Three Thanks

It's been a while since I've seen y'all. I knew that a couple of you (Mom and MB in particular) would get on me about it, but I didn't realize just how many of you actually read this little blog o' mine.

Ask and you shall receive, friends. I am back today with the regular Three Thanks and will be back (at least semi-regularly) with some new posts.

Please join me (and hopefully Aly) with our link-up, Three Thanks. If you don't have a blog, please jot down what you are especially grateful for in the comments section below.

~~ONE~~

I am grateful for my dad. I am thankful for him for many reasons, but today I am going to mention just one: a week ago today, he drove over from Omaha and attended a swanky fundraiser with me.

He arrived just before the event and left shortly after, so he spent more time in the car than he did in Des Moines. And it meant so much to me that he would drive all that way to and from to spend the evening with me.

I had such a wonderful evening being silly with him, chatting with him, showing him off to all of my friends, and having him all to myself. It was an absolutely awesome father-daughter night. 

He is pretty amazing, and I am 100% certain that I had the best date at the event.

~~TWO~~

I am thankful for Shaw.

Here we are in the middle of a 32-mile bike ride. (Please disregard my massive head in this photo.)

And here we are at one of the Market to Market exchange points.

He and I have spent a lot of time together over the last several months. We obviously coached tennis together so were forced to hang out nearly every evening and then the three days that we were at state, and now that school is out, we have still been getting together nearly every day to go on a bike ride, to watch soccer, to grab patio drinks, etc.

Shaw is one of my best friends in the entire universe. He is one of the people I can be my absolute true self with -- silly jokes, poop talk, and all. And he is one of the people that I can rely on no matter what; I know that he sincerely cares for me and wants the absolute best for me. I can count on him to tell me when potential dudes are being stupid, and I can count on him to tell me that I need to stop over-analyzing things.

I love him so ridiculously much and am indelibly grateful that he's in my life. (And, I'm super stoked for all of the shenanigans we are going to get ourselves into this summer.)

~~THREE~~

I am thankful for the most fabulous friends' night in the history of ever.

On Friday night, Eric, Alicia, Katie, and I went to Malo, a new restaurant downtown, for dinner. We had so much fun just chilling on the patio, catching up.

Then, we hooked up with Shaw, and the five of us headed to Gray's Lake for unWINEd, an event put on by Jasper Winery. Again, we had so much fun just being together.

After we each finished our cocktail, we decided to walk the trail to Confluence, a great brewery about half a mile away. And that, my friends, is when the shenanigans started.

We goofed off like little kids the entire way to the brewery, and then as soon as we got a table inside, we started the most competitive game of UNO that the world has ever seen. I think we sat and played cards for nearly two hours, essentially until the taproom closed and we were kicked out. And then we proceeded to act like fools (again) on the entire trek back to Gray's Lake.

It was the most perfect night and, I think, just what each one of us needed.

I love those goofballs more than I can even express.

What are you especially thankful for this fine Thursday?