A summer weekend in Omaha

This weekend was such a great one. It was fun and relaxing and exciting all at once. I know I keep on saying it, but Omaha in the summer is the best. Here’s what we were up to:

 Jersey Boys

Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons sing some of my all-time favorite songs. I’ve always wanted to see Jersey Boys on Broadway. Since that hasn’t happened yet, I figured seeing the movie would be the next best thing. It was wonderful. I would recommend it to anyone interested in seeing it.

The only thing I would not recommend is going out to see a movie when your phone notifies you there’s a thunderstorm warning. We have a movie theater less than a mile away from us, but ended up going to the one half an hour away. We thought a thunderstorm meant a little rain, not a hailstorm, flooded roads, and rain so thick the wipers couldn’t clear it fast enough to make the road visible. I’ve never driven in weather that bad and was really worried about our safety. While the rest of our weekend was amazing, this was our low point. ( <— Please tell me someone else has seen this movie and loves it too?) Thankfully we made it home safe and sound. But oh man, Midwest storms are NO joke.

HIIT time

Saturday morning I woke up bright and early to head to Jess’s house for my second HIIT training. She is an amazing teacher, and makes me feel confident and strong, even when my body is hurting. I can tell these workouts are going to give me a booty (yay!) because my glutes kill afterwards. Josh didn’t come because he was just getting over a stomach bug. For the last few days his meals have been PowerAde and saltines. He didn’t think it would be good to tackle a workout when he wasn’t feeling his best and I totally agreed. I enjoyed my time with Jess, Jada and Cooper (her two babies) and was glad Josh was getting to rest up. I’m so happy he’s feeling much better now.

Celebrating 40 years

The Department Chair of Josh’s program celebrated 40 years of marriage with his wife this weekend. Their kids threw them a fun night at a hotel, complete with a cake, dinner, drinks, and dancing. As Josh and I approach a year of marriage it is wonderful to see a couple happy, in love, and celebrating 40 years. I know I say all the time how lucky we are that Josh’s job brought us to Omaha, but we are so incredibly lucky that he works in the program he does. His co-workers are so welcoming and kind and fun to be around. The fact that they think to include us in their own personal celebrations and events means the world to me.

Dance it out

Doesn’t everyone take selfies in parking garages? Sunday I danced it out at Zumba. I love Zumba. The instructors at my gym are high-intensity and make you drip sweat. They still manage to make you smile and have fun even when your body is screaming. I’ve convinced Josh to take a Zumba class tomorrow with me. He is dreading it (he thinks Zumba is for girls despite the fact that both of my instructors are guys) but I am so crazy excited. I think he’s going to like it.

Junkstock

Junkstock is an amazing thing that happens in Omaha twice a year. It’s a time for artists to get together and sell their “junk”. It’s held on a big farm in West Omaha and has food trucks and music on top of all the shopping.

We spotted some pretty cool items. The last time we were here was in the fall when we were still furnishing our apartment. We’re pretty settled in now, so we browsed more than we shopped.

We also enjoyed listening to the band. The weather was beautiful and it was nice to just enjoy a day outside in the sunshine. The guys from American Pickers were there earlier in the day. Our property manager got a picture with them. I’m so bummed we missed them! Josh and I love their show.

Chowing down

After Junkstock Josh and I decided to try a new-to-us restaurant called Railcar. Since we live Downtown, it’s not often we come out West to eat. Railcar is a great restaurant with exceptional service. It feels upscale while being very affordable. Josh and I both got their house made veggie burger. (I just got mine sans pretzel bun.) It was a nice consolation that the appetizer was a pretzel bun, so I was still able to snag a few bites. Everything was delicious. The only disappointment was my side salad.  I paid extra for it and found it literally drenched in dressing. It was an amazing dressing, but there was just gobs of it on the salad. I ended up skipping the salad, but would absolutely still come back to Railcar. Josh and I talked about how we could see this becoming one of our new favorite places. I’ll just make a mental note to order dressing on the side next time. ;p

Sephora goodies

Something to know about me is that it takes me forever to go through makeup. It’s probably because I’m not wearing any 90% of the time. I know there are all kinds of articles on how you need to dispose of your makeup every few months but I’ve had the same Nars Orgasm blush since I was 15 years old. (And still haven’t run out. Or contracted a mysterious infection on my face.) While blush seems to last me a long time, there have been some other makeup staples I’ve needed to pick up for a while. Because I love knowing what people buy when they go shopping, here’s what I got:

• Clinique Superbalanced Makeup
• Clinique High Impact Mascara
• Make Up For Ever HD Pressed Powder
• Urban Decay Brow Box
• Bite Luminous Creme Lipstick

Josh also picked up some Clinique for Men products. He loves that stuff.

My date night surprise: Stand Up Paddleboarding!

We ended Sunday with an experience that was new to both of us: stand up paddleboarding! (Or SUP for short.) Josh and I are really trying to focus less on food when we’re out and about together and more on experiences and activities. (I still need to do a post on this but I’m trying hard to get my weight in check.) SUP is an activity we can see ourselves doing a lot more of in the future. We had a lot of fun, and paddleboarding while the sun set was incredibly romantic.

When I was looking for a fun date night surprise for Josh I came across Driftwood Paddleboard Adventures online and thought it sounded awesome. If you’re in Omaha I highly recommend booking with them for your SUP lessons and rentals. Paul was our tour guide and he was incredibly knowledgeable about SUP, patient while giving instructions, and super cool to hang out with. I never felt rushed to do something quicker than I was comfortable, and was given extra instruction on how to navigate my board when I kept on running into bushes/falling off the board. (The extra instruction was what helped me get it and go from really liking SUP to loving SUP).

If you’ve never done SUP you shouldn’t worry, I was the only one in our group of first time SUP-ers that fell off. And I was totally cool with falling off, the water was the perfect temperature and it was fun to swim. The only major fail on my part was when I managed to fall off in shallow water and ram my leg into a concrete block. I’m rocking some pretty sweet bandages, but I had an absolute blast.

I’m in love with this picture. We really got to explore Omaha in a whole new way and take in all the beautiful nature. We paddled by birds, deer, and beaver! I’m trying to talk all my friends into taking classes with us. We’ve caught the SUP bug big time.

And that was a weekend in Omaha Josh and Erin style.

Questions of the Day: Have you done SUP? What was the highlight of your weekend?