May & June Recap

I fully intended to do a May recap shortly after the month ended, but here we are already in July! Looking back through May and June, things really got started again with the world and the pace of life definitely picked up compared to April. 

CrossFit Coaching

The gym opened up again in the beginning of May, so I’ve been coaching a couple CrossFit classes a day on top of personal training sessions too. It’s been nice to be able to work out in the gym again and to see people I was used to seeing multiple times a week. P.S. I included a photo with a rare sighting of my husband at the CrossFit gym.  😉 

With the knee injury/issues I’ve had over the past year, I’ve finally felt comfortable enough to incorporating squatting and running back into my training at super low volume and very intentional with my movements. It’s been a long, slow process, but it feels good to  see my year of taking it easy pay off. I

New Photography Website

From April through mid-May I spent the majority of my time working at home on a new wedding photography website. Before I was constantly tweaking my old website and was never happy with how it looked or the wording on it. I worked with a wedding photographer who also helps photographers with their website copy. She helped me rewrite my ENTIRE website copy! She also helped me picked photos from my portfolio and made suggestions for the placement of them on my site. I am SO in LOVE with my new website! I’m thankful I made the jump to a new platform and invested in someone to help me get things right.  Here’s the link to check it out: www.skylar-rain.com 

Engagements & Proposals in New Mexico

 In May I went home to New Mexico to photograph an engagement session. It was my first session since my March wedding before things got shut down.  The day after that session my aunt called me because my cousin’s boyfriend was planning to propose to her that night! It was a good weekend to happen to be home! I’m pretty much obsessed with all the photos I took of Leah and Brayden after the proposal. My time with them was a great reminder of why I love my job and why golden hour light is the best!  Here’s a link to the full proposal blog on my photography site. 

Perks of being home in New Mexico are home cooked meals-this time at my sister’s house and enjoying life in the country with cow checks and open spaces.

Memorial Weekend

On Memorial day I participated in the annual Murph workout at the CrossFit gym I work at. With my knees being questionable, I modified the workout to a bike instead of mile run. Instead of air squats I did walking lunges. Brandon and I hung out the rest of memorial day on our deck and cooked some burgers. A pretty basic memorial weekend for us! 

June without Husband

Brandon left for the month of June for military training. I do pretty well when he’s gone, but tend to work later every night and have a hard time going to bed. June is a big month for us: his birthday, our wedding anniversary, and my birthday. Unfortunately, one of Brandon’s best friends passed away during this month from cancer. Brandon was able to leave his training in time to attend the funeral. I didn’t know his friend that well, but he was one of Brandon’s deployment best friends and one he lived with for a time as well. So it’s definitely been hard for Brandon. Since the entire coronavirus thing and especially with the Black Lives Matter movement, I started watching Elevation Church consistently. Before I of course knew their music, but didn’t listen to their church sermons  very often. One thing I’ve appreciated about Pastor Steven is that his sermons have been relevant. He talks about the topics that are hard to talk about and I’ve been drawn to that. It’s big reason I keep coming back to watch every Sunday. Maybe once things open up more and calm down again I’ll get back into the local church we started attending here in the Springs. 

 

June Weddings & Engagement

In June I had my first wedding since March! All of my April and May weddings had rescheduled. I was so thankful that it was able to happen! I traveled to Taos, NM for it. The wedding was on  private property of the groom’s family deep in the mountains of New Mexico. Being in NM again meant enjoying breakfast burritos two mornings in a row! If you’re in New Mexico then you know Blake’s Lotaburger is a go-to for fast breakfast burritos with green chile or red sauce and their burgers are always great too!

Nutrition Coaching

I used the quarantine time during March and April to finish up my Precision Level One nutrition coaching certification. In May I finally started coaching some nutrition clients. This is something I’ve been wanting to do for awhile and quarantine allowed me the time and space to focus on growing that goal. I won’t get deep into my reason for nutrition coaching, but it fits in with some of my long term life goals! This post will help give some insight on why helping people with nutrition is important to me since it was a game changer for myself. 

Mom Came to Visit & Yard Work

The week of June 22 my Mom came from New Mexico to spend a few days with me. During her time here we did some shopping and focused on getting my yard into shape!  We planted  flowers in my front yard. Before those beds only had rocks, old mulch, and weeds. Lots of weeds! I love the flowers my mom picked out to plant (platinum jasmine, daisy, weigela, sage, and spirea). It’s crazy what a little mulch and plants will do for your yard. Now I love pulling up in the driveway and seeing those plants along our house. And I love walking out into our back yard and seeing the plants in that corner. Fingers crossed I can keep them alive! 

Birthday & Husband Returns

I mentioned earlier that my husband was able to leave his training to attend his friends funeral. Once the funeral was over, he came back home (same timing as if he was coming back from training) and in time for my birthday!  Since we spent the month apart, my birthday was kind of a celebration of his birthday and our anniversary too! We spent that Saturday running errands and hit up my favorite place, Modern market for lunch. Brandon told me I needed to be ready by 4 p.m. for dinner that night. He surprised me with  dinner at The Rabbit Hole in Downtown Colorado Springs. I had a feeling it’s where he would take me since we’d been wanting to go, but hadn’t gotten a chance. I took a slice of red velvet cake to go and we ate it at home while watching an episode of Ozark! That was my ideal way to spend a birthday night!

 Anyways, that’s the summary of my month of May and June! It’s hard to believe it’s already been one year since our wedding and it’s also hard for me to believe that I’m 28. So weird. I still feel like I’m 25! July is kicking off the rest of the year with more wedding and sessions, so I’m ready for it!