Blend Retreat Weekend in Photos

Hello from 15,000 feet 🙂 I’m writing this post (or at least starting it…I’ve got Mad Men to watch!) on my flight back from Salt Lake City. I’m also clinging on to the armrest for dear life and listening to Disney music to distract me during what has been a frighteningly bumpy takeoff! Thank god I stole some of Lindsay’s Dramamine during the car ride from Park City 😉

It’s a sad day not only because I have to go back to work and reality tomorrow (today by the time you read this), but also because I’ll be landing in 106 degree Sacramento weather. Can’t I live in perfect 75 degree Park City forever??

This weekend post will be a short one- I’ll definitely be writing a few in-depth posts about Blend Retreat later this week. The food, the fitness, the swag… You will get the lowdown on allllll of it! Here’s your sneak peek:

The weekend officially started on Thursday evening, when I arrived at our hotel in Salt Lake City (after taking a shuttle to the wrong Comfort Inn….seriously, sometimes I wonder about me!) I had happy hour drinks and delicious pizza with Becky, Erica, (who lives in SLC and joined us for the evening!) and big ol’ hoarde of 7-8 other bloggers!

After attempting a quick elliptical workout (my first since my injury the Saturday prior), we picked up Starbucks and headed to Park City! Alyssa (pictured above in the lovely green dress, and also an SLC native) was sweet enough to drive us around all weekend, and she also happened to be my “bedmate”! We were supposed to share the pullout in our suite, but ended up just sleeping on the giant comfy couches 😉

Friday was spent hanging by the pool, mingling, fangirling over our swag, and then it was time for cocktail hour and dinner. Afterward, we opted to stay in and watch Frozen, because we’re really 9 years old at heart.

Saturday was an epic day of exercise! We all woke up bright and early for boot camp led by Jennifer and Orlando from Onnit. It was pretty much 45 minutes of plyometrics (lunges, burpees, squats, and push ups), which I modified for my injured foot by eliminating any jumping.

Next up was a breakfast sponsored by Quest, followed by a beautiful hike sponsored by Organic Valley. We took super scary gondolas to the kick off point and while some took gondolas back, I was over zealous and hiked back, not knowing it was all either steep or gravelly…my foot was NOT happy, but it was nothing a little ice at the pool and yoga with my suitemates (led by Kait) couldn’t solve!

That evening, we ventured to Utah’s first whiskey distillery for dinner, followed by drinks (Lindsay is my soulmate. Real Talk.) and a BUCK HUNTER re-match with Orlando…just like I wanted!!

We had to leave eventually 😦 Wahh! Alyssa was sweet enough to drive me, Lindsay, Kim, and Becky to the airport, and it was probably the worst part of the weekend. I’m going to miss these girls so much!

Check out all that swag! I had to get a final picture of all the goodies we got.

Despite my exhaustion, soreness from boot camp/hiking/yoga/dancing, and dehydration from being in dry, high elevation Utah all weekend…. I then went to play dodgeball. We won, and all had our usual fries + beer afterward 😉

It was my first time running since I injured myself last weekend, and my foot was feeling pretty good. I think I’m going to ease back into exercising this week, but last night the only thing on my mind was getting a full 8 hours of sleep in my own bed!

I’m really glad I went to Blend again this year…I was semi-nervous, since I didn’t follow a lot of the bloggers that I knew I’d be staying with, but I forget that we’re all such kindred spirits it takes like .2 seconds for all of our fitness-loving, peanut butter-eating selves to bond.

Can’t wait till next year in Boulder, Colorado!!