the end of summer

I love Labor Day weekend. School has been back in session for a month, and we already need a break! I am very thankful for three days off... It's also exciting because fall is coming. I am so excited about cooler weather soon! 

Natalie and Dan came to visit for the long weekend... Natalie drove up from FL, and Dan flew down from VA. It was the first time we had seen them together since they got engaged in May! When Natalie arrived on Friday afternoon, we went to work on baking this incredible cheesecake. I'm not even a huge cheesecake fan, but this was amazing. We celebrated Dan's birthday a few weeks early... Really, we just wanted an excuse to bake. :)

Later that evening, all of us (Toby included) loaded into Brian's car to go pick up Dan from the airport. On our way home, we stopped for a late night snack at The Varsity. Even though we've lived in Atlanta for three years, we had never been before! It was fun, and now we can say we've done it. 

So I'm in week six of a 25 week marathon training program. I don't know if I've mentioned it on here or not, but in January, I'm running a FULL marathon in Charleston with a couple of my good friends. More on that later... So this Saturday's run was 6 miles. I was so excited to have everyone run with me! It was quite hot and humid, but we ran on a shady trail which made it more bearable. Poor Toby collapsed at the end. Did I mention I'm ready for cooler weather?

One thing we've been wanting to do is go to the Food Truck Park. So that's what we did on Saturday for lunch. It was really fun!

Next, we hit the mall so Nat and Dan could register for wedding gifts. Since they're long distance right now, they don't have many opportunities to do this. Lucky for them, Atlanta has practically every store imaginable.

On Sunday, they registered at three more stores and were completely drained and exhausted. I remember this feeling well. 

So we headed for a double date at the drive in movie theater! I have memories of going with my parents as a kid.. This was Dan's first time! We saw a double feature and got home way too late, but it was so fun!

On Monday morning, we slept in, went for another run, and ate pumpkin waffles. Then we spent the afternoon at Piedmont Park. I love this place! We took Toby to the dog park and then played bocce ball until it was time to say goodbye.

What a fun long weekend! I didn't want it to end! Thanks for coming to visit Dan and Nat!