Plants, Memorials and Fears oh my

I don't know about all of you in blog-land, but I had a pretty fantastic weekend from start to finish.

Friday evening, they let us off work early since we didn't have to take lunch breaks (always a plus!!) so I headed to farmer's market and not only got produce .. but plants to GROW my own produce as well.

I headed to the store to get more produce plants and dirt as well as some flowers to spruce up the place outside. I also had to head to try and find a great birthday present for my dad whose birthday was.... Saturday. Yep. I am that person. I didn't really have much time to shop or ANY idea what to get him. Needless to say all missions accomplished and I think he was pretty happy with the gift as he put it in the yard as soon as he opened it and put it together.

My dad is super big on outdoor decorating and plants so it only seemed fitting that I snatched this up for his gift. I can honestly say this is one of my favorite things about my dad- his love for the outdoors and all that he has taught me over the years. We fished, biked, and spent lots of time outside when I was younger. My dad has a major plant buying addiction in the summer time and I can't say I would be much better if I had the space. Ooops.

Anyway, so Saturday was my dear nephew's 7th birthday party which was lots of fun as always. My sister's 3 kids and my cousin's 3 kids are always entertaining as all get out to watch. Being pretty close in age, they are so adorable and fun to watch interacting together. Innocence at its finest. 

Sunday I finished my gardening and snapped some pictures (as only natural)

It looks a lot less chaotic in real-life I swear. I only have this one flower bed because of where we rent. And as luck would have it.. the soil is terrible. This year I got smart and got big old planters and filled with dirt for all my produce growing needs. I am also hoping that the overabundance of owl pieces in the garden will act as scarecrows. What do you think... will it work?

So the final list of items in my garden: 2 types of tomatoes, basil, banana peppers, small sweet peppers, white eggplant, cucumbers and cilantro. Here's to hoping that I get a good "crop."

This is a picture of the back balcony area. The top planters were freebies from last summer that I spray painted to match. I still am completely in love with this. Yes, my crafty side is showing here. Love me some spray paint. 

Monday I enjoyed having the extra day to be home and finally stopped "resting" from running. I got up at 8:30 (later than I wanted of course) to run and had to make a few adjustments to my route because of the parade setting up. I took a few quick walk/cool down breaks along the way but nothing to be upset about. It was pretty hot and humid and I knew when I left the house that I wasn't hydrated as fully as I would have liked. All I really cared about what making it up a hill that I haven't run since last fall when I was training for my first half marathon. I couldn't run and then I was afraid to TRY to run it and fail. So Monday was the day... and I killed it. 

I got home just in time to change from shorts into capris and hop on bike to head to a free community yoga class!! 

I have been loving my Apera Bag- specifically the yoga tote. I did post my review a few weeks back but have been loving it even more in the past few weeks. It is SERIOUSLY perfect for throwing over my back and hopping on my bike to head to yoga. I know I raved about all the awesome storage and features but now that I am getting to use it even MORE, I am even more in love. And of course I used my beautiful Aspen Yoga mat pictured in my bag. 

After yoga, I ended up across the street in the graveyard... ok that didn't sound so creepy in my head... for the annual Memorial Day celebration and service. It was really touching and pretty cool to see the community all together even in the hot sun.  I didn't get any pictures because I left my phone in my bag, but it was the picture of patriotism. 

Monday evening my parents were right nearby and stopped in. Mom and I were going to take a walk and asked dad to come along.  Dad wasn't really in the mood to walk and I think pretty jokingly said he would go if he could ride my bike. I told him... OKAY!! So we got changed and off we went. 3.5 miles later we had a nice evening walk (minus a not so fun bug in the eye mishap).

If I haven't lost you in boredom of my long holiday weekend.. thanks for hanging in there.

How did you spend your holiday weekend? Did you honor any lost soldiers? Did you take advantage and get some extra activity in?