Labor Day Weekend, aka Station 26 & Campfires Weekend

A crazy thing happened this weekend. Friday afternoon rolled around and Andy and I realized we, essentially, had no plans for the weekend! Sure we had a couple tentative "let's go hiking sometime in the next two days" and "maybe we should go out for brunch Sunday or Saturday" conversations, but nothing set in stone. If you've been even casually glancing at my posts this summer, you'll realize this is a rare occasion for us. So, this weekend we made our own plans up as we went.

Ok, so maybe I got a tad too over zealous in my description of the plan less weekend, since it did start off with Friday happy hour plans with my friend, and former boss, Donna. We hadn't talked in months, so I was excited to catch-up with her over beers. When I got home, Andy was already in full-on stay inside in front of the TV mode and I wasn't about to argue with that, so we popped in a movie and cooked up a classy popcorn and mac & cheese dinner (yum!).

Saturday was a typical beautiful summer day in Denver, so I took Ella on a long walk over to the Johnson & Wales campus to wander a bit and caught-up on the phone with my folks. Having no set dinner plans that evening, Andy and I agreed to put off the dinner decision and instead go to Station 26 Brewing for some beers. And it's after a few beers that we come up with some of our best ideas, like having another campfire dinner with hot dogs (yup, veggie ones for me) and s'mores (yup, more than one for Andy...ok, and me, too).

This is what Ella does when she's waiting for Andy to reappear in front of the door. Never mind that I'm sitting right here.

So remember earlier this summer when I got myself an upgrade from my flip phone to a fancy new smart phone? Now I'm discovering all these neat things about smart phones (Snapchat! Emojis! Video texts!) and two of the best are What's App to text for free with my international friends, and something that my friend Alli over in the UK has that let's us phone chat for free! Seriously, technology, folks. I spent Sunday morning catching-up with my dear Alli after not hearing her voice in years. Later that afternoon, Andy and I were going over possibilities for the rest of the day and both agreed fully on heading back over to Station 26 while we discussed what do to with the rest of the day. Now here's another awesome thing about smart phones: I posted a picture on Instagram of Andy and I having some beers and playing some cribbage at the brewery, and my friend in Denver, Brittany, saw it, and headed over to hang out. How neat is that?? After a couple beers and conversation, the three of us went back to Andy and my house to use the brand new grill Andy and I bought over the weekend! Yea, we bought a grill. And we love it. I mean, what goes better with a weekend campfire than a weekend grill-out? That's right, nothing. So we paired the two up on Sunday night.

Yikes! Those are the eyes of an allergy sufferer!

Ella will help clean out the empty beer glasses. 

While Andy and I had a nice weekend and end to the summer (doesn't September 1st just feel like fall, even though it's not?), I'm not totally sold on this no plans approach to the weekend. It always feels to me like there's something I missed out on, or something we could have done but ran out of time because we didn't plan. Like that hike and the brunch we were talking about? Yea, those didn't happen. Part of me wonders what happened to the carefree, go with the flow, no plans gal I've been in the past. And then another part of me is grateful that I'm more of a planner and maybe that means I appreciate my time and all that I want to do with it more. Regardless, I'm goin with my gut and am already making plans for next weekend.

-Breanna