Happy Monday my little turkeys! I hope everyone had a fabulous long weekend. I don't know about anyone else but I'm feeling nice and refreshed today. I wish we had more 4-day weekends, it's nice to just have a few extra days to recharge the batteries. 

Wednesday after work, Kerri, the group and I headed over to Kate's for a nice, low-key birthday celebration. We had some delicious apps, some bubbles and lots of laughs playing Cards Against Humanity. The weather was super nice so we sat outside and enjoyed the fire pit which was nice and relaxing.

Thursday was of course Thanksgiving. We stayed local and just relaxed at home, made tons of food and watched football. We have a tradition of smoking a turkey every year and this year did not disappoint, it was amazing. Sadly I completely failed on taking any pictures of the food but I did get lots of puppy snuggles which were well documented. 

Friday was the start of rivalry weekend for college football. UCF played long-time in-state rivals USF, at home so we headed down to take in the festivities. It wasn't the nicest day but the weather didn't keep the stadium from being packed. It was SUCH an intense game, a lot of back and forth, with the craziest moments of the game happening in the last few minutes of the game. Luckily we were able to pull out the win but despite being one of two remaining top 25 ranked teams that are still undefeated, we don't have a chance at the playoffs. We won't even get in to how corrupt that system is.

Saturday was for recovery. I woke up with no voice, my ears ringing and my entire body sore from jumping up and down and being so tense during the day. I did some early morning yoga then spent the day on the couch before running out to do a few errands and then watching a movie before calling it an early night. 

Sunday I was finally feeling recovered so I started my morning off with a run and a delicious homemade keto breakfast. I decided to give the keto diet a try this week to try to detox a bit so wish me luck!

Happy Monday before Christmas friends! Holy cow, can you believe there is less than a week until Christmas? I am pleased to finally update you that I have now finished all my shopping, presents are wrapped and on their way to their appropriate final destinations. If you can't tell, I'm feeling pretty accomplished this morning. But enough with my accomplishments, let's talk about our weekends. Did any one do anything fun? 

Friday I took off for my last vacation day of the year and went over to Busch Gardens for the day. We had season passes but had barely used them so we decided we'd get one more trip in before the end of the year and if you follow me on Snapchat {pamelanicole84} and Instagram, you saw that it was a good day until we were right about to leave. We decided to check out one more roller coaster before grabbing a drink, watching the sunset over the Serengeti and then heading back to Orlando. We were deciding between Sheikra and Falcon's Fury but Sheikra is our favorite so we decided to do it one more time. We hopped on board on the second row of the second car and started our way up the 200 foot climb. To make a long story short I'll just jump ahead but feel free to ask if you want to hear the whole story, after being stuck near the bottom of the climb for about 20 mins we finally made it to the top where we got stuck again. 200 feet up, on a floor-less rollercoaster, we were stuck for 2 hours until they came to rescue us. It was light when we started and dark when we finally made it down. The rescue involved taking groups of 4 people at a time, placing them into a harness that they hook to the rollercoaster, removing us from the safety harness on the ride and then pulling us up so we're "perched" on the edge of the seat and moving from seat to seat until we're safely in a cherry picker type device that takes us down to the bottom. Here is a video of the same rescue that happened exactly where we were back in May but theirs was during the daylight and ours happened at night. Despite being stuck for 2 hours, I refused to take out my cellphone until we were safely in the cherry picker so I don't have any videos or pictures from being stuck (and I'm not even going to lie, I was shaking pretty badly while we were stuck and I started crying pretty hard when they had to remove me from the safety harness, so having my phone out was the last thing even on my mind). Needless to say, after our rescue we were ready to get home and I won't be getting back on Sheikra any time soon. Luckily our season passes are up this month and while we thought about renewing them for next year, I think we might opt for Universal instead. You'd think after being stuck for 2 hours Busch Gardens would want to take care of their guests but apparently not. The most we got was an apology and a free bottle of water. Us and the couple sitting next to us actually had to ask for something else and the most we got for our "troubles" was $10 each in "Busch Bucks" to spend in the park that day.Not exactly the best customer service for basically ruining our day but hey, I understand the "you get what you pay for mentality" and Busch Gardens is definitely the cheapest theme park in the area.

To keep you from having to read a novel, I'll speed through the rest of my weekend, I promise! Saturday was UCF Bowl Game day! We went from 0-12 to bowl eligible in one season so we were actually super happy to find out that not only were we going to a bowl game, but we were going to a bowl game here in town! It might not have been the best bowl but I'll take it.

Sunday was a day of MUCH needed relaxing. Football, food and naps were all had and much appreciated.

If you made it to the bottom, thanks for sticking through the whole post! Hope everyone has a fantastic week!