlier in the evening (between Chick-Fil-A and TCBY) and I picked this up since it's marked down at Target and I've been rereading my original copy for the umpteenth time. I just cannot get over the illustrations!

August 2010 | August 2012 | August 2013 | August 2014 | August 2015

Ten on Ten :: July 2016

I actually did fun and exciting things for once, but I was too busy living in the moment to remember to take quality pictures. Or to even take a tenth picture.

July 2010 | July 2011 | July 2012 | July 2013 | July 2014 | July 2015

England {Day 7}

Saturday, May 21st

I woke up at 6:00AM on our last morning in London to head out to explore the city. I knew I wanted to visit Notting Hill and I asked one of the people I met in Birmingham for some other tips. So I took my little map of the tube and set off on an adventure.

[Notting Hill]

Immediately, I discovered that the city is pretty quiet that early and that there was some maintenance on the tube that day that forced me to be a little more creative in my travel plans. Still, it gave me extra time to people watch on the tube and that was very pleasant.

[More colorful doors in the alley]

I should have looked up exactly where I was going first, but I was able to just wing it and I eventually found Portobello Road, where Notting Hill's colorful houses are. People were setting up a market while I was there, but I just walked around and took it all in.

I was able to pop over to Covent Garden as well. I had no idea what exactly Covent Garden was, but it reminded me a lot of SoHo in New York. I was even able to get some macarons from Laudree!

[Covent Garden / Laudree]

I took the tube back to Euston after that, but ended up getting back about an hour early. I should have stayed out longer! We had breakfast at the hotel with Stephen and Hillary and did our final devo of the trip. That's when it really started to hit me that I'd be going home. I've felt sadness to leave a vacation before, but it was nothing like this. I felt sick to my stomach. I couldn't eat. I was afraid if I tried to speak I would start crying. It just wasn't great. Stephen said some really encouraging things about appreciating things when we got back home and I felt like he was speaking directly to me. It was a good way to officially end the trip.

[Macarons]

We went back up to our rooms to get everything together, then decided to head out for some coffee before going back to Euston Station. We had an adventure walking around a new part of the city looking for a coffee shop Rachel had found online, but the coffee drinkers said it was the best coffee they had had all week.

When we got back to our hotel, we grabbed our stuff and went to the train station. We had to take the tube the Heathrow for our flight, just before 3:00. We were quite and tired on the journey to Heathrow, but it was nice to be above-ground for so much of it and see more of the city. If I remember correctly, we didn't have too much time to lolly-gag around the airport before our flight boarded. Three of us got stuck at security, myself included. We had to grab a quick lunch and then it was basically time to board.

I wanted to stay awake for the whole flight back so I could go to sleep at a normal Colorado time. At this point I hadn't considered that I had woken up at 11:00PM on Friday in MST. But it was interesting seeing what an international flight is all about since I missed it on the way there. I couldn't believe how much service you got. I was able to watch 3 and a half movies too. (Zoolander 2, Eddie the Eagle, Spectre, and half of Deadpool) I struggled staying awake at times and I didn't love being in the center seat of the middle section, so I had to keep getting up and walking around. But all in all, it wasn't so bad. Except for the part that I was still a bit of an emotional wreck for having to come back to the States.

England {Day 6}

Friday, May 20th

We had to be at the train station on New Street to catch our train at 9:30, so we all met outside of Derrik and Abby's to catch two separate Ubers. It was a little nerve-wracking when the Uber picking up me, Connor, and JW took a while to arrive and then we had to drive through rush hour traffic. Luckily, we were thinking our train left at 9:00, but it actually left at 9:30, so we had some extra time. We grabbed breakfast before heading over to our platform and grabbing some good seats on the train.

