Bendy and Stretchy

There’s a post down there. This photo just has a lot of white at the top.

For my 51st birthday, Toyota sent me and three other bloggers to Colorado for the Wanderlust Festival.

That’s TerraBear, me, Wanderlust founder Jeff, Chelsey the PaperMama, and Kate of The Guavalicious Life. Photo courtesy of The Paper Mama, used with permission.

Well, maybe it wasn’t exactly FOR my birthday, as Toyota was a major sponsor had a big tent and blah blah blah, whatever, but I was going to be there ON my birthday, so for me, it was all about me. As usual.

I’m not technically a yoga person. As in, I do not actually do yoga. When I found out I had this opportunity, I thought it was some kind of food, music, yoga and lifestyle festival, so I said “Hell yeah.”

When I started looking at the schedule about 2 weeks before the festival, I realized it was about 75 percent yoga, 15 percent music, and 15 percent everything else. D’oh.

I fully intended to go to a yoga class at home every day to get ready, and I even downloaded a couple yoga apps to my Kindle Fire. What ended up happening was that I did about 20 minutes of yoga at home and two whole relaxation yoga classes in this cool funky underground yoga school – classes that did not actually involve standing at any point.

When I first got my hands on the schedule, I signed up for a bunch of crazy tough classes – yoga on a slackline (kind of a loosey-goosey tightrope), hip openers, early morning yoga, stuff like that – but as time went by, I kept paring my schedule down more and more and ended up with 2 dance classes, a bunch of lectures, and one yoga class up on the mountain at 11,200 feet elevation.

As usual, Toyota treated us well. This was the view out my condo window:

They also had the coolest booth at the festival, and it was a festival with some darn good booths. You could get “attuned,” for instance. Try finding THAT at your local Home and Garden Fair.

The Toyota booth was full of fun activities, with a silkscreener making two-color tote bags while you watched:

You could also make your own natural yoga mat cleaner, get your hair braided, or make some Pinterest-style crafts like photo magnets or decorated inspiration boards. The crafts area was busy all day:

With an eye toward their usual philanthropy, Toyota had a place to write your good intention on a board, snap a photo, and social media it out to the world. For every retweet, like or repin, they donated $2, up to $5000, to a local support organization for kids with chronic illness, There with Care.

Here’s my good intention:

I raised a few bucks, but Chelsey of The PaperMama really brought it home over 350 likes on her Instagram pic. She wins at the internet.

They also had the Tranquil Tea Space, which became really popular when it started raining cats and dogs outside. Suddenly a cup of tea became just the thing. Also? Staying dry under a tent became much more of an exciting option. It rains HARD up there in the mountains.

And if you think those logs look uncomfortable to sit on, wait until you have sat in half-lotus on a conference room floor for a 90 minute meditation class. Suddenly they look downright cushy.

My favorite part of the Toyota tent was the Camry photo booth – yes, inside a Camry, which led to this nuttiness:

Left to right: Chelsey, Kate, me and Terra

Wow, this is getting kinda long, so I’ll save the rest for another post. I just have to say thanks to Toyota and Clever Girls Collective for sending me. It was…wait for it…a real Rocky Mountain High.

Disclosure: I am a member of the Toyota Women Influencers Network TWIN community through a program with Clever Girls Collective. I did not receive any compensation for writing this post or payment in exchange for participating. The opinions expressed herein are mine, and do not reflect the views of Toyota or any of its brands.