Thanksgiving 2016

Okay, after this I think I'll be "caught up" with life. Turkey Day! Thanksgiving was a crazy affair, even more so than usual because duh, a baby. It is very convenient to have your whole family live in one town, but it is also not because that's a lot of family to see in a couple days! I mean, it's wonderful, but it's also exhausting. But it was special to have include Indiana in what has been our tradition for the past, I dunno, decade. 

Let's begin with Indiana and animals, because what else could be better? (Also some of these photos have already been posted to instagram, but whatever!)

Indiana loves chickens! Actually she loves all animals. But she's really into chickens! Doggies are cool too though.

Indiana and I go on walks daily, but walks with daddy are always a treat, and scenic walks are even better! I took a few rapid fire photos of Indiana's first shoulder ride, and in the photo before there's a truck pulling a hay bale driving by in the background. Typical.

Turkey Day morning we ran the Turkey Trot! This has also become tradition for Brendon and I, I think this is our fourth year to run one? We did two in Austin, last year in Temple, and this year we ran down in New Braunfels. Well, Gruene actually. And my dad and sister ran it with us! I really enjoyed this Turkey trot. The race starts and finishes right in front of Gruene Hall, and it's a pretty run! Also the refreshments were insane. They had the usual post-run fare; water, crackers, bananas, but they also had chocolate milk (!!!), juice, BEER, and freshly made sausage! Oh New Braunfels, you love your sausage.

OKAY, so we're going to go off on a long tangent here and talk about running, scroll down to get back to Thanksgiving goodies. This was my first race after having Indiana (my last one happened to be the Temple Turkey Trot which I ran pregnant), and I wasn't really sure how it was going to go. SO LETS TALK ABOUT POST BABY RUNNING. I was fully prepared to sacrifice a lot of my pre-kiddo life for Indiana's baby years, but running was not something I was willing to give up. I started running again after my six week postpartum check up in March. As soon as I got the okay to run from my doctor, I went after it. Slowwwwly. It was so so hard. Because not only was I out of shape, but my body was wrecked. Having a kid destroys your body. No joke. My abs were stretched out into nonexistence, my endurance was shot, and we're not even gonna talk about all the weirdness that happens to your body after pushing a baby out. But anyway, as soon as I got the green light I started running three days a week. It was hellish at first and my runs only were a mile or two long, but I kept it up and got sorta back into the swing of things just as soon as the heat hit. And if you've ever run in the southern heat you know, it's a whole new thing entirely. For whatever reason, in July I decided to up it to running five days a week. Which was more than I ran when I was training for the half. I mostly did it because I wasn't seeing much progress (summer stalemate) and running is seriously my only real alone time away from baby world. It's my therapy, and it contributes a whole lot to my sanity. Once the cooler weather hit I got "faster" and I started running some longer runs on the weekends but I've been dealing with some health crap so I honestly wasn't sure how this race was going to go.

BUT, y'all! I ran my fastest 5k! 25:36! I've never ever been fast, even when I was "in shape", but I got 5th in my age group out of 101 and I mean, I kinda felt fast! Brendon ran back with me which helped I'm sure, and you always run faster at a race, but I'm pretty proud of myself. Kudos to Brendon for running with me, he would have slayed had he not. He's actually legitimately fast. My dad also killed it and beat us all, with a bum leg. Of course. My sister also did badass for basically not running for weeks. It was a good race for all of us. And a reminder that I love races and need to run more. They're such positive happy experiences. Everyone is in such a good mood. My dad and Brendon were cheering on people who were running with us and slowed to walk, and they kept going with us! I didn't do much cheering because 1.) I am shy and terrified of strangers, and 2.) I was flooring it and trying not to die, ha. But the guys encouraging those people and those people not giving up did wonders for me.

Yay for running, and now I'm done with my schpeal. Back to the baby photos:

Indiana's first Thanksgiving! Feast number one was at my momma's house. We had definitely worked up an appetite after running (even though we ate like a hundred deviled eggs), and I was ready for those sides! As we do not partake in turkey, the sides are our main course. But I mean, isn't that everyone's Thanksgiving? The sides are where the party is! We gave Indiana a little taste of some stuff, but she was kind of whatever about it. I think she was mostly just overwhelmed by the excitement of lots of people in a new place. It was a big day for her.

Awkward candids don't happen so much any more now that I am in charge of a baby instead of a camera. But here's some for ya. My mom was ready!

I haven't cut my hair in a year and I'm definitely reaching religious zealot/hippie lengths.

More doggie love for Indy! That tongue! After the feast at my mama's we headed over to my dad's for feast number two. Brendon's mom came over too!

Side story: Brendon is really into ping-pong these days. He's already scheming to get a table whenever (if ever??) we get a house. He bugged everyone to play him and I caved, twice. And the second time, I BEAT HIM.

Who's shiny ride is that??? ;)

My dad is the king of crazy-man in photos.

This picture cracks me up because it accurately captures Indiana's feelings about Thanksgiving. It was a lot for that poor girl. But contrary to how grumpy she looks, she did really well and I'm forever proud of my tough baby. Traveling and staying away from home is super stressful, but I definitely think it's worse for us than it is for her. I mean, don't get me wrong, it throws her schedule out of whack and sometimes takes me up to a week to fix it, but she's mostly a happy camper and loves seeing her extended family. I on the other hand stress about every little detail and worry about her lack of sleep and her loss of routine and her dislike of long car rides and generally just work myself into a ball of anxiety and worry. The hardest part of parenthood for me is the worrying. And I know it will never stop, please don't remind me. ;)

But anyway, it was worth it. Thanksgiving at home is always good and I'm glad we went. Brendon took off Wednesday and Thursday so we had a nice five day weekend. We need more of those!

Christmas will be here before we know it and we'll be doing the holiday game again! Wooo the most magical, but the wildest, time of the year.