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Thank you to Late July for sponsoring today's video
and helping us craft a very memorable summer day.
Anytime I'm sponsored by tortilla chips,
you know, it's going to be a good video.
So stay tuned for more on that.
Also before we dive in be sure you're following me on Instagram
@luciebfink for more regular daily updates.
So with regards to summer 2020,
I am pretty sure that this time period has felt very different for everybody.
Summer time for me is generally about getting outside,
and going to do public activities,
gathering with friends and family.
But of course, given what has been going on in the world.
If someone wanted to have an enjoyable and relaxing summer this year,
you kind of have to take matters into your own hands,
get crafty and create the fun yourself.
As you might know Michael and I got married last year,
so September marks our one-year wedding anniversary.
And we've been with family over the past four months,
which means we've actually had
very little time spent just the two of us.
So a couple of weeks back in Late July.
No pun intended, Late July reached out to me
and wanted to help me and Michael
craft a memorable summer moment.
So we plan a private picnic date on the beach
where Michael proposed to me a few years back.
The Late July organic restaurant style tortilla chips
are our family's favorite,
they're gluten-free and you might know
that Michael has a gluten allergy, so they're perfect for him.
They're also USDA certified organic
made with real ingredients and they're crunchy and so good.
In our house, we actually just call them the good chips
and their sea salt and lime flavor is currently our favorite.
So we decided to play off of the sea salt and lime theme
and craft our entire picnic spread around it.
For a perfect pairing with a Late July chips,
I made a mango salsa.
This called for one fresh mango, sliced up and cut into all pieces.
I tried to get the juiciest freshest mango that I could
so that it was really sweet and really soft.
Half of a red bell pepper,
a 1/4 of a red onion,
1/2 of a jalapeno pepper,
fresh lime juice,
cilantro and sea salt.
We also packed up an entire charcuterie board spread
which included freshly cut strawberries,
beautiful summer peaches,
and also pre-prepared cheeses, meats and some other fruits.
All of which we packed up in our picnic bag and in a basket,
we knew that all of this would be perfect for pairing
with the crunch of the chips
and then I made us drink inspired by the lime flavor.
So I'm mixed a whole lot of ice with water
and organic lime juice and I put it all in a blender.
And I basically made homemade no sugar added lime slushies.
I scooped them in some water bottles
that keep drinks cold for 12 hours.
It was kind of tricky because some of the slushy was frozen
like a snow cone and some of it was liquid,
so I had to scoop it out with a spoon
and it was definitely a bit of a mess,
but we got through it.
Before we left for the picnic,
we went to pick some fresh flowers together.
And then we got the car and drove to the beach.
Like when I've been together for over 10 years.
We met back in high school
when he was 16 years old and I was 15 years old
and we started dating a couple of years later
and we've been through a lot together.
Five years a long distance relationship,
various health scare,
graduation,
new births in our family,
deaths in our families,
and we've been by each other side through it all.
Sometimes it's easy in a long-term relationship to
just float through each day without looking back
on all that you're grateful for
but I find that I've always trying to remind myself to be present
and to soak up these moments as they pass us by,
especially recently, I felt like my life is flying by,
so I really try to take a pause, take a step back, and take it all in.
Once we got to the beach, we set up our picnic blanket
and we started arranging our picnic spread.
It was a very windy day
and we had quite an exciting time trying to get the blanket
to stay down on the sand.
We started unpacking everything from our picnic bags.
So here's what we displayed on our charcuterie spread.
We put out the mango salsa,
then we added dried apricots,
the peaches that I had sliced up and then green grapes and strawberries.
And then we unwrapped the meats and cheeses,
added some olives and arrange them on another board.
We had cheddar, brie,
and also some small mozzarella pearls,
and yes, there was lots of sand flying onto the cheese,
so it was crunchy cheese.
And then we broke into the chips,
cracked open our line slushies
and just enjoyed each other's company
in the fading sunlight of the day.
The air was thick with the smell of sea salt
and it was just a perfect summer afternoon.
It really is moments like these
when you take a look around and you remember
what's important in life.
Our relationships,
the beautiful planet we live on
and our health and happiness.
Thank you so much to Late July
for giving us the chance to enjoy this moment together
and for reminding us that the best things in life
are sometimes just the simplest things.
As we approach our one-year wedding anniversary
and as life continues to be chaotic,
complicated and unpredictable,
I really hope that we can continue to find the time for moments like these.
I hope everyone out there watching this video,
take this as a reminder that sometimes
we have to craft our own magical moment.
Life doesn't always go the way we planned
but we are always in control of ourselves,
how we respond to the uncertainty,
how well we communicate with our loved ones,
and ultimately how we move forward together.
Thanks again for coming back to my YouTube channel.
And please let me know down in the comments section
what you've been up to this summer.