alabama hikes + skype dates

Good Morning friends – happy Thursday! The weekend is almost here, just hang in there a little bit longer. 😉

This week has been steady for the Shaver Crew – every day we’ve had something going on which is nice but also means the weekend is very much needed!

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FRIDAY, Aaron broke out his old Game Cube & we played together for a little bit. It was so funny because we were pretty much talking about the graphics the whole time & how far gaming has come since the 90’s.

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The rest of the weekend was fairly low-key. MONDAY there was no school so Michelle (my mother-in-law) and I had the day off (she works at a high school). Michelle was absolutely dying for a family hike, so we packed up and headed out.

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We even brought Alex which was a blast – he is such a good hiking dog!

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Amberlyn getting a quick pre-hike snack 😛

Oh, did I mention I got the whole hike on camera & made a short film!? 😀

Here are a few more photos from the hike that I absolutely love!

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we were together || I forget the rest // walt whitman

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| I’m obsessed with the house in the woods ||

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[hiking with the tribe]

 All in all, it was a great time!

After dinner, I decided to hang out on the couch and Skype with my bestie. We have a weekly Skype session and it’s so much fun to have that scheduled time to catch up and share what’s going on in our lives. It definitely keeps our friendship strong while we 3,000miles apart.

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Oh wait, is she not there in the shot? Yeah, that’s because at this particular moment, she had set her computer down to finish making dinner hahaha 😀 but that only took a couple minutes and once she got her plate of food we chatted and it was great! 🙂

TUESDAY I had another Skype date scheduled with my brother. We haven’t had a chance to talk in over a month so it was great to be able to catch up and hear about his college life!

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& finally, before I sign off – I wanted to talk about the post I wrote up and posted Monday – social media identity. I got back on browsing through social media Tuesday night before I went to bed, and you know what I noticed!? I didn’t miss anything. Nothing important happened while I was on my little break. It was a good reminder that I don’t have to check it every time I open my phone.

Social media is a place for YOU to be YOU + share it with others. Social media is not a place to compare yourself to others (which unfortunately is kind of what we turned it into). Post what you want to. Don’t worry about how many LIKES you’ll get. My creativity is mine! It shouldn’t be (and it’s not) influenced by the latest on Instagram. It’s raw. It’s my own. It’s SMS’s.

Even though my “break from social media” wasn’t more than a couple days, I’m sure it won’t be the last “break” I’ll take from it. I encourage you to step back and see if it’s hindering you in some way. And if it is, cut it out of your life. It doesn’t have to be forever, just a few days. Trust me, it’s worth it!

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That’s pretty much it for this week for the Shaver Crew. Hope you have a great day!