Road Trip recap!

For those of you who know me well, you know that I am an only child. For most of my life our friends were more like a family than our family. Not because of bad blood or anything, but because we lived in Texas and my parents' families lived in Michigan, except for my Nana and Papaw who lived on the ranch with us! Anyway my family is pretty small, my mom is an only child and my dad is 1 of 4 kids. But like I said all of those cousins live in MI and that is a long way to go for playdates. I was never one of those kids who played with cousins all the time. When I was in junior high my dad's cousin came down with Uncle Dale (he and Aunt Gretna came every year and stayed at the ranch and it was always awesome having them visit!). Cousin Joni also brought her kids with her (Amy, Jake, and Neil), they were all around my age and it was awesome getting to know cousins! After that, her youngest kid Neil would come down and spend summers with us. The most memorable was when I was 16 and he was 13, we spent all summer on the road showing horses. We went all over TX and to New Mexico, and more places that I cannot remember. Neil is the closest thing to a brother I have ever had. He is an amazing dude. He joined the army and has been at Ft. Bragg in NC for the last couple years. Having him close by has been great even if we only hung out once. Now that you have a little history on the life of Ryan and her fam, here is what happened this weekend!

Neil is finally finished with his army training he was doing in NC and had a graduation yesterday. He invited all of us over to celebrate. This was our first road trip with 2 kids. The drive took about 4.5 hours, and the girls did really well! I don't care how old I get or how much I travel it is still really exciting when you go over a state line. I don't know what it is about it, but it always makes me giddy!

It was a cousin reunion, and it was awesome. I even got to meet another cousin who I had never met before. We had a great time. We went out after dinner and played pool and danced around. It was a great night. I am so thankful for family. Coming from a small family of blood relatives it is so nice to get to know everyone as 'grown ups'. The girls got to meet Uncle Dale and Aunt Gretna, and all of their cousins. I still maintain that it is far too complicated to know which level of removed and 1st or 2nd or whatever cousins. As far as I am concerned family is family and that is all that matters! Thank you for having us share your day Neil! We are so proud of you! Also we love your girlfriend, she is pretty awesome!

Bridesmaid BootCamp Update!

A while back I posted about my desire to get back into shape for the weddings of my 3 super awesome friends in 2012! Bridesmaid bootcamp (which is me making myself go to the gym each day) was born. I hit the ground running (okay walking quickly, lets face it in the beginning there was no actual running!) I was in the gym 5 days a week!! I am still doing really well with it, making it to the gym most mornings. This week has been more sporadic due to car trouble and this whole sleep training thing with Madison which is a whole other blog...ps I hate sleep training, it makes me sad and I am fairly certain it could be the reason stay at home moms of young children often look discheveled. I have a good rhythm going in the gym, I know what I want to do each day. 3 days a week of cardio, 2 days of weight training, and today I tried yoga for the first time...this will be added in on a weekly basis as of now! I loved it! I am fitting into most of my clothes from when Justin and I got married. I say most because nobody told my hips we were getting smaller...so the designer jeans I have been hoarding away in my closet for 2 years that I paid way too much money for and REALLY want to wear are still in hibernation. I have 4 more lbs to lose before my first goal... the deadline for this goal is Christmas!! I know I can do it, 4 lbs is nothin!

I got a little frustrated with this whole thing a couple weeks ago and I had to be reminded of how far I have come. Not this time around...but in general. A short 5.5 years ago I weighed over 300 lbs, and I have no reason that I cannot get back to my healthiest me! If you see me grumping about going to the gym or putting it off until tomorrow remind me that I want to wear my really awesome jeans and that I have to stand next to my beautiful friends on the most important day of their lives and I don't want them to think I look like a porker! ;)

OH and in yoga today I found out I am better at balancing than I thought and I am bendy-er than I thought! woo!

It's been a while!

 

I was just watching some video from the Champions Cup at the futurity and some of the webcast and I got incredibly emotional and sad. It hit me last week that this is the first year since I was 14 that I wouldn't be going to the futurity and I got really upset. I feel like I am missing out on a huge part of my year, like I am missing the family reunion (but this is the kind of family reunion you look forward to 11 months out of the year, not the kind with flies in the potato salad and awkward family conversation). The futurity is the biggest horse show of the year, and I love going! I always have so much fun with my friends and even though we are not kids anymore it is fun to relive our crazy antics once a year. I have only shown at the futurity once, and it didn't go well (see photo above, this is in 2008 showing in the Non Pro on Pop Tart...she ran off on our next cow). It's not about the showing for me, it's about the spectating. The Open and Non Pro semi finals are in my opinion the best night to watch! I love playing high/low in the stands and shopping in the exhibit hall. I love like going to the sale (okay maybe not love going to the sale but my husband and dad love the sales so I will go for a little while with them). Some day when we are able I hope to show regularly again and maybe I’ll get another futurity horse. Anyway that is why I am sad today... but now for happy stuff!!

Madison is now 8 MONTHS OLD!!! WHAT!!! She is crawling and pulling up and very opinionated! I love that little bug so much!

Justin and I celebrated our 5 year DATE-A-VERSARY yesterday!! What is a date-a-versary? Oh I am glad you asked. It is the anniversary of our first date! I absolutely love the story of our first date because it is pretty adorable. After talking online for months (yes we met online while he was deployed to Iraq for his 2nd tour) Justin finally made it back to the states on November 29, 2006 and the next day he was headed down to San Antonio from Ft Hood to see Bethany who was about 18 months old at the time. Conveniently San Marcos is right on the way to San Antonio from Ft Hood. He stopped and took me to lunch, and the rest is history. The cutest thing was that he brought me a gift set of dvds from Iraq, and he asked if he could kiss me! Best first date ever, so we decided it would be our last first date ever! Each year on November 30 we go eat at Red Lobster because that is where the amazing lunch date occurred, and he also took me there the night he proposed. Not the fanciest place, but it is our place and we love it!

We are kicking off our student lifegroup this weekend and we are so pumped about it! Woohoo! Stay tuned for more posts on that!

Bethany is in a play for Christmas at school, she is a giraffe! Can't wait to see it!

Okay that's a good little wrap up. To all of my friends in Fort Worth, have fun for me, I am missing you!