- Happy Thanksgiving weekend!
Hope that you’ve been able to relax, spend time with family, count your blessings, do some Christmas shopping, and enjoy the fact that it’s now officially the holiday season! - In other news: how about this photo?!
Same banner, (mostly) same wall, same doggie, same kiddos – new year.
Take a stroll down memory lane & see the other Abby’s Saturdays I’ve taken with this banner: #431, #379, #327, #275, #227, #123 (how are these kids SO BIG and so cute?!)
(PS: about this photo – I attempted to take it at one point this week, but my flashes would not cooperate. I’m not sure what was going on, but they just weren’t happy with me. I gave up at that point and walked away (because I was getting frustrated). I picked my equipment up later that day to try to figure out what was going on, reset a bunch of the settings, popped in fresh batteries, and wa-la – everything worked perfectly. I pulled my kids and the dog away from what they were doing, re-set up the shot, and this is literally the 3rd photo I took – straight out of camera. When things work, they just work.) - I feel like I have been running all week.
In fact, I feel like we touched down in Pittsburgh (after our trip to Arizona/California) 10 days ago and I’ve been running ever since.
We got home from our trip in the wee-hours of the morning, jet-lagged, exhausted, so happy – and slid right into a wonderful weekend hosting Derrick’s brother and his family (that was last weekend). We did Thanksgiving with them and had such a delightful time.
Which then slid straight into us still trying to recover from our jet-lag, while getting back on schedule, helping my sister move, prepping for Thanksgiving, and then Thanksgiving day, and on into this weekend.
THANKFULLY, we had nothing planned for this weekend – so for the first time since we got home, I feel like I’m finally catching up on my to-do list!! (Newsflash: I feel like I could sit at my computer for about 3-days straight and never get up with everything I need to catch up on: emails, finishing up wedding album designs for the year, editing photos, prepping content for December, Christmas shopping, and let’s not even mention the 14+ vlogs sitting in my queue that I have yet to edit.) I have so many things that aren’t even on my to-do list that keep popping into my head that I need to do – like create Leander’s birthday invitations (oops).
So, needless to say: this weekend has one major theme – get caught up on sleep AND get caught up on the to-dos. - Speaking of Leander’s birthday – it is literally right around the corner! I can hardly believe it. He keeps asking when it will be his birthday, since we told him it would be “after” we got back from Arizona. And well, now that we’re back – it obviously must be time for his birthday right now. Just a smidge over a week to go though, and our sweet boy will be 5! He requested a “Peach” (as in “Princess Peach” from Mario) party, so I got a ton of Mario decorations. I took down all of our fall decor yesterday and Ruby is coming over to help us decorate for his party on Monday! We always have this strange “transition” period where our house is neither decorated for fall or winter (or Christmas) and is simply decorated for Leander’s BIRTHDAY. It’s fun.
- So, last Saturday night was opening night for Holiday Lights at Kennywood Park. We always go on opening night and this year, we took Paul and Naomi, PJ, Cameron, and Alex with us. Opening night is always fairly chill – it’s typically the same night as Light Up Night in Downtown Pittsburgh, so the crowds are usually not as heavy.
Needless to say: that was not the case last Saturday. There were more people lined up to get into the park then we have ever seen – even on super busy weekend days. It was absolutely bananas. We were able to get on a few rides, but we missed out on so many of the things we always do at Holiday Lights just because the crowds were so thick! It was crazy!
So, we went back last night. It was still super busy (where in the world did all these people come from?!) but we were still able to get in some rides, eat some food, visit Santa, and see the train! (Vlog coming soon!) - I’ve been thinking a lot about these Abby Saturday photos – they’re a lot of work and take a lot of time (especially this time of year when things have been busier than ever). I’ve taken 483 weekly photos (that is a mind-boggling number to think about). But I feel like, the further along I get with these photos, the more precious they become. I take a handful of the same photos every single year (which is likely why I was thinking about this – because this week’s photo is a re-creation) and those re-creation photos are like gold. My kids are growing up before my very eyes and most of the time, it’s so hard to actually see – but taking these photos forces me to stop and really realize it. They’re worth every ounce of work and time every week.
