I was recently invited to AILLEA, a new boutique that provides 100 percent safe, non-toxic beauty products so I decided to make an afternoon of it. It was a week before Hadley’s birthday and I asked her if she wanted to have a mom-daughter makeover. As a girl on the cusp of wearing make-up–and in dire need of some skincare advice–she was thrilled. How often do we have a day of pampering?
I was expecting to have a mini-makeover and be done with it but the owner Kathryn opened my eyes to just how harmful and full of parabens, sulfates, petrochemicals, endocrine disruptors and other toxic chemicals our make-up and lotions truly are. Talk about a wake-up call!!
AILLEA is located the hippest part of downtown, Larimer Square, and when we walked out of the store that Friday afternoon, we noticed Lincoln had setup a booth.
“Would you like to test-drive the new Lincoln MKZ?”
“What’s the catch?”
“No catch. We want people to experience our new luxury model, fill out a brief survey and we’ll give you a $25 VISA gift card.”
Post-makeover test drive. Notice our glowing skin?
Since we were “yes” girls, we hopped in that Lincoln faster that you can say “Matthew McConaughey” (who drives them in the commercials). It was a simple spin around the block and $25 later, we wondered what we should do with the money. Hadley has never been to the Cheesecake Factory so we blew our spoils there with a ginormous piece of Dulce de Leche Cheesecake and paid it forward with a huge tip for our awesome waitress. Best. Girls. Day. Ever.
Our spoils from Aillea
And it was only just beginning! It was our stake’s annual father-son camp-out for the Aaronic Priesthood Commemoration so Bode and Jamie were heading to the mountains with their buddies. Hadley and I started Girls Day Part II by hiking Matthews Winters with my besties Lisa, Jenn and their daughters.
I had to include that last unflattering shot of Jenn and me because we share the same disturbing expression.
We grabbed dinner at Freddy’s Frozen Custard & Steakburgers and somehow the talk turned to scary movies. Hadley has never seen one and has been moderately obsessed with “Watcher in the Woods,” a movie that haunted me for years as a kid but is a good “first scary movie” for kids. We decided it was time. Jenn and Sadie (our neighbors) changed into their PJs and met us in our dark basement for Girls Night Part III.
Were they scared? A bit. But Hadley mostly made fun of me for being freaked out by it.
I see Poltergeist in her future. Then again, I’m not watching that again.
I'm a Canadian-born mom of two, former Denver Post columnist, family travel writer, editor of MileHighMamas.com and 9News contributor. Expert on all things Utah, Denver, family and travel. Lover of laughter and life. Happily married to a man obsessed with growing The Great Pumpkin. 