As I mentioned, this past weekend I attended Blend retreat in Park city, Utah. I had a fabulous time, Utah is absolutely beautiful, and I was so excited to have a few days to explore a new part of it. Even more amazing than the setting, though, were the people.
I talk a lot about how I truly cannot believe the connections I have made through blogging, and being able to spend time with many of those ladies in person was more than I could have asked for in a weekend. Now that I have babbled on and gone all corny on you (perhaps I spent too much time with the ever sweet Corny Cotter), I want to share the experience with you. Lindsay, Janetha, and Lauren put an enormous amount of work into making this weekend happen, so a huge thank you to them.
I flew into Salt Lake City on Friday morning, which obviously meant oats in a jar at the airport for breakfast. I spend ten minutes convincing security to let me take that baby through, but when you have 3 hours to kill in an airport, fuel is necessary.
The resort was absolutely gorgeous, as was the weather for the entire weekend.
I arrived to this view.
And awoke to this one.
I missed out on the run led by the lovely Janae, but we all know running and hills and I aren’t quite getting along lately anyways. I got a chance to meet up with all the sweaty ladies post run and mingle over Arctic Zero smoothies and ice cream sammies.
Photo stolen from Heather .
I fit in a quick weight session fueled by cookies and ice cream.
Cocktail hour later that night involved drinks and a lot of picture taking.
Put bloggers in a room with alcohol and the cameras will come out.
I finally met my favorite broccoli in real life.
And was reunited with Amanda and Sam.
Dinner was salad and pizza (gf and df options) followed by tarts, fruit, chilled watermelon soup, and real whipped cream for dessert.
I stole this shot from Heather because the tarts were just too pretty.
Saturday morning started off bright and early with a bootcamp led by Onnit.
Sweaty post-workout shot.
But first, coffee.
I drank way too much coffee throughout that weekend partly due to the fact that Green Mountain Coffee was one of our amazing sponsors and partly due to the fact that I was addicted to the vanilla coconut milk creamer.
We refueled after bootcamp with breakfast sponsored by Quest Nutrition. Now, if you are a frequent reader or follow me on social media, you know I have a deep love for Quest. So naturally, I could hardly contain myself when I saw the Quest cookie cups.
Clark from Quest was kind enough to share the recipe with us all.
The afternoon was spent up in the mountains hiking.
We rode the gondola up to the top and I decided en route that I need to go back to Park City for a snowboarding trip in the very near future.
The view from the top.
The hike was relatively short, and after about two hours we were hot, sweaty and hungry but with big smiles on our face.
Kidzshake made us chocolate banana smoothies and these delicious balls. Yes, I went there.
We had some free time on Saturday night, so after laying around for a while eating while jars of homemade granola (oh wait, that was just me), we headed downtown for dinner.
Meghan posing with the adorable old school trolley on Main Street.
We ate at Purple Sage, which is a quirky American Western place with an impressive menu. Heather ordered cheese and sausage boards for the table, and Meghan and I split a salad.
Mixed greens with spicy pecans and balsamic onions, add goat cheese, please.
There were so many entrees and I almost ordered them all, but I went with the shrimp because, well, shrimp.
Of course I had to capture a shot of Sam’s savory pancakes as well.
The company wasn’t half bad either.
You know are dining with food bloggers when…
Two of my favorite girls.
Sunday morning began with yet another bootcamp, this one put on by GPP.
It was a group workout consisting of too many burpees, squats, push ups, dips, and sit ups to count. Actually, we did count them. Hello, 500 plus reps.
Our final breakfast was sponsored by Yoplait Greek and Nature’s Valley, and I was happy to see my favorite morning staples. I think I about ate my weight in oats, yogurt, fruit, and granola. Cinnamon on everything, of course.
#lickthelid
Post-brekkie chocolate. Okay, so I may or may not have lived off chocolate the entire weekend. You all know how much I love Lily’s, so I was happy to see them there.
I was told I absolutely had to make a trip to Cafe Rio before I left, so Cafe Rio for lunch it was. We must’ve run into at least 30 other blends there who had the same idea.
I headed back to the Bay with a so many memories and a very full stomach.
Oh, and the swag. So. Much. Swag.
A huge thank you to Silk and all the other wonderful sponsors who made Blend 2014 possible.
So, who’s coming to Blend with me next year in Boulder, Colorado?
