This past weekend was arguably as “autumn” as it gets. Saturday morning started with a fresh pot of Apple Cider Donut Flavored Coffee and a running path that was brightly lined with every fall-colored tree. Vibrant pops of red and golden crispy leaves. Shelby, my Boise Elite teammate, and I logged 10 miles on the trails to kick off our weekend.

One of my dad’s friends flew in yesterday from out-of-state with his daughter to take our family to our very first Boise State home football game. We drove into Boise and loved seeing how much spirit this town has for its football team. Orange and Blue everywhere! Since it was a late game, we drove downtown to our friend’s favorite restaurant Fork. It’s a farm-to-table local restaurant in the historic bank building.

The six of us took our time since we had about 4 hours to kill before the big game started. Everyone started off with drinks, and I ordered water but shared a sip of the super pink and fruity Fork Lemonade cocktail and loved it! We also shared some appetizers and I’m still not 100% sure on how to eat these things but they look fun:

The entire town rocked Orange and Blue but to me it feels a little forced….I’m a Lumberjack. Blue and Gold are my colors and anything else seems like a costume.

For dinner I ordered a salad with berries and walnuts and cheese, with grilled salmon on the side. Everything was delicious and we headed out to walk a few blocks around downtown JUST as my favorite golden hour lighting struck.

Old buildings + brick + orange trees + golden hour lighting + football fans + full bellies.

Eventually we made our way to the stadium, along with 36,000 other fans. Walking through the university campus feels so good. Life as a college student was significantly easier than life as a working adult.

The “Smurf Turf.” Boise State’s signature blue field! We had incredible seats basically on the field. We sat in the front row of the end zone and got pretty prime view of (half of) the game ;)

(Can you spot the photo-bomber….?)

The game was intense but the Broncos held on to their lead until the end and beat the Cougars 31-28. We left the stadium around 1am. That’s probably the latest I’ve been up in months; I wake up around 4:40am to run before work which means I fall asleep by 10 :)

Sunday morning began as every morning should – cinnamon swirl coffee.

Our friends from California who we’ve known for 15 years were road-tripping through the West, and landed in our neck of the woods late Saturday night. Sunday morning they came out to the country and met my parents and I for a full fun day! It’s so good to see old familiar friends after living somewhere new for a while now!

We went for scenic beautiful morning walk, drove through the surrounding towns, and into downtown Boise again for some brunch and photography. Our friends, Bill and Sue, both have professional photography skills and love shooting new sights on their vacations. After brunch, we found “Freak Alley” in downtown Boise with the most bizarre graffiti murals.

Now this graffiti is what I consider art. We passed a local favorite donut shop called Guru donuts, and we couldn’t pass it up without trying some local flavors. The five of us shared a vegan Dark n’ Stormy (ginger and lime) donut, a bright pink wild berry donut, and a Bart Simspon Butterfinger donut. Then proceeded to “walk them off” for several blocks exploring and shooting pictures ;)

This is the ceiling of the Idaho State Capitol building in the center of downtown. It’s open to the public and beautifully covered in white marble. I love the starry details in the very top! Since it’s open to the public, we had to pop in and admire the beautiful historic building before wrapping up our fall weekend with a walk along the river.

In other important news – Target has officially stocked their Fall displays with the seasonal fall flavors of just about everything. If nothing else, at least try the Pumpkin Spice Cheerios. They aren’t too sweet at all, just spicy!

This week I will be getting back into my normal meal and workout routine, which I will post about later this week with another clean and healthy recipe you’ve got to try this season :)

Happy Fall, Y’all!

The second it turned September, our temperatures dropped 20 degrees, the clouds rolls in, and pumpkin spice invaded every coffee shop in town. Coming from Southern California where Summer spans from March to November, I am whole-heartedly embracing this new “autumn” thing.

Shelby, my Boise Elite teammate (who quickly became my closest friend in Boise after we bonded over our intense caffeine addiction, running goals, and love of all things country), and I had a six hour shopping spree yesterday. Like I said, I haven’t experienced much weather variety and I own 2 long sleeve shirts. I also really dislike wearing pants (running clothes or dresses, 24/7). We both found a bunch of cute pieces at some boutique shops, Buckle, and Nordstrom Rack. I still only ended up with one pair of pants, but I got two new dresses that I can “winter-fy” with tights and boots ;)

We anticipated hitting the “shopping wall” – that feeling when your patience starts to run out, so we planned a midday coffee stop. Americano’s are always my go-to, but I added 2 pumps of pumpkin spice flavor to be festive. After we were done with the mall, we were STARVING. My stomach was growling so loud and anything sounded good at that point. Since it was 3pm, the outdoor patio at a local sushi bar was open.

Last night, I cooked a homestyle dinner for my parents. One of my favorite blogs to read since high school is Simply Taralynn, and last week she posted a meatloaf recipe. Meat is not my favorite food group, and I even hate the word “meatloaf.” But her description was so persuasive, I decided to try it out myself. I used lean ground turkey and roasted garlic and herb veggies on the side. The homemade BBQ sauce on top was a killer touch. I would just like to rename the dish to something more appealing…….turkey bake? Hah! :)

Not only is the name meatloaf not entirely pleasing, but it also doesn’t photograph very well. Please just take my word that as a very picky meat-eater, I LOVED this recipe. The flavors were so strong that you definitely didn’t need any ketchup or sauce on the side. (And I am a ketchup lover, so that is truly saying something.)

Along with a change in weather, a change in clothes, and a change in dinner recipes, my workouts have also changed up a bit. My sole focus is typically running with one or two strength workouts squeezed in each week or maybe a day of cross-training on the bike. I’m currently trying to make more of a well-rounded weekly workout program to incorporate less stress on my running joints.

This morning I woke up at 4:40am to knock out a body-weight HIIT circuit in the backyard with six different exercises for 30 minutes followed by a 30 minute jog around the neighborhood. Biking around Idaho has been so unbelievably scenic as well that it instantly boosts your mood. I’ve never seen anything like the landscaping here!

Since my workouts and running goals are changing up a bit, I thought I’d put a little update on here every so often to check in and hear about your goals too! Right now, my focus is on increasing my flexibility and endurance without overdoing running which has led to lots of hip injuries in the past. I’ll be working on an injury prevention post with lots of tips I’ve picked up through our trainers when I was a collegiate athlete as well as my studies with the National Academy of Sports Medicine!

I hope it wasn’t too hard for you to eeease back into the week after a holiday weekend. I’m about to go out with some friends from work to see Bad Moms (again!) and dinner. Even though everyone is excited for fall and sweaters and pumpkin, I’m not in any hurry to say goodbye to warm sunshine, sundresses and sandals!