Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Turnin' 30

The past few months have been hectic with both Eric & my 30th birthdays, our anniversary, and the end of the school year. As a result, we've been to several nice celebration dinners at some new restaurants and eaten a ton of food. For our anniversary we went to Fruition, and I woke up the next morning wanting to go back. My favorite dish was the Pasta Carbonara with Pork Belly, and I have been craving it ever since. Eric took me for an Italian five course dinner at Panzano for my birthday. The Fried Brussels Sprouts and Pastiche (Housemade Cheese Tortellini w/ Spicy Meatballs) were amazing. Some friends took us to Potager to celebrate all of the above along with the start of summer, and me winning "Teacher of the Year." We shared several plates, and few bottles of wine, and had a great time.

For my birthday, we started the day with breakfast at home. After a mellow morning lounging around, we went shopping at Cherry Creek. We had a healthy lunch at Harmon's to counteract the sweet breakfast, and then went to Freerunning and worked on side flips, punch front flips, and websters. Afterwards, we went to Cannonball Creek Brewery and ate pizza off the Basic Kneads food truck. We ended the evening with a walk around the neighborhood looking for the perfect place to do an outside flip. Unfortunately we did not find a place, but I know we will continue looking. Lastly, we enjoyed birthday cake while watching TV on the couch. The weather was gorgeous, and made for a great day.

Birthday Breakfast of Doughnuts, Breakfast Sandwich, Breakfast Burrito, & a Frappuccino


White Chocolate Raspberry Chiffon Birthday Cake

I am still addicted to Parkour and have been going to class at least three days a week, sometimes five. I started going to another new class called Moveabilities (MoAbs). The first half is focused on Parkour, and the second half is a more intense workout, sometimes using some aspects of a Crossfit workout. I am usually the only one there because it is earlier in the evening, so we always work on one of my weaknesses. Often, we work on skills that we use during the following evening's class, and I definitely see the benefits of working on it beforehand. We have been working on my fear of heights by jumping from taller objects and precision jumping over tall gaps. I am also still nervous about kong vaults to precision considering that is how I hurt my knee, but after the last class, I am feeling much more comfortable with them and am working towards landing on taller boxes.

Between Tricking and Freerunning, I feel I am moving closer to my goal of doing a flip outside off of a short wall. There are a few places near my house and work that I have been eyeing with this goal in mind. I know it will still be awhile before I will be successful with this, but it's something to work towards. A few weeks ago, I did my first backflip off the side of the AirTrick. While it still gives some spring when you jump, it is much less than the trampoline, and I am finally starting to feel comfortable with the motion.

I am finding myself looking at my surroundings in a new way and imagining balancing, jumping, or vaulting over different objects I see when driving or walking. My window from my classroom overlooks part of the roof, complete with electrical boxes, pipes, and gaps between walls. Not that I would actually do Parkour on the school roof, but I enjoy the new perspective of looking at things differently. I did have fun doing some "mini-Parkour" moves walking back to my car the other night while downtown. There were a ton of walls to vault over, a wall to balance on, some planters to precision jump, a tree branch to swing from, and an electrical box to climb on.

View From My Window at Work

We finally took advantage of some tickets we received last year and went to see "Once." The music was great and even though the story didn't end the way we would have liked, we enjoyed it.

Attempted Selfie Before "Once"

Eric has made a ton of progress on the yard and it is getting close to being finished. The below pictures show the nearly completed retaining wall, a new stamped concrete patio, a new sprinkler system, fresh topsoil for our garden, and freshly seeded grass. I can't wait until it is finally finished and we can enjoy our yard.

 Freshly Seeded Grass

New Stamped Concrete Patio