Labor Day Weekend

Today is my 23rd birthday! crazy right? when did we start heading into the mid 20s?! growing up the age 23 was always the age i had in my head that was the age you should semi have shit figured out... little did i know you never actually figure anything out. i can say though i am extremely happy with how my 23 years have turned out...
-i'm married to my very best friend
-i have the most adorable 4 month old son who has loved playing in the pool and sharing peaches with mama
-i have a very crazy puppy who is slowly settling down finally
-our families are so wonderful and supportive with all the constant last minute changes
-our friends (new&old) are so great at making time for us on our short visits home

yes i'd say my life is exactly where i would want... of course the a house without wheels would be a little better but we're doing things most people would never have the opportunity to do! and now that we're only a short 5 hour drive from home it takes a lot of pressure of planning trips off me. it was so easy to have both of our parents load up their campers and come visit!

mike's parents, brother, and grandparents got into bozeman friday afternoon and my parents got into town sunday morning. it was a really relaxing weekend visiting, eating too much, drinking too much and of course watching wesson get passed around :)

we're moving again this weekend to a more permanent spot 10 miles up the road. i'm so excited to not think about moving for a few weeks.... its been really exhausting on all of us! thank you all for the birthday love :) i'm celebrating by swimming with my little buddy later and frozen yogurt and a redbox (my choice!!) tonight once mike gets home!

hope everyone had a fun/relaxing long weekend... here's our pictures from our fun weekend :)

 mike was SO proud of his cooler corn... which he found on pintrest ;)

 

 making huckleberry icecream!

 

from the mile high to the big sky

we made it! i'm sitting here at the lincoln rv park in helena montana. whoop! as i'm sitting here i'm amazed i'm sitll functioning, it was a rough trip!

mike didn't get home until way late on friday and it was close to 9 o'clock before we were able to finally get on the road. wesson had been sleeping in his crib since 7 so i figured it'd be an easy transition to get him into the car seat. wrong. i think the 16 hour drive mom and i made ruined him because he screamed the entire four hours we managed to make it. we stayed the night at our old stomping grounds, Casper Wy.

we got up fairly early and hit the road for another 2 hours of screaming. i couldn't take it anymore and pawned him off on mike. remmi also didn't want to ride with me so for the next 4 hours from billings to helena was like a mini vacation for me! probably the only time you'll hear me say i am actually thankful for riding separately! i stopped and picked up a coffee, put in my eric church cd and truely enjoyed my mommy time... except the texts i was getting every half hour..."i can't stand it anymore" "i'm going to give him to the next gas station attendant" "where are you?!" haha well babes i don't text and drive ;)

we finally pulled into helena around 4 saturday evening, put wes in his crib, remmi on his long line, and got out two much needed beers and went to work setting up. this park is the nicest we've ever lived in. we have GRASS people! it also came with a sturdy picnic table, we usually have to go steal one from another site lol hey gotta make it homey right?!

mike is only working 4 10's this week which will be so nice! i can't wait to explore our new place together. even though we've been here so many weekends for class we never got to enjoy helena together. he's never even been to readers alley! so friday will be our day to do the most touristy things...

 my view for some of the time... so pretty ;)

my view out of the trailer... beautiful!

hope everyone had a great weekend! :) oh another perk i'm loving so far... there is a nicely paved running path right outside our trailer park! score! plus running this morning was so enjoyable without feeling the elevation pressure! wahoo!! i may make it to this 5k after all!

Rockies Baseball & Montana

needless to say this week was been a little wild... it may only be wednesday but monday and tuesday kept us on our toes! as i mentioned last week we were getting transferred... what i didn't mention was it was probably going to be in september. instead monday turned into we're moving. we're moving friday. we're moving to MONTANA!!! yippeee! in case you don't remember a year and a half ago when i first agreed to go on the road i was planning on moving to the Helena area. next it got all twisted and i ended up in wyoming. very different places. at the time i was devastated but everything works out for a reason and i truly believe wyoming saved our marriage. i know it sounds crazy as i type it.

our plan now: mike has to be in helena monday morning... we're planning on leaving friday night once mike gets off. we're hoping to be on the road by 9pm. our boys do better in the rigs at night so hopefully we can make it in a straight stretch. to helena its about a 10ish hour drive... 9 hours for me 11 hours for mike hauling our house. good thing about dragging our house around is we can stop wherever and get a few hours of sleep. they told mike we might make you work the week out in helena and than move you to bozeman or after monday we might just send you straight to bozeman.... okay thanks. awh the life of a tramp lineman. either way we're ecstatic! we're a little over 5 hours from home. 2 hours away from my family. perfect. it would be ideal if we stayed in montana until mike could test out, that way i could drive back and forth and oh i dunno...buy our first house!! :) woohoo. but we have faith and trust that everything happens for a reason. we have each other and our boys... we're pretty happy where ever, just extra happy in idaho's neighbor state.

