Week sixteen, and we added a few more “new reality- social distancing” firsts to our list.

We went on our first day trip to Vail and Breckenridge. We woke up at 5am to beat the holiday crowds on our two-hour drive. We made such good time, that we had several hours to kill before meeting our friend’s Julie and Ryan for breakfast.

It was a great day and I will write a full-blog review in the future. Both cities encouraged masks and social distancing. It seemed like more of the Breckenridge visitors complied with safety restrictions, but overall I felt safe in both towns. We wore our masks, kept our hands clean, and we were careful in crowds. We enjoyed two restaurants and quickly learned the importance of planning ahead with reservations during covid, as the restaurants were operating under a reduced capacity. We were lucky to eat!

In Vail, we rode the gondola and walked through the Betty Ford Gardens. This gorgeous river shot was taken from a covered bridge in town.

Breckenridge was less fancy than Vail and more down-to-earth. Unfortunately, it rained during our visit, so we didn’t do much besides eat pizza and walk down the main street. I look forward to returning and going on their gondola, which unlike Vail’s, is free! Vail’s gondola was really expensive.

The mountains at Breckenridge are picturesque.

All of the rain, meant a beautiful rainbow. So many rainbows in Colorado! We found this one in the town of Frisco. No filter on this picture, it was really this vibrant.

My other covid first was a trip to the dentist for a teeth cleaning. They had tons of safety procedures in place and few patients. It seemed as safe as possible under the circumstances, and I figured that keeping up with dental health was too important to delay.

We had a lazy day at home for the 4th of July. Unfortunately, like many places, we have people in our neighborhood who insist on using fireworks. We live in a high fire danger area, so they are 100% illegal.

It’s also frustrating, because of the morality of it all. They are illegal for safety reasons, but we also have kids in our neighborhood who have been affected by local school shootings, and others with PTSD. We have pets who are terrified. I too have childhood gun drama that gets dragged up with fireworks, so I’m sensitive. We didn’t lodge any complaints with the police, but several neighbors confronted those using the fireworks and it turned ugly. It makes me sad and frustrated that this is happening in our community. I can’t believe that the desire to use illegal fireworks is stronger than reason and compassion. It’s unbelievable.

We finished watching the first two seasons of “What we do in the Shadows.” It is one of the funniest shows that I have ever seen. We are now anxiously awaiting season three, which is sure to be delayed. We also watched “Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga” with Will Ferrell and Rachel McAdams. It’s not a very funny movie, but it was certainly sweet and uplifting, probably just the type of movie we could all use at the moment.

I made Ratatouille from a Noom recipe, and it was delicious!

I sent a personalized card created by Punk Post to a family friend ( my mom’s best friend) who lives alone and who has been having a hard time. She called me crying, because it was so nice to get a card in the mail. This was a reminder to be better about checking-in with people that I care about. I feel like I’m handling things well, but others are not.

And finally, cute cat pictures of Tom. Slinky is cute too, but he doesn’t pose for as many pictures! Tom loves that big brown ball, and in this picture he was holding it and meowing for attention. He loves for us to throw it,and he will retrieve it! Who needs a dog?