This weekend was all about that country livin’.

So one thing I’ve done for as long as I can remember is create my expectations based off of movies. And movies make living in the country look so charming. This past weekend, from the country fair to the farmer’s market, I felt like I was in one of the country movie scenes.

After work on Friday, I drove to my friend Shelby’s house. I rode with her over to the fairgrounds, through all kinds of farmland and corn fields with barns and tractors along they way. Once we entered the fair, it became pretty apparent that my maxi dress and flip flops were a little out of place. Note to self: next time, jeans and boots!

A big part of the fair was the agriculture competitions. People brought in their livestock for farm animal beauty pageants. I’d never seen such well-groomed cows before :)

Speaking of things I’d never seen before….we got there just in time for the Goat Obstacle Course! The best part? Their guides through the course were little kids! 6 and 7 year-olds decked out in boots and belt buckles and country shirts, pulling their stubborn goats along balance beams and teeter totters. The goats weren’t having it. Imagine a game of tug o’ war between goat and small child.

And then I met this cutie!

Meet Potato. We came across this tiny little calf waiting her turn for the contest, and we had to sneak in her pen. She kept licking my hand, which felt like a sheet of sand paper.

After the cow cuddles, the main stage had a country concert with Tracy Lawrence. One of his more popular songs that you might recognize is Find Out Who Your Friends Are. The concert was actually held where they have rodeos (what would the name for that be? Arena?). Soooo many plaid shirts. I didn’t recognize the majority of his songs but I love the atmosphere of country concerts!  The sun sets pretty darn late up here, so at the end of the concert it was the perfect golden hour lighting. The fairgrounds are close to a college campus, and the sunset lighting on the rows of trees and brick buildings was gorgeous. We had to take a little walk through the deserted campus before heading back home.

This small-town living is drastically different from the city and suburbs I’m used to. It’s a whole different world to be surrounded by farm land, where no one locks their cars, and guys walk around with a gun on their hip in plain sight.

Saturday morning was an early one. It was going to be 102 degrees, and the Boise Elite running team had an intense track workout on the schedule. We met at a local high school for a speed workout: 20 x 400 meters. (400 meters is one lap around a track, or 1/4 mile.)

This was my first time running on an actual track since I graduated college and it felt surprisingly easy! Muscle memory is a real thing. We stayed extremely consist, and “hammered” the last few intervals. Our times per lap ranged from 79-85 seconds. For comparison/reference – an 80 second lap is the pace for a 5:20 mile.

20 laps is just as much mentally challenging as it is physical. I finished feeling really accomplished, especially because I haven’t run any real speed workouts since my collegiate running career ended. But my workout for the day was just beginning…

The country theme continues. My parents bought a new home as it was still being built. This past weekend they moved the final load of furniture in with a U-Haul. We must have climbed the two flights of stairs over a hundred times combined, with heavy awkward furniture. I was dripping sweat and exhausted by the end of the day. The delirious kind of exhausted. I think the physical labor of packing and unpacking for 6 hours was way more intense than the 20 x 400s earlier in the day. We earned this wine!

We finally opened a bottle from the wine tasting we did on Mother’s Day! I typically prefer the sweeter white wines, but I like the look of reds. This one wasn’t too dry and we had no problem finishing a couple of glasses. By the time we called it quits for the day and sat down on the couch to watch a movie, I fell asleep in about 4 minutes. Then I slept for 11 hours straight! My body must’ve needed some serious recharging.

The view behind my parent’s home is unbeatable. We get to see the gorgeous colors of sunset through their huge picture windows, and the farm behind their property has picture-perfect hay bales scattered about the land. There’s a Christmas tree farm off to the left in the distance, and birds and quail are constantly walking along the backyard fence. It feels country.

We even had a new neighbor stop by with his adorable puppy poodle, and other stop by with some homemade zucchini bread to welcome them to the neighborhood. I love when real life is just like the movies! ;)

Just down the street, a family sells their produce right on their farm and property. We stopped in on Sunday morning for some peaches and nectarines. We also saw a crate of spaghetti squashes, some white and some yellow. I grabbed a giant yellow one. We asked the lady at the front counter what the difference is between white and yellow spaghetti squash is. She looked at us. She goes, “This is a melon.”

Apparently it was a Canary Melon, something we had not seen before and was identical to a squash. She said, imagine if you hadn’t asked me that and you went to make some low-carb pasta without knowing it was a melon. Hah!

And since we’re on the topic of country and I haven’t linked my favorite music video in a while, I’ll leave you with this latest Brett Eldridge song. Try not to drool on your keyboard.

Bye, y’all! ;)