the only downfall to moving this quickly is i am no longer able to make it to vegas to help celebrate my best friends marriage :( i am so bummed but will be thinking of them lots and lots. positive though we'll be close enough to come home for their wedding reception party whenever they decide! we love you guys so much and wish we could be there!!

yesterday was our second anniversary. i can honestly say our 2nd was WAY better than our first. whoever said the first year was still in the honeymoon stage must have been drunk the first year... after visiting with a few other wives we all agree, year 1 is the "lets argue about everything while we attempt to figure out this marriage business"... yeah that's about right.

we went to the Colorado Rockies baseball game last night and it was so fun! mike bought great seats... we were in row 6 right behind 1st base. unfortunately we only got to enjoy those seats for the first 2 innings. the game didn't start until almost 7 (which is wesson's bedtime) so we knew we'd be pushing him a little bit and were prepared for him to be fussy.... but we weren't prepared for him to be screaming. so we camped out in row 26 away from the crowd. it was a fun experience though... another event to cross off our colorado list!

the traditional gift for the second anniversary is cotton... notice mike's new lineman hat (35% cotton) and my sweet rockies tee (65% cotton) 3rd anniversay is leather... hahaha wonder what we'll come up with. any ideas 50 shades of grey fans?! ;)

here's our pictures from last night... stay tuned to see if we actually make it to montana.... thank you again for all of your support and happy anniversaries!! :) we love you and appreciate your prayers on our journey!

happy august!

whoa i just looked at the date and was a little shocked its already august 11th!

i thought july was a busy month for us but looks like august is already shaping up to be pretty eventful.... my two weeks home was filled with highs and lows. i did go out with some friends and proved to be that annoying mom who whips out her phone to show off her baby boy, oh well. my time spent in cda showed me that i don't really belong there anymore well at least not without my other half. it was really difficult doing the things that mike and i love without mike.

the family reunion was also filled with highs and lows. tent camping with a 3 month old was interesting. luckily wes was just born to camp so he was perfect the whole time plus i was set up right next to mom and dad in their trailer... thanks again Dad for hauling all that water so your grandson could bath twice a day!! our week was filled with LOTS of family, 4 wheeling, hiking and river time. it was fun but way different from my drunken, relaxed lake trip last year. i was the over paranoid mom when it came to night time though... yes i did wake my mom up one night because of the coyotes. quick disclaimer: i've been camping my entire life. i love the sound of coyotes. i however do NOT love the sound of coyotes while in a tent with my baby after hearing horrible stories from DAN and CONNIE about dingos eating babies. yes i am a 22 year old wimp who made her mom sleep with her...

now that we're back home in brighton, things were finally getting settled in until last wednesday. Mike's GF got the call that mike is getting transferred... here's the facts as of right now:

-we're getting moved
-we will be moving to either somewhere else in colorado, wyoming, montana, or utah
-we should know when and where sometime monday
-yes i'm freaking out.

i'm freaking out for a few reasons....
 1) i'm leaving august 31st on a little plane from denver to las vegas (brandy & mike are finally getting hitched!!!) my little aircraft only flies out of denver and is non refundable. go figure. i can't do anything about it right now because we have no idea where i'll be. stay tuned for more on that.
2) i'm so excited to move! brighton has proved to be less than great. our park is pretty trashy and i'm ready for a change of scenery.
3) wesson has his 4 month check up in 3 weeks. so i'll have to quickly settle in and search out a good ped asap.

i'll be much more relaxed after monday when hopefully we'll know some answers but until than i'm trying to get out home travel ready! and i'll be very relaxed come tuesday-- our TWO year anniversary!! mike is planning on getting off work a little early and we'll be spending the evening at the Rockies baseball stadium enjoying America's favorite pass time :) i'm so excited!! pictures to come!

baby weight journey

after being under my original goal weight i decided i better document all this so when we decide to try to baby mcbride #2 i'm ready! thinking back on the whole experience: the months before i got pregnant, the 40 weeks & 4 days pregnant and now the 11 weeks post pregnancy i am really proud of myself. i wanted to have a healthy pregnancy and be a healthy, fit mama and i conquered it!

