I’ve been looking forward to this weekend since I was leaving Boulder last year. It’s one of those weekends that you can’t quite explain to people, you can try but unless they actually experience it, it’s hard to really put into words.
You’ll have to excuse me as it’s hard to really break down this ONE weekend into ONE post. Or at least one post that wouldn’t take you a whole weekend to read so instead, I’m going to try and break it down into a few more manageable posts. This also allows me to relive this weekend filled with friends and lots of fun.
It was an early morning. My flight didn’t left around 8 which meant an early morning wake-up call to get to the airport with plenty of time and barring any traffic. I arrived with plenty of time to grab a cup of coffee and sit down to enjoy my breakfast before boarding.
The flight wasn’t too bad. I met Michelle just a few minutes before we boarded the plane and knowing a new friend was just a few rows behind me, the excitement grew.
We landed, grabbed some coffee while waiting for a few more girls, got our rental car and made our way to the beautiful Hyatt Escala Resort in Park City. It was stunning!
We stopped by registration to check-in and pick up our swag bags (more on those later!), said hellos, gave hugs and made our way to our rooms to relax and freshen-up a bit before joining everyone for cocktail hour.
Clearly, we were excited!
My roommates for the weekend were Amanda and Calee. It was so fun to catch up and each other’s lives since our girls weekend earlier this year. And seriously, we clean up well! 😉
The cocktail party was fun and really allowed us to see the friend’s we made last year and start getting to know the other girls we’d get to spend the weekend with. After a little while we made our way over to dinner. (I’ll get to the food later.)
We were all fading quickly as everyone’s travel times were starting to catch up with us, so it was an earlier night.
Roomies in matching Blend 2012 t-shirts for bedtime
Saturday morning started bright and early with a bootcamp hosted by GPP Fitness. It was tough but awesome! I love their mentality of pushing yourself to knew heights while also knowing your limits so you don’t injure yourself. And that’s exactly what these workouts were!
We did sprints and a deck of cards workout. I made sure to stay tuned into my body to know if I needed to skip a burpee, push-up or two. But I also made sure I was pushing myself and giving it my all. And if you’ve ever wondered if you could do just.one.more.burpee then join a giant group of people and yell “we love burpees!” and see if you don’t have the energy to get out that last rep. I’m sure you’ll find it.
Next was breakfast followed by a hike. It was rainy and chilly but since there weren’t thunderstorms we trudged on! Some girls stayed behind and had an impromptu Zumba class and some chose to find a local yoga studio instead, but I figured I’d at least walk to the trail head and decide from there if I wanted to continue.
When I say we trudged through the mud, I don’t lie. I don’t even over exaggerate, we trudged! But once we got to the trail head, we were already muddy and were feeling good so most of the group continued on. The hike was amazing! It was another chance to meet new girls, talk with others I didn’t get to chat with much yet, and even have some “deep mountain” conversations about our lives. I kid you not, we got deep but thankfully there were no tears. 😉
The views were beautiful and breathtaking! I swear there was a moment I stopped dead in my tracks and said “whoa! where did this view come from? Seriously gorgeous!”
We made it to a good stopping point, took a picture, and refueled before making our way back down the mountain.
Photo courtesy of Muesli Fusion
To say we were muddy would be an understatement. But it was an amazing and I wouldn’t trade those muddy moments, shoes and pants for anything!
The rest of the day was ours for the taking and included some relaxing, some wandering around Main Street in Park City, dinner on the town and a semi late night chatting with everyone.
But we couldn’t make it too late, we had another opportunity for GPP Fitness to kick our butts bright-and-early Sunday morning awaiting us. And kick our butts they did! If we weren’t already sore from Saturday, it didn’t matter – we had more burpees, more squats and more sprints awaiting us! We had more pushing ourselves to knew heights while staying true to our bodies limits – we had cartwheels to do!
Neil from GPP Fitness talking to us about the workout
After breakfast and some last minute packing, we made our way downstairs for the closing raffle and final goodbyes. For more pictures, hugs, and exchanging information to stay in touch. For holding back tears and catching someone right before the leave.
