Happy Birthday, Kalyn!

I feel sometimes like my closest friends and I are more like a collection of puzzle pieces that happen to be settled all over... everywhere. From Illinois to Pennsylvania, South Carolina to Michigan, New York, California... seriously.  I love and hate how spread out we are, but that just means we're all pursuing what our hearts are telling us to do, and finding happiness that way. Plus, it just makes the reunions - sporadic as they may be - just that much better.

Today's Kalyn's birthday. This girl's one of those scattered pieces that comprises my core circle. We definitely don't see each other nearly as often as we should, but when it happens, it's like no time has lapsed at all. Happy birthday, lady... love you to the mountain and back, ya weirdo!

happy biiiiirthday! 

And for the sake of nostalgia, some of my other favorite memories that didn't fit into a pre-sized photo collage: 

antics in phoenix, az

the day we wore the same shorts and went the grand canyon

the time we thought the camera was way lower than it was.
there were probably 3 feet of dead space that i cropped off the top of this.. haha

kalyn's mom's wedding.. we sang that time, too.. haha

Kalyn, thanks for being a stone-cold odd bird; if you were any different, I just don't know how we'd swing being friends.. haha. Seriously, love you dear friend, and I am so thankful for all the times you were there and the memories that were made. Cheers to the next year of adventures! 

And cheers to the rest of ya'll - have a beautiful week! 

xo | cmd

Rocky Mountains, Sand Dunes, & Albuquerque

world's best shower, ever



Haha. If you’ve ever been forced to go without showering for a few days, or if you’ve just endured a night tenting in 45 degree weather with 50+ mph winds, than a hot shower paired with solid water pressure will be one of the best showers you’ve ever had. That was our thinking this morning out of the KOA showers after a ridiculous night that was more riddled with sleep than filled with it.



rain in co. springs

Once on the road, it was a soggy entrance into Colorado Springs. That meant the Rocky Mountains were shrouded with fog and haze; we were sad our first glance of the mountains was dampened by the weather. We saw some light once we parked at the Omelette Parlour in Colorado Springs.



omelette parlor

We definitely put our diets on hold for this trip, but know this: It was worth every bite. Ha.

After brunch, the weather seemed to clear some, and those majestic Rockies came out of hiding. They’re absolutely breathtaking, and even though we were unable to see Pike’s Peak, but what we did see was enough to make us smile and get us going on our way.



great sand dunes national park



Kalyn found a national park that was about 20 minutes off our path, but we figured the opportunity to see this would hardly present itself so willingly again anytime soon. Off we were: Great Sand Dunes National Park.

If you’ve never seen these dunes, my saying they are incredible does them little justice, if any at all. They’re created by sands off the Rockies, and the only place in the world these exact type of dunes are found. Pretty intriguing, to me at least. So it was there that we ate lunch, took some silly pictures, and got back on the road.



sand dunes & rocky mountains .... and jumping kids :)



best friends | enjoying the landscape!



 Don’t ask me how, but somehow we atlas’d ourselves around Santa Fe, but we were taking a scenic route and figured bypassing to Albuquerque would be just as good as anything else. We stopped for dinner at the Church Street Café, and enjoyed some fajitas, taco salad, and Pacifico to a soundtrack of a strung out guitarist ;)



albuquerque, nm!

Since our first attempt to sleep on the road wasn’t a complete success, we opted for bunking in an actual hotel tonight: Sleep Inn in Gallup, NM. It’s another early day tomorrow!

xo | cmd