weekend recap + fall break

WARNING:

this will be a total photo dump of this weekend, in addition to a lot of blabbering.

This weekend was fabulous to say the very least. 

It was fall break for school, giving me Monday and Tuesday off. Since I have no Friday classes this semester, it meant a five day weekend! Seriously I want to jump when I hear that. It's so nice to get a short break from school, RAing, Toledo, etc. 

On Thursday, my Grandma and I went to the new casino in Toledo. We ate in the sports bar, since the buffet prices were reDONKulous! It would have been over $30 a person, and we were not looking to spend like that! The casino is really cool! You should definitely check it out. I would have taken and posted pictures, but I forgot my phone at home!

We did leave winners though! Grams is the luckiest person I know. I have never heard of her not winning at the casino, and she usually wins all sorts of drawings and prizes too. She sticks to the penny slots, yet always walks out with triple digit winnings! Hopefully luck like that is genetic? Doubt it. 

on the way to get Grams and head to the casino!

On Friday, B and I headed southeast to the glorious town of Barnesville, Ohio. It is the cutest little podunk small town. I love it! My Stepdad was born and raised there, and we can't walk down two blocks without seeing someone he went to school with. It's fun :)

On the last full weekend of every September, they have the Pumpkin Festival. It's so fun! You can get pumkin anything. I'm not joking. Pumpkin ice cream, beer, bread, popcorn, seeds, etc. It's all super delicious too! 

When we got into town, we were greeted by my step-grandma, Polly. She raised 3 boys, who are now spread across the country, 2 of which coach football (college and high school levels). She is the sweetest person you'll ever meet, can seriously throw down in the kitchen, worked full-time for 30 years, and will be the one yelling at the tv when football is on! Talk about a well-rounded woman. 

She made this fabulous chicken and veggie soup, her delicious apple sauce and amazing pumpkin bread. YUM. It definitely sounds like a weird smattering of foods, but it was delicious and totally hit the spot after a 4 hour car ride with a sleepy boyfriend. 

After that, we headed downtown to check out the King Pumpkin, which weighed 1500.5 lbs. The largest one ever was 1503, so, needless to say, this was a biggin'.

The local school holds a decorating contest between the grades and students. It was so fun to see their creative works of art. Some were hilarious!

that is, indeed, a pooping pumpkin!
and he's pooping out a pumpkin pie!

pooping and puking pumpkins!
the boys loved em!

 We went to bed early that night since we in the Pumpkin Run 5k bright and early the next morning! 

It was both B and my first ever 5k. We woke up bright and early and drove downtown. I didn't realize it was such a popular race, there were over 600 people there! It's such a small town, I figured the 5k would be small too. I was wrong!

We finished the race in 35.35. Not super fast, but being our first one, I was proud. It was a hilly terrain and I was dying after the first hill. We didn't walk once and ran the last mile in 7.40 minutes! 

My mom, stepdad, John, and Polly came to see us run! 

It was great to have someone cheering for us as we crossed the finished line. 

                              

nice action shot as we were in our final stretch!
(my ipod kept falling down my pants, thus the awkward shirt grab!)

B and I right after the race!
excuse the gross picture 

Now, I need to address something: Race Walkers.

Have you seen/heard of these people? They are cray. Cray actually isn't descriptive enough.

These people speed walk the race, and actually are as fast or faster then most runners! They started the race 2 minutes after us, and ran walked past us within 4 minutes of us starting. Not only were they super fast, they were breathing like they were giving birth, and looked in massive amounts of pain. 

While they zoomed past, I said something to B about how ridiculous they looked. I forgot my head phones were in and may have screamed it a little. whoops!

Here's a nice video of the art of race walking:

We relaxed the rest of the day, watched the parade, then headed out to wander the town and watch a local band perform.

mom and I

John, mom and I

me and my baby :)

We left Sunday evening and got a beautiful view the entire way back.

I love how the leaves are beginning to change.
Fall is my favorite season by far.

Monday was back to the res hall and back to Extreme Results. 

I got my gloves in the mail on Friday. B and I headed to the 5pm class and got our asses kicked.

It was awesome!

my new gloves and hand wraps!
ahh i'm in love :)

And these are the things that made me laugh this weekend. :)

Back to reality now.

I have two exams, 4 assignments and a research paper due this week. :/

hope y'all have a great week!

-Cat