Alright. Let’s talk about one of the most awesome afternoons EVER right now.
On Friday, after arriving at the airport and meeting up with this gal, the two of us found a few other of our Blend Retreat friends and were quickly greeted with a snazzy pick up service, in the form of the Love Bus!
A few of us Love Bloggers had been in contact with the wonderful Maddy for a few weeks leading up to the event, and she most graciously offered to not only be our “chauffeur” for the afternoon, but also to bring us to visit the “Love Pad.”
This girl has more energy than I will ever have in my entire life. She is seriously just amazing, and the passion she has for her product only makes me “love the Love” that much more.
So our crew boarded the bus and began our trek from Denver to Boulder…but, of course, with a couple fun pit stops on the way.
First up: The Love Pad!
Maddy brought us to the place where all the “love” happens, and it was honestly just so cool to be able to see all the “behind the scenes” things that we don’t typically get to see as consumers.
One of my favorite parts? The fact that the main focal point in their office was this awesome ping-pong table, which they actually made themselves using empty granola bags. Umm, I want a ping pong table in my home office…
Maddy also showed us the evolution of the Love Grown Foods bags; at first, they started out buying bags in bulk and would manually place the stickers on each and every bag. Now, they have their bags specially designed. So cool.
We also got to see their production room, which I’m sure you’re wondering why the heck it looks so empty? Well, the company has been doing SO well, that they are actually in the process of moving to a larger facility that will be producing their granola in much larger quantities. I’ll talk more about that in a few…
The Love Bloggers! Alex, Sarah, Me, Alyssa, Bobbi, Lindsay, Brittany, and Maddy.
Before leaving from the Love Pad, Maddy was so kind to give us all an amazing goody box filled with things from some of their favorite Colorado-based companies. Again, these folks are just incredible.
They made Alyssa and I quite happy. 
We boarded the bus again, goody boxes and all (plus a creeper shot of me in the mirror there) and headed to our next destination.
Our next stop before heading to the Retreat brought us to the new facility where Love Grown Foods will be processed, Fresca Foods.
While we weren’t able to bring cameras into the facility, we had the opportunity to get a tour of the whole facility which was just awesome. Have you ever watched “Unwrapped” on the Food Network? Yeah, it was just like that…
We got to see where and how the products are tested, which was so neat, but we also got to see the production of a few different companies, including Larabar and Justin’s Nut Butter. We had the opportunity to try a Larabar fresh off the line (it was so soft and gooey, just like eating a ball of nut butter, honestly) AND we even got to meet Justin himself!
He happened to be at the facility that day, checking out a new piece of equipment they were bringing in to speed up the production of his nut butters. He was such a cool, down to earth guy, and it honestly took all of me to not be screaming “oh my god, I love your nut butter.”
Would that have been weird? Maybe…ahh well.
So after our tour of Fresca Foods, we were off to our final destination for the weekend…
Chautauqua Park!
More info to come! 
Hahah I wish you would have screamed that you loved his nut butter! I am SO jealous of your entire weekend. But wow, touring Love Grown sounds like it was amazing! I’m out of my stock of their granola, I need to make an order asap. Hope you have a great Monday pretty lady <3
Looks like you had a great trip! Can’t wait to hear more and see more picks. It’s amazing the blogging community in America, wish it was like that in Ireland!
The tour of Love Grown sounds like such an amazing experience! :) I love their granola. That is awesome that you met Justin too! What an exciting day!
Wow, sounds like everything was off to a great start! Can’t wait to hear how the rest of the weekend went!
how FUN! what a great experience for you gals! :) can’t wait to hear more about blend!
gahhh that is so cool I’m beyond jealous!!
How awesome!!! Looks liek so much fun! :)
Ah that sounds so fun! Must be nice to be spoiled like that :)
What a great company! In love that ping pong table! Can you believe I have still never tried Love Grown foods though? This needs to change!
Ahhh amazing! So cool of Love Grown to share with you all. Thanks for filling us in on the tour; looks like such a fun day!!! Love the LOVE Bus :) Can’t wait to hear about BLEND!!!
What an experience! So unique. :) I’m glad you ladies had fun.
Ahh..that looks like such a fun weekend!
Those tours sound so cool! I’m a total nerd for how it’s made so that would’ve been right up my alley. Can’t wait to hear more about Blend!
OMG what a day! I am so jealous! I actually gave one of my good friends a bag of the Simply Naked Love Grown Foods granola last night, he can’t WAIT to dig in. Maddy seems sweet and I’m jealous you got to hang with all those awesome bloggers. I wish I could be at Blend Retreat, have fun! And OH YEAH meeting Justin must have rocked!
Wow, what a great day! I need to try the Love soon!
looks like a really fun trip! lots of goodies too :)
Wow! Sounds like a super cool experience. I can’t wait to hear more!
Well that looks LOVE-ly!! Now I want granola.
I don’t have a blog of my own but I love yours and I am a bit of a blog stalker! I just saw this – http://www.fitnessmagazine.com/blog-awards/fitness_blog – and wanted to make sure you had seen it too!!! Congrats!!
This looks so fun Courtney!!!!!!
Wish I could a been there with y’all! Looks awesome!
SO jealous of your weekend!! Looked like an amazing/fun time! :)
This looks so Amazing! I wish I would have went! And yes telling a man you love his nut butter would be hilarious but really weird :)
Omg how cool!! I love touring places and that seemed like so much fun!! I hope you had a blast at Blend!
That sounds like such an amazing visit! I need to try Love Grown ASAP! Whats the best/easiest way to order it??
I want to be a Love Grown blogger. :( One day!!!
COURT!!! I LOVE LOVE LOVE THIS!!! So freakin’ COOL!!! I can’t get over HOW AWESOME YOU ALL ARE!…I mean…I knew you were all AWESOME but you truly ROCK MY SOCKS OFF!!! Loved our LOVE Fest! Come back again soon!!
xo
Maddy
Looks like you are having a fab time!!! I LOVE the “love” buses and cars!! It looks like such a fun place to work!!
HOW exciting! :)
The LOVE bus is super cool! :)
After seeing all the pics I’m even more bummed my flight didn’t get in until later. That looks SO fun!
That’s awesome you were able to meet Justin and taste fresh Larabar. I love the Love bus. So cute.
Courtney it was great meeting all of you and hanging out at Avery’s. I can’t wait for 2013 Blend already!
Wow, what a great day! I’m loving all these Blend Retreat updates! Sadly I’m not able to get Love Grown here but I love Alex & Maddy’s story & think touring with them would be so much fun. Can’t wait to hear more about the retreat!
It’s looks awesome I want to try it. Great startup and The tour of Love Grown such an amazing experience to anyone.