"Come," said the wind...

I love autumn. It's hands-down my favorite season. The colors, the smells, the anticipation hanging from the branch of the exciting things around the corner.

This weekend, I spent a fun, autumn-filled weekend with my mom and sisters, Betsy and Susannah. I literally checked off a list of the all the fun autumn things we did:

• Picked ripe apples from the tree (you should have seen Susannah trying to do a shoulder stand to reach the good ones)--Check!
• Shelled pecans fallen from the tree in my mom's yard--Check!
• Hung around a bonfire and made s'mores--Check! Check! Check!
• Drank hot apple cider--Check!
• Ate come-said-the-wind molasses cookies in Halloween shapes (and sang "Come said the wind" with Susannah and Mom)--Check!

But the real reason we all came together was to run the Zombie 5K. This summer had been the first since I can remember that I didn't jog. I blame the stress of moving and remodeling, but I started running about a month before for this little gem (thanks to Susannah's update texts on where I should be in order to have my body ready to run). But this was all about strategy--staying in groups, swinging your arms just the right way to keep zombie hands from grabbing my flags, taking just the right course around mud and zombies. I wished I had trained with bursts of sprinting mixed with walking, which is what the race ended up being. Luckily, all three of us actually made it through with at least one flag in tact (which means we all made it out alive). That was a big deal, especially with the crazy obstacles at the end--the mud pit (which I spider crawled through so that I didn't have mud splattered all over like Susannah did), the pyramid that required hands to keep you from protecting your flags, and the big barrels you had to climb with a rope and slide down. With the craziness of everything, I really didn't think about the fact that I was supposed to be afraid of the zombies! At the end of it all, I was so glad I did it and so hope I never have to again! 

I don't think I mentioned that it was 35 degrees in the morning when our leg of the race was. So after the race, we stopped at Starbucks for hot chocolate. Here we are showing off our beloved flags. 

It's strange to be away from my kids even if it's just for a short weekend but wow, I'm glad I went! I needed this weekend, especially with the stress of this year. Now, back to my unfinished house...