Blend Retreat Recap

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Hi Friends!

As promised, I’m back to share a recap of my weekend in Park City, Utah at Blend Retreat! Just like last year, it was spectacular. Lindsay, Katie & Janetha are planning experts and do a great job putting together a weekend that has a little something for everyone! I had such a great time meeting so many of the amazing ladies I interact with on a daily basis.

If you follow me on social media, I’m sure you were flooded with Blend pictures this weekend, so I apologize for that…but I was doing my best to capture all the happy memories!

I left early Friday morning and arrived in Salt Lake City around 11:30. I met up with Amanda and Lisa and we picked up our rental car and headed to Park City, which is about a 40 minute drive from the airport.

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After stopping for a lunch at Whole Foods, we headed to the hotel to check-in and pick up our swag bags before snack time! There were tons of great sponsors for the weekend and they were all extremely generous. Here’s a peek at just some of the swag! I didn’t bring everything home because some of it was protein powders/bars/other products I don’t use so I let my roomies take their pick of the things I didn’t want.

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I stayed in a GIGANTIC suite with 4 bedrooms and a pullout couch. All of my roommates were fabulous and the rooms were incredible. My actual bedroom roomie was Heather, who I didn’t know before this weekend, and she was awesome! Go check out her blog- Girly Ever After. Totally adorable!

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After dropping off her stuff, we headed downstairs for a meet-and-greet snack break sponsored by Justin’s Nut Butter & Attune foods. It was great to chat and catch up with people as they arrived!

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{with Annette & Paige– my fellow tall ladies!}

A couple hours later, we headed upstairs to get ready for dinner. Lisa is an AMAZING hairdresser and she made my hair look pretty for me both nights. I loved it! We had a cocktail hour sponsored by Silk that included some fun cocktails and delicious appetizers…and then we headed to the ballroom for a buffet-style dinner.

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1. Amanda, me and Lisa
2. With Lori, Paige, Michelle
3. Reunited with Brittany
4. Love her

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{One of my all-time favorites- Lindsay}

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{Photobooth fun}

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{with Laura, Christine & Lisa}

Since a lot of us were coming from the east coast, by the time dinner was over around 10 (midnight our time) we were pretty beat and headed to bed.

Saturday morning we were up early for a 7am bootcamp class with the awesome trainers from GPP Fitness. Janetha works out at GPP and they were nice enough to come in and put us through some awesome morning workouts. The weather didn’t exactly cooperate and it was a bit cold and rainy so we did the whole bootcamp inside…but let me tell you, I worked up a SWEAT! GPP is similar to crossfit so I absolutely loved it!

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After bootcamp, we headed to breakfast, sponsored by Muesli Fusion and The Laughing Cow, where we ate some great food- lots of fresh fruit, bagels with cream cheese and a muesli bar. (All the food pics are coming in my Weekly Eats post!)

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{Waiting for breakfast with Lauren, Sonia, Alex, Lauren, Mollie & Julie}

Next up, a hike! It was still a bit rainy but a large group of us decided to hike anyways. I mean, we were in Utah after all! Others opted to stay inside and do zumba or yoga. The hike was awesome. It was about 4.5 miles total and the sun even came out by the end of it! The trail itself wasn’t muddy but the road leading to the trail was a slippery, muddy mess!

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So muddy.
With another awesome Lindsey at the top!

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{The whole hiking group}

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{Take me back}

After the hike we showered and headed back to whole foods for another lunch. My sandwich was so good on Friday that I repeated it on Saturday 🙂 After a brief stop at the outlet mall, we headed back to the hotel for another snack break and got to meet Janetha’s dogs. Randy is my favorite. So loveable and droopy!

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{With Debra & Lisa!}

With an hour or so to kill before dinner, I took a little walk to enjoy the sunshine and snap a few more photos.

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Then, a group of 20 or so of us headed to a Mexican restaurant that was within walking distance from the hotel. Our waiter left something to be desired, but it was great company and to food was delicious.

After dinner we headed back to the hotel where we changed into pj’s and headed to one of the other suites. Janetha’s mom made these INCREDIBLE Utah scones, with honey butter and homemade strawberry jam. They were a big hit! We enjoyed a couple more hours of chatting and then headed to bed.

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{Momma B in action. She was awesome!}

Sunday morning we were up early again for another 7am bootcamp. This one was a little less crowded than the day before 🙂 It was another great workout- we even did cartwheels!

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{Rocking our Living Proof Fit Gear tanks}

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1. with Christine & Lindsay
2. with Bonnie & Lindsay
3. Lindsay squared
4. with Bobbi

We had about 30 minutes until breakfast, which of course meant time for more pics!

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{with Krista and Meighan}

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More Lindsay love! with Itz Linz
With Miranda- the creator of our tank tops. She is AMAZING. So fun to meet her in person.

Then we headed to breakfast, sponsored by Chobani, which was awesome.There was a made-to-order omlette bar, an oatmeal/parfait bar, smoothies and chobani pancakes. I ate SO MANY PANCAKES! I also had a chance to meet the sweet ladies that work for Chobani who I’ve gotten to know through social media. It’s always fun to put faces with names.