Pre-Pregnancy:
when we first moved to Wyoming i was probably the most unhappy with my body I'd been in awhile. of course i believe that goes hand in hand with not being happy with myself as well. so i set out to start running. of course we had just gotten Rem so he needed to be walked daily... so why not try running?! i started running and loved it. i honestly don't even know how long i was running for though i wish i would have calculated it but i was gone for about 45 minutes total (walking included.)
i also decided to pick up yoga again. best decision i could have made. i had always loved yoga but didn't have time to fully practice it.

although i was exercising daily the weight just wasn't coming off. i think i lost maybe 5 lbs but i was happy with my results and myself. i was starting to cook more but we were taking full advantage of being 21 and carefree (lots of beer & pizza!!)

Feb. 2011 (before moving to wy)

Pregnancy:
to say i was sick during my pregnancy would be an understatement. i threw up my entire pregnancy! maybe 3 week in December i got a break... it was slightly horrible. having all day sickness kind of put my running to a hault. my original plan was to continue jogging until it got too uncomfortable. i'm jealous of those woman who run their whole pregnancies. i couldn't... between my boobs aching and throwing up the whole way i switched to multiple short walks a day.

i stayed with yoga my entire pregnancy. once again probably the best thing i could have done for myself and my little baby. it was relaxing and challenging. instantly it got harder... trying to stay flexible while pregnant is kind of a joke. i'm still trying to touch my toes! i did vinyassa yoga and restorative yoga until i was about 28 weeks than i switched to prenatal yoga. i'm glad i stuck it out the whole way through... it helped me so much with breathing and we all know if you're going natural breathing is all ya got to hold onto!! ouch!

i ate relatively healthy the whole time. i didn't have any strange cravings like some woman, all i craved was fresh fruit. now living in Wyoming searching for fresh fruit, yah damn near impossible! at least when we got back to Idaho i filled my cravings with jamba juice. yum!

38 weeks

Post-Pregnancy:
by the time i was ready to deliver wesson i weighed 170, the heaviest i had ever been. i was so ready to strap my boy in the stroller and get to walking the weight off asap! i had wesson at 40 weeks and 4 days; april 26th. after giving my body, oh a week to recover i decided to start walking. my favorite baby shower present was my Jeep Stroller and man is that thing getting miles put on! i also bought Jillian Michaels 30 day shred. best. video. ever.

"dealing" with my newborn was so simple. yes we got up in the middle of the night but once 5 am rolled around i was ready to go. i'm not a napper and somehow i survived on my few hours of sleep (thinking about it now, yah not sure how i did that) after his morning bath and feed i'd put him down on the couch and pop the DVD in. 25 minutes is nothing to get a good work out in. i tried to get walks in daily but in the beginning that was pretty difficult with the puppy and wesson, who really just wanted to stretch out and sleep.

we moved to colorado when wesson was 4 weeks old. that week i decided it was time to get serious. at this point my sweet baby boy was sleeping through the night 8pm to 6am, yah im spoiled! i was 155 at this point... i was doing my DVD every morning and walking in the afternoons but i just felt like i needed more. so i added in my runs with just Remmi before Mike left for work and Wesson was up. my day now starts at 4:30am (ouch!) i have to get up pump for a half hour than i'm ready to run. i walked first and mapped out my distance that i wanted to achieve. my goal is to get around 3 miles in... right now i can run a little over a mile. i know if doesn't sound like much, but it still amazes me how my body has changed and is still changing! my uterus is still trying to get back to normal and most days during my run my cramps kick and i'm reminded i can't push it or i'll really be suffering!

as for yoga i'm sad to report i'm all alone. my yoga now consists of my favorite poses on my pink mat in the trailer :( i plan on changing this once we get home and grandma can watch her favorite boy!! ;)

our "diet" is not a diet. well if you ask my husband it is because we don't have oreos in the house anymore. if only i had his metabolism! we eat clean and healthy. to me that means we eat have some kind of meats and veggies in every meal, plenty of quick easy snacks to grab and we try to buy all our fruits and veggies from a local stand. cheaper and better tasting! my sweet tooth fix: my iced coffee in the afternoons and a little wine at night! hey can't give it all up!

10 weeks: 15 lbs lost

Where I'm At Now:
i'm currently weighed in at 140!! i feel awesome except for the slight water bed tummy which is only going to go away with time. i don't feel like i'm hungry or missing anything from my meals. my running is just going to keep getting faster and longer, i'm not rotating through the Jillian levels 1,2 & 3 (and its not getting easier!!) mike and i are enjoying taking our family out for weekend hikes, and of course always searching for new, easy meals to make.

i can honestly say i am the happiest i've been. i'm married to my best friend, raising my happy little boy, and i'm healthy!

