#THIVEGANKS

 Another Thanksgiving come and gone, I can hardly believe it. This week has been a full week of party. Since being home Ive kind of forgotten about school and straight up lost any motivation to study. It's bad, but I gave myself this week to take a break and tomorrow I get back into gear and grind out the next couple weeks. Wish me luck. To start off the week we received early christmas presents from the montana missionary. Drew got us each a belt buckle and wrote us a letter. Im stoked, to say the least. I immediately texted erin a picture and told her Im ready to come back to the farm. All I need is a hat and Im set. 

I think the "y'all" is quite fitting for me. Mom's buckle says "girls with guns" which I just think is hilarious. I think Im a cowgirl at heart, the buckle just felt right. haha. Thursday brings us to Thanksgiving! One of our favorite traditions - hiking the volcano. Seriously one of my favorite traditions. 

The boys love chucking massive rocks over the edge and watching them tumble down to the bottom, but everyone's favorite part is sliding down the face. I have plenty of videos but not pictures of us sliding down. Y'all know it though - shoes filled with rocks, cuts and scrapes on your hands, not being able to stop and having your feet just slide out right underneath ya. Oh and the occasional almost face plant. Gotta love it. We headed home to clean up and get ready to head back up to pine valley for thanksgiving with the fam. I love having thanksgiving in pine valley!! Its cold outside, but to have a nice dinner with a fire going and surrounded with family - thats the best. 

Stuffed our bellies with GOOD food. and then...

Post - thanksgiving naps. We all settled our bellies while watching Home Alone 2. This week was full of reflecting on the things I'm grateful for. The obvious being - my family and the constant love and support they give me, my friends who I know I can turn to for anything, my health and especially recently the activities my body allows me to participate in, the opportunities and trials I've been given that have shaped me into the person I am today and duh the gospel that brings me so much hope and joy everyday. Im also so dang grateful for the little things though - the chance I have to talk with my brother weekly, country music!!, a nice text to make my day, bike rides with dad and walks with mom, spicy food, funny memes, the comfiest bed, cute boys, journals and the memories they hold, hot tubs, chicfila, opposition, fire places!!, online shopping, chubby babies, pretty views, brothers who make me laugh 24/7 and seriously the list could go on. I figure if you are aware and constantly grateful for the things you have there is no reason to not be happy. "The thankful heart opens our eyes to a multitude of blessings that continually surround us" - james e. faust. Thanksgiving should be like a monthly thing - yes the being thankful but also the turkey, potatoes and stuffing too.  

Lots of biking this week and I'm stoked about it!! So yes my back is feeling so much better, but for some reason the pounding of running is just still not happening so walking and biking it is. Dad showed me some new trails just south of the house and they are my new favorites. Secret sauce and claim jumper, so much fun. In no way am I great at mountain biking but I sure am loving it. Its refreshing to actually enjoy and want to progress in something other than running. 

Saturday Dad wanted to do the green valley loop starting at our house. We were unsure how long it would be and how long it would take us, but we headed out for an afternoon ride. First little bit on road and paved trail until we hit the dirt over in green valley. About 2-3 miles of up hill until we peaked out. From there we rode bear claw down and then headed home. SO much fun, my legs were toast after 21 miles, but SO much fun. As pictured above we popped some suckers after we finished bear claw. That night I got hit hard with a migraine. I only get migraines every once in awhile but the really bad ones usually come after exercising and yep it hit me. I was medicated and asleep my 8 o'clock that night. 

Woke up still feeling a pretty bad headache that was accompanied with nausea and some minor body aches. I don't drink soda often but when I do its a caffeinated coke for breakfast because of a migraine. Luckily throughout the day it faded as well as the other symptoms and Im not sick with the flu/cold or heaven forbid covid. Sheesh no one can get sick these days without it being covid. 

Some other pictures from this week - hot tubbing with the fam

Baha - last but not least - messing around with shawn on tiktok. Dont ask what we were doing because honestly we had no clue. <3