We packed up the rental car, stopped for a quick lunch and continued on towards the airport. There were last minute coffee dates while waiting for flights to board and final goodbyes. And next thing I knew, I was back in Chicago with the weekend I had been waiting for the last year already behind me and next year’s already a year away.
Photo Courtesy of Lindsay
It was a marvelous weekend, that can’t be denied. Katie, wish you and Baby G could have joined us this year.
How was your weekend?
I’m sooooo glad i went on the hike. it was muddy, and fun. though the adorable muesli fusion guy was behind me most of the time and i seriously had to fart. 😛
and i love this: “You’ll have to excuse me as it’s hard to really break down this ONE weekend into ONE post. Or at least one post that wouldn’t take you a whole weekend to read so instead… “
hahahaha! I’m so glad I didn’t give up on the hike! When it was so crazy muddy, I thought about it but it wasn’t that bad on the trail and it was so fun!
Favorite weekend this year… by far! Can we just go back??
Can we, PLEASE?!
I didn’t cry during the final goodbyes, but I swear just reading through your post now makes me tear up! I hate that the weekend is already over…it went by TOO fast (as I knew it would). I wish I could have gone on the hike, but I just didn’t trust the terrain with my knee. Zumba was great…lots of fun and energy, but it would have been nice to have the chance to really bond with my girls. Gah, can’t we just go back and do it all over again?!
PS, I know I already told you this, but I’ll it needs to be said again…Damn girl, YOU HAWT!!! 😉 xoxo
Aww shucks! 😉
i loved meeting you face to face! Gorgeous girl! Thanks for all your support too friend. xxoo
I loved meeting you too! You are seriously the sweetest, I just wish I had more time to chat with you!
So wish I lived closer so I could have gone to Blend 🙂 looks like you ladies had such an amazing time!
sorry we did not get to chat at Blend!!! glad you had such a great time!!
Looks like a great time. Those moments are so special that one is able to spend with like minded women. Glad you enjoyed yourself.
It was amazing! I love that we are all brought together by similar interests so you know you’ll always have SOMETHING to talk about!
I wished TOO! I was so sad seeing all the instagram pics!! NEXT YEAR I will be there for sure!! I am glad you had a blast again this year!! <3
I better see you next year! 🙂
I love your photo of the whole resort- it was gorgeous! So glad we could hang out a bit on Sunday- it was great to meet you!!
It was great to see you too! It’s sad we didn’t get to chat until we were all leaving Sunday but better late than never, right?!
I can’t believe it’s over! So good spending time with you in person girl! You are definitely one of my favs. 😉 <3
Blend Roomies fo life! 😉
WOWZERS! So many great pics! I am just stopping by your blog from the MiMM link up on Katie’s blog! It looks like an epic weekend was had by all at Blend 2013!! Cheers, Tara
Thanks for stopping by! It was definitely an incredible weekend!
It was so fun to meet you!!! Wasn’t BLEND amazing?!?! Ahhhh, such a good weekend <3
It was so fun meeting you too! Sorry I missed your spontaneous Zumba class, I hear it was a good time! 🙂
It looks like you had an absolutely awesome time! I hope that next year’s location will be closer to me!
That’d be nice, wouldn’t it? But I should let you know, it’s WORTH the travel! 😉
So so fun. It was great meeting you and sharing lunch together. I want to go back!
It was great to meet you too! 🙂
LOVE. Love this and love you. [And emotional moments on the mountain…] I’m so happy we were able to spend so much time together this year, and this is a fabulous recap. Can I just copy and paste? 😉
Go for it! 😉
best.weekend.ever!
Yes.Yes.Yes!
So glad to meet you! We did get a little deep on that mountain huh?! lol such a great experience!
It was awesome! 🙂
Yay!! Blend was such a great time, and I so so so so enjoyed meeting you! You will forever be the best travel buddy to me! 🙂
I’m still in awe we got that Jeep to work! 😉
Sounds like a great weekend! I’m loving reading everyone’s recaps of the Blend weekend 🙂
Looks like such a fun time! I wish I would have gone but there’s always next year 🙂
SO good to meet you this weekend! It was sad not to wake up at BLEND this morning 🙁
What a great weekend! I hope that it comes to the Midwest next year — I would love to go!