We had about an hour to pack all our stuff up and then it was time for the closing ceremony and raffle! The closing ceremony was sponsored by MY sponsor, Blue Diamond Almonds, and I gave a little speech about how awesome they are and everyone got to take home lots of samples of their new flavored almonds- Strawberry, raspberry, blueberry and toasted coconut!

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{thanks Bobbi for the speech pic!}

There were some great prizes in the raffle. I gave mine away because I wasn’t in the mood to pack anything else! We had to head out before the group picture, sadly, but we had an easy drive back to the airport and arrived in plenty of time for our flights!

All in all, it was an amazing weekend. It was so much fun to meet some new bloggers and connect further with ones I already knew! I’m already excited for next year! If you were thinking about coming this year and didn’t, hopefully seeing this and all the other recaps have convinced you it’s worth it. Because it is. It’s an incredible, one-of-a-kind opportunity to get together with other bloggers & readers and just enjoy life! There are no sessions to go to, no notes to take, just lots and lots of time to deepen relationships and form new ones.

Huge thank you to Blue Diamond for making it possible for me to attend this year and to Lindsay, Katie & Janetha for making it happen!

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

My trip was sponsored by Blue Diamond Almonds.

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Comments

  2. I’m definitely one of the people who thought about going this year but didn’t… and then ended up regretting it 😕 Next year for sure, though! It really does sound like it was an incredible weekend. Thanks for the recap, Lindsay.

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  3. I love reading about the Blend Retreat, and I was glad that you posted so many pics! I saw those Blue Diamond fruit-flavored almonds in another post, and they look really good. I haven’t seen any in the stores, but I hope to try some soon!! Looking forward to your weekly eats post… the food sounds yummy!

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  4. Loved this!! You really did a great job recapping all the fun and excitement of the weekend…or well, as much as you can for anyone who wasn’t there! I swear, it’s so hard to really EXPLAIN the Blend experience…like you said, it’s a one-of-a-kind-opportunity for sure! The workouts were amazing…the food was incredible…but the fellowship was more than words can express! I’m so glad I got to see you again…even if only for a few short bits! Is it just me or did those 2 days fly by in what felt like hours?! Ahhh, I wanna go back!

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  7. yay cartwheels during workouts!! awesome recap, as always – so glad i got to meet you and hangout for a bit!! you’re just as fun in person as you are on your blog!! 😛

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  9. It’s best I wasn’t able to make it this year since we had so much going on…but MAN! I was hardcore missing all of you all weekend. I wanted to be there so bad. Looks like so much fun. And super jealous you got to meet Momma B!

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  12. I”m smiling throughout this recap! Loved it! So sad i couldnt stay for the blue diamond ceremony. And yes, take me back. I need more hiking and lindsay squared time!

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  16. Love it! I was looking for that picture of you, me and Lisa- I didn’t get any with just you and I. 🙁 I’ll have to add it into tomorrow’s food centric post! SO great to meet you, Lindsay!!

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  24. Looks like so much fun! I would love to go to one of those retreats! We will see about next year….I love that its focus is on health and wellness. 🙂

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  25. It was a beyond incredible weekend! Thanks for the almonds. I ate a ridiculous amount of them at the airport/during the flight. I won’t even tell you how many. (Ahem three packages ahem.) So good!

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  28. I love everything about this. I’m really glad I was so busy moving this weekend that I couldn’t sulk in my inability to attend this year. (Grownupproblems) BUT next year we will all be together because there is NO WAY I’m missing out on such a great event again. <3

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  30. I’m sad I had to miss the Blue Diamond stuff & speech, but the whole weekened was so amazing!!

    SO glad I got to meet ya! You’re a gem <3

    ps.. love that were all tall together. hilare, right? haha

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  36. This looks like so much fun!
    My husband’s family lives in Utah, so this would be a perfect excuse to make a trip out there, next year.
    I really want to get a to conference/convention, centered around health and fitness.
    Thanks for sharing the fun photos!

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  38. Haha.. our waiter.. ugh. Fail. Yay, Randy! What a wonderful recap! Thank you for coming and being such a big part of the weekend! You are the best. xoxo

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  40. The Blend Retreat sounds like so much fun (and this is the first recap I’ve read!). I would love to make it next year.

    Utah is so beautiful. I’ve never been to Park City, but the hike and trails in the whole state are amazing!

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  42. Oh man, GPP was no joke! I’m still sore!
    I wish I would have joined the hike, your pictures are gorgeous… I opted for the yoga which I thoroughly enjoyed. I’m still giggling over our poor waiter. That was certainly an interesting dinner!
    I agree, every single moment was worth it. Building friendships and deepening connections was an incredible experience. There’s nothing like the Blend experience! So wonderful to meet you, hopefully we can spend more time next year 🙂

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  46. It looks like you had an amazing weekend! It’d be a fun event to attend. Thanks for sharing your experience attending it. =)

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  48. I am super jealous. That looks like soo much fun! Was the restaurant you went to the Blue Iguana? Might sound creepy, but I was there with a large group and saw a big group of ladies come in, so I was just curious 🙂 Glad you liked it there! Park City is beautiful.

    [WORDPRESS HASHCASH] The poster sent us ‘0 which is not a hashcash value.

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  50. and such beautiful tall ladies you all are too 🙂
    girl we were so happy to finally meet you and hang out! you’re the best and we can’t wait till we can hang out again!! HUGS

    Reply

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