Oh. My. Goodness. This weekend completely exhausted me! I don’t think I have taken a break since Friday afternoon at 4 pm. This weekend would certainly fit under the “fun” aspect of how I live a fulfilling life, but I need some empty hours this evening. Which is why I plan to sit around, have my legs rubbed, catch up on blogs, and well…pretty much nothing else the rest of the night.  Get ready for a fairly picture heavy post. Sometimes those are the best though. Don’t you agree? 

I spent Friday afternoon/evening at my friend’s rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. The rehearsal part went smoothly. 

Then, we headed back to her parent’s house for the rehearsal dinner. They had a tent set up outside, which was beautifully decorated.

And some family friends who do Italian cooking catered the event. I had some lasagna, salad, and a roll.

Taking cue from my post on Friday about not overeating in social situations, I only ate half the lasagna to save room for dessert. A mocha mouse in a dark chocolate cup. It was tiny, but soooo rich it filled me up.

After giving my toast (which I totally came up with on the car ride over) and mingling for a few hours, I headed home and crashed. Simply to wake up early Saturday morning to go ahead and get some things done ahead of time for the remainder of the weekend. At 10:00 I had my hair appointment for a cut, 2nd coat of color to go back natural, and a style for the wedding.

From 3:00 on, I was on my feet and doing the wedding. My friend looked absolutely stunning.

The venue had such Southern charm, even down to the meal. The buffet featured a wide variety of Southern style casseroles and soufflés. I took a sampling of a baked macaroni & cheese, sweet potato soufflé, salad, green beans, and a roll.

Of course I loved on a piece of cake later that night as well. I forgot to snap a picture of my slice, but here is the complete cake. It screams my friend’s style.

Then, I danced the night away with the abundance of great company at the wedding. We really celebrated! Some of us a bit too much with the open bar. Not me, of course. 😉

This morning I awoke thanks to two brutal charlie horse cramps in each of my calves. My legs hurt soooooo badly after being on my feet all day and dancing. I felt like I had run a marathon! Or what I think I would feel like after running a marathon. Basically, I hurt and I hurt BAD.

That didn’t stop today from going though. I had to lead Sunday school in the morning, attend worship service, and then head to a birthday party at Chuck E Cheese. Thankfully, we had an hour to kill between the party and church so we stopped for a sandwich lunch instead of the nasty Chuck E Cheese pizza. Then, I about lost my mind in the madness of Chuck E Cheese.

I will give them credit that it was much cleaner and nicer on the inside than I anticipated. However, I will never voluntarily go there if I don’t have a very specific reason. The place was a mad house. I couldn’t wait to get out of there. And that pizza – blech! My insides appreciate eating a better quality lunch beforehand.

Now…I’m beat! See you tomorrow for one of the last few posts of September’s 30 Days of Self Love. This month went by so fast. Check out the other posts from this weekend if you haven’t already – Gifts of the Body 4 / Numbers Don’t Matter.

• What did you do this weekend?
• Have you ever gotten those charlie horse cramps? How do you deal with them?
• Lastly…how the heck do you spell mouse/moose for the dessert?

Check out today’s 30 Days post! Only 10 more days left in the series, which amazes me.

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Shall I continue with my crazy busy Saturday now? I think yes! I like looking back on the weekend. It helps make Monday a little more bearable. Especially when you have numerous things to do, but no motivation to actually do them. I need a day of nothing. Yea. Like that will ever happen. 😉

So after spending a day among toddler lovebirds and birthday cake, we did something I have looked forward to since spring. A hike! I love visiting the many various mountains and trails in our area for family hikes. I hated that the heat this summer combined with pregnancy made it very difficult to get out for any. Even though the fall weather has recently taken a backseat to more summer temperatures, I was not willing to give up on our planned hike.

We visited Kennesaw Mountain for a short 3 mile trail hike. I loved every grueling, 90 degree temperature, steep and rocky uphill moment of that climb.

Hiking is one of my favorite fall activities! I can’t wait for more…which hopefully we will have the time to fit in with our steadily filling calendar.

After the hike, we picked up our friend’s wife who couldn’t go with us and headed out to dinner. After last week’s lesson, my only request was “not a chain”. Our friends picked out Elevation Chophouse, a restaurant situated on the hangar of a small, local airport.

We got to dine while watching planes taking off and landing. Extra perk? It entertained M better than her little backpack of books. Always a good thing.

For my dinner, I split the hummus plate with my friend and also ordered one of the jumbo all meat crab cakes with hot pepper jelly.

These were good! The hummus had the perfect creamy consistency with a slight lemony undertone. The veggies were on the pitiful side, but the black pepper lavash bread made up for them. The crab cake tasted better than some I’ve had at the beach. It truly was all meat. And I loved the kick from the pepper jelly.

The second half of Saturday was a huge success. Good food, good friends, a favorite activity? What more could I ask for.

• What was the best part of your weekend?
• What is your favorite fall activity? I love visiting the pumpkin patch, corn maze, Helen, and other places in the fall but overall hiking is #1. Well, it could be behind eating pumpkin inspired foods. 😀