Goals:
in true Cayla fashion i have to set more goals...come on who doesn't love squashing goals?!

-i'd ideally like to loose 5 more lbs
-build more muscles (bring it on Jillian!)
-do a 5k either august or september (hard to really set this one mainly because i have no idea which state we'll be living in so it may be a spur of the moment one)
-run the cda half next year. (ugh 13.1 miles?! can i really do that?! i'm willing to train and find out!)
-get back into yoga or at least touch my toes again! (also this one will come with time depending on where we're at)
-continue to try one new recipe a week

homemade salsa!

yup we did it... we made homemade salsa and its honestly the best salsa we've ever had! we still had some pace we wanted to use up first but mike decided to throw it out after eating ours :) we use our salsa for chips & salsa and for our tacos (with our homemade taco seasoning! yah we're pretty "yuppie" now!)

i found the recipe on pintrest (where else!?) we modified it a little just to make it the way we like...we found a veggie stand not even 5 miles from us so we get all of our vegetables and some fruits from there. we got all our salsa stuff plus some of their homemade chips for $7 and that made 3 pint jars and we have a few things left over... cannot beat that!

here's what you'll need this makes one pint jar:

--2 tomatoes
--1 can original Rotel (i don't put rotel in mine i just double the mators, my salsa is basically chopped tomatoes no spice)
--1 lime (roll around first than squeeze juices out into the blender)
--1/2 small onion chopped
--1 garlic clove (peel than smash with spoon)
--1/2 to 1 jalapeno chopped (as you probably guessed i used no jalapeno in mine, ya no thanks... mike put one whole one in his... we seeded his if you like it really hot keep the seeds and if you use the seeds feel free to brag to us! we ate one seed and thought we were going to burn our tongues off!)
-- 1 teaspoon honey
--1/4 teaspoon ground cummin
--1/2 teaspoon salt
--hand full of chopped cilantro

once you have everything prepared throw it all into a blender, my magic bullet is the PERFECT size to make one pint of salsa! i literally pulse for a few seconds i like my salsa chunky. mike chops his up longer...

its really, really rediciously easy. we've decided we actually enjoy doing homemade foods like this together. its fun to figure out how to make it perfect for us... plus we defiantly get our use out of all those left over wedding mason jars!

yummmmmm!! :)

Idaho Springs

yes thats right we went to idaho well the closest we could get while being in colorado :)

after going on our fathers day hike we decided we really really enjoying hiking! and why wouldn't we?? its free, remmi gets his exercise, we get our exercise, wesson gets to get out in the fresh air, change of senery, and good family bonding. i love it.

mike found this hike for us... i'm a control freak, we all know it. so when he said i found a hike i resisted getting on there and micromanaging. i just made sandwiches and packed up our boys and said lets go! ha mayyybe i should have double checked the directions to find out exactly where my honey dearest was taking us. haha needless to say we took the loooong way there. yes i'm better with directions than my husband. i can thank my dad for that one, he wouldn't have a daughter who needed a guys help with directions ;)

anywaaays he got us there. we drove through idaho springs which by the way is the cutest town! it reminds me so much of wallace. we want to go back and stay at this bed and breakfast. so cute! we drove about 12 miles up to mount evans which is the highest paved road in north america. elevation was over 14,000 feet above sea level! we didn't go on the drive this time but on a rainy day we might... the area was so beautiful. we parked at the entrance of mount evans next to echo lake. it was such a pretty lake but of course in colorado for some reason you're not aloud to swim in most lakes... ugh.

our plan was originally to hike up to idaho springs lake which was about a 4 mile hike. we got about 2 miles in and decided yah well save the full hike for another time! haha its one thing to go on a hike but strap wesson to me (first time using our spiffy back back thanks Nicole and Patty!) and add in way higher elevation than we're used to 2 miles was perfect! our stopping point was at this little river where we ate lunch rested and prepped for the hike back up. holy cow it was hard! mike offered to take wes on the way up but no way was this mama giving up that easy, although i think my shoulders are wishing i would have haha. oh and by the way wesson loved the trip! he slept some but mostly just loved looking around at everything. hes a nature boy thats for sure!

i was better about pictures this time so enjoy. it really was a breath taking area that we will be going back to again soon. we've decided we're going to try to take on a hike every weekend. :) its been so fun searching for new ones and new areas away from ugly brighton!

already to go!



 echo lake

the easy walking area...



 lake echo

 laying down the first bit of water... he was hot!

 where we ate lunch

 camo baby

 my handsome broken husband

remmi loving the water

the mcbrides :)