[Platform 9 3/4]

[Checking out at Platform 9 3/4]

When we got to Euston Station in London, about two hours later, we went to the hotel down the street first to drop off our bags. We made a rough plan for the day and decided to start at King's Cross to visit Platform 9 3/4! There was a short wait for the photo-op, but it was worth it and we met some people from Texas in line. Since Rachel, Shelby, JW, and I are obsessed with Harry Potter, we also did some damage in the gift shop.

[The Ritz]

[Green Park / Canada Gate]

By the time we left King's Cross, we were all starving so we popped across the street for some sandwiches at a little shop. We tried to figure out what would make the most sense for our next stop, so we decided to walk to Buckingham Palace. We ended up walking through Green Park to Canada Gate on our way to the Palace.

[Had to do some Pure Barre "in the wild" / Christina and I got too excited about the various Snapchat filters wherever we were]

Sadly, we missed the changing of the guards, but we did see one guard start walking around (marching around?) for a few minutes. We popped into a gift shop to shop, sit, and use Wifi. We tried to figure out how to get back to Westminster City on foot. Along the way, we saw a ton of places where you could rent bikes, so we decided we would rent bikes once we got over by Big Ben and the London Eye.

[Westminster Abbey]

Unfortunately, we weren't able to go into Westminster Abbey because they had closed for their service and it was too far off for us to be able to go. So we kept walking where we had been walking on Sunday afternoon, then turned down the River Thames until we found bikes to rent.

[Back to Big Ben / Back to the Eye]

[About to set off across London]

We figured if we rode along the river we would be able to find the Tower of London and the Tower Bridge. It was quite an adventure considering it was about 5:00 on Friday and we were going through a really busy part of the city. We weren't able to ride along the river for more than a few blocks, so we were just totally guessing as to where exactly we were headed. And let's not forget we were on the other side of the road!

[The Tower of London]

Eventually, we made it to the Tower of London, but parking the bikes was a whole other ordeal. It took us a while to find a station, then there were only 4 openings but we had 6 bikes. We ended up having to help a French couple rent bikes to open up 2 more spots for us.

[Tower Bridge]

By the time we got to the Tower of London, we were all pretty exhausted, but I convinced everybody to take the long way to the tube station so we could see Tower Bridge before hopping back on the tube to go to Waterloo Station.

[The Tower of London]

We met Hillary and Stephen at Waterloo Station and then walked a few blocks to dinner. We ate at Pizza Express, eating pizza in England for the umpteenth time. But it was delicious. After dinner, we split up and Stephen, Hillary, Rachel, and Shelby went back to the hotel while Connor, JW, Christina and I decided to go ride the London Eye.

[View from the bottom / River Thames]

[View from the top]

The timing ended up being perfect. We were able to get on during the sunset and we had beautiful views of the city below both in the light and after the sun went down. Christina ended up capturing a picture of me attempting to stretch out my back, but really it looks like I'm once again doing Pure Barre in London. Oh well, one can never do enough Pure Barre, I always say.

[Chair on the Eye]

[Big Ben & Parliament]

[me, Christina, Connor, JW / Back at the bottom]

Afterward, I told Christina that I wanted to take her out for one last pint while she could still drink legally. Connor and JW decided to come along as well, so we headed back down to where we had been riding bikes earlier in the day to try to find a good pub. We were walking through pretty narrow and dark alleys, but Connor and I later talked about how neither of us felt unsafe. Maybe that's naive, but it wasn't like walking through Chicago or LA or New York at night. Or even Denver, for that matter! Trying to find my way around a new city is one of my favorite things. And I love how quickly I can get some basics down. Like major streets, landmarks, directions, or big stations. But I've never felt so at ease wandering semi-aimlessly as I did in London. It was quite enjoyable.

Anyway, we finally decided on a pub and went in and had one last British pint. There was a cricket match on and we ended up talking to a handful of people, one from New Zealand, one from America, one from France, one from Wales, and a few from England. It was a lot of fun until the pub closed at 11:00. We headed back to the tube to go back to Euston Station and back to the hotel.