Hey hey, my friends! Long time, no talk. Guess we all had some busy and fun weekends. Sounds good to me! Looking for some good reads from the weekend?

• Love ‘Em and Leave “Em
• Shrinking Carrie’s Self-Love Reflection

Let me fill you in on the rest now. After I left you on Saturday morning, Peter and I had a lot planned for the day. I showered up and packed up the kids for a long, fun day ahead. We had plans for one of our fall traditions!

We hit the road a little before lunch time and got about halfway to our destination before Makenzie had to potty. We stopped at a grocery store for a bathroom break and both felt the hunger strike. The store had a huge salad bar, so we made that work for lunch.

We made our pit stop as quick as possible to get back on our way to the North Georgia region. I love going there this time of year. Look how pretty!

After about an hour of driving, we made it to our first stop – the North Georgia Corn Maze! We normally visit a corn maze and pumpkin patch closer to home (the one we visited for Makenzie’s field trip), but discovered a Groupon deal and decided to check out this site instead.

There was hay bale jumping…

…and some silly fun…

…before finally settling in for the two main events. First up? A hay ride through the amazing scenery.

I loved this place’s hay ride. They really took you on a longer ride and you got to see a LOT more than at other ones we have visited. Family photo op!

Gotta love photos with kids! Ha!

Once the hay ride finished, we made our way through the corn maze

.

I much preferred other corn mazes. This one was small and not very well organized. I nearly killed myself tripping over the mass amounts of rogue corn all over the paths. That could just be me and my clumsy ways, though. No matter. We still had a GREAT time there.

Moral of the Story: A deal ALWAYS wins with us! And nothing compares to the free beauty of seeing this…

From there, we weren’t far off from another one of my favorite fall traditions.

Oktoberfest in Helen! Helen is a small “Alpine town” in North Georgia with a ton of cute shops, biergartens, tubing down the river (not in this cold!), horse drawn carriages, and other such fun.

After walking around the town and perusing a few shops – glassblowing is my favorite! – we stopped for an “afternoon snack”. In other words – a reason to get some beer in Helen.

We picked both the lighter and darker Oktoberfest seasonal brews to share. I’m an amber girl all the way. The light one didn’t do it for me in the least. But the darker Oktoberfest? Yes, please!

I also say “Yes, please!” to the following part of our Helen tradition.

A hunk of Peanut Butter Swirl fudge from Hansel & Gretel’s Candy Kitchen. I long for their fudge and we get some every year. It’s gone by now. Duh.

Moral of the Story: A salad bar lunch leaves plenty of room for beer and fudge later. Good thing. Very good thing.

And I can’t end the weekend without brining up a certain special part.

The night ended on a very high note. Since we were out gallivanting around town all day, we had to record the Georgia-Florida game. We watched it later on Saturday night (while eating our fudge, no less) and were quite pleased with the outcome…

which I found out thanks to Twitter (I’m looking at you Brittany! haha!) before even starting to watch. It didn’t make Georgia’s victory any less sweeter, though!

Moral of the Story: Stay away from social media if you want to be surprised of the outcome of something. And Go Dawgs!

But perhaps the biggest moral story of them all – nothing beats a weekend unplugged and spending time with my family. Hope you had a good one too!

• What would be the “moral of the story” for your weekend?
• What is one of your favorite fall traditions?

Ah, Monday. Here again. I definitely prefer the weekends, but Monday isn’t all bad. For one thing, it means I get to catch up with you. Let’s do just that. I didn’t get the chance to fill you in on all of my weekend. You already know about:

• me running 13.1 miles
• my thoughts on a $65 cake, hanging out afraid in my car, and the beer craving
• the grocery store “workout” and FFF Features of the week
• Anna’s Self-Love Reflection on putting herself first

Now, I need to fill you in on the rest!

Part One: Meeting The Boyfriend & Laser Shows

Saturday night we scheduled a family outing to Stone Mountain Park.

Whew! It was a packed house!

Peter and I try to go every year with the kids for a picnic dinner and to watch the laser show that plays across the mountain’s side. We did just that this weekend, but invited along his sister and her new boyfriend.

Oh, the days of meeting the family! I met Peter’s family in an ambush when I thought I was meeting just his brother…but it turned into an entire family dinner. Talk about nerve-wracking just weeks after meeting him! Although not as bad as when Peter met my family. I wasn’t even there the first time because I was flying back from Europe. They all decided to go together to pick me up, though. Crazy.

Hopefully, our little outing made things a little more low key for John. We had a lot of fun and I hope he did too. He’s a great guy!

Back to the show…

We had the standard picnic dinner for us – Subway!

Although perhaps a bottle and spinach, collard greens, and kale puffs would have been a tastier option?

One would think with the way Braedon inhaled those suckers!

Finally, we enjoyed the laser show, which was revamped this year. Meh. The classic is a lot better. Although the fireworks sure were fun and the kids loved it.

Deer in headlights Makenzie…Drooly drooly drooly Braedon

A great night all around.

Part Two: I Got A Haircut.

I just had my regular cut cleaned up and added in a bit more of a layered look to the front. I was so tempted to go shorter again to have something different…but then I remembered how much I hated growing my hair out. And how much I love being able to pull it back into a ponytail.

Part Three: Pumpkin Pie In A Cup.

It’s back. I love them. I made sure to have one last night. I don’t think a weekend can end on a sweeter note. I will likely have another sometime over the course of the month. It truly is pumpkin pie in a cup.

• Do you like switching up your haircut or go with the same look?
• Any fun “meet the family” stories to share? I’m all ears!