November 1! HOW!? I know it’s so cliche to say but I feel like we were literally just wrapping up summer pool days and starting school. Fall has flown by and I can’t believe we’re already taking down Halloween decorations and thinking about Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Despite it passing in a flash – we’ve had a wonderful fall. Here’s what we’ve been up to the last couple of weeks!

A MONDAY HIKE AT DOUGHTON PARK

I cleared my calendar recently to enjoy a Monday on the trails at Doughton Park. 13.1 gorgeous miles and it was uncrowded and so peaceful. I think I’ll dedicate a whole post to this hike/Doughton because it’s a hidden gem and just an hour and 45 minutes from Charlotte. Such an easy day trip! I was home in time to teach my 4:30p class.

OUR ANNUAL HALL FAMILY FARMS OUTING 

Finn and I have made a tradition out of a fall afternoon at Hall Family Farm. We went after school on a blue sky Thursday and had the whole place to ourselves! I much prefer to visit places like this at non-peak times whenever possible. Finn was pumped to meet the height requirements to do the goat walk by himself and we took the sweetest hayride.

HALLOWEEN FUN

It was an epic Halloween. A very rainy and cold week gave way to the most perfect Halloween weather. We spent Thursday decorating Halloween sugar cookies and attending a trunk or treat. Finn had been asking me for a week to bake and decorate sugar cookies so I ordered some Halloween cookie cutters and we made it happen. Our decorated cookies are always a hot mess but also bring me so much joy. I love that he asks to bake with me! Speaking of cookies, I dressed up as Cookie Monster for work on Halloween.

For the actual day…Halloween was pajama day at Finn’s school – so cute how much the kids love that. I passed out candy to the earlier trick or treaters and then Finn came to me for a victory lap around our neighborhood. I think he ran two miles and his candy bucket was overflowing. We both ate a ton of candy when we got home and then slept until 8a on Saturday!

My leading feeling this Halloween was fully appreciating the last of “little kid.” Finn hits 7.5 this month and while he’s still full of sweetness and innocence, I can see the middle years coming at us full force. Mostly, I just feel so, so lucky to be his mom.

FALL ENTERTAINMENT

Finn has been really into drawing videos on YouTube. He uses the Art For Kids Hub and I am so proud of what he’s been doing!

DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU DON’T WANT SPOILER HINTS FOR NOBODY WANTS THIS.

On a less creative note, I recently watched the second season of Nobody Wants This and while I adored episodes 1-7, the last three left me feeling a little frustrated and uninspired. In short, I wanted to punch Noah, felt the Morgan storyline was incomplete, disliked how they are setting up the Sasha/Morgan love story (I actually like the Sasha/Esther dynamic and figuring out how they’ve grown to be different people) and UGH to the fairytale ending of the last episode.

FALL MARATHON TRAINING 

I am in the final stage of preparation for the Every Woman’s Marathon in Scottsdale on November 16. While my training hasn’t been as structured or robust as last year, I feel good about it. I am coming from such a different place when it comes to endurance and time on my feet.

Before last year’s race, I had not run a marathon since 2010 and hadn’t been doing a lot of endurance/distance efforts prior to my 18-week training cycle.

I did NOT do an 18-week training cycle this year but I am coming off of a whole year of long trail endurance including 120 miles in 6 days in Colorado back in August for TransRockies. I’ve gotten some solid long runs in and while I probably won’t be setting any PRs, I feel like I’ll have a positive race experience!

More to be said on that in a pre-race marathon post!

GOLDEN PUPS

These two took a long overdue trip to the vet to see the groomers on Halloween. While they were there, they had to have vet check ups and vaccine boosters. Sadly, Zoey’s sweet body is covered with cancerous masses (inside and out) but she’s gained weight and is so very happy. She mobile, active, instigates play with Benji and begs for food 24/7. I still feel solid in my decision not to pursue surgery. If she didn’t have a splenic mass, I’d remove the external ones in a heartbeat (I did that for Sullie and it gave us two more years!) but the last thing I want to do is put Zoey through a really intense internal surgery that some dogs don’t even survive without that being curative. She’d still need more surgery to remove the external masses AND chemo – just to extend her life, not cure her cancer.

I fully trust that Zoey and I know each other well enough that she will let me know when it’s her time. In the meantime, I’ll keep spoiling her with allllll the treats and love.

Benji got a 100% full bill of good health.

I think this feels like a good completion point for this post. I hope it’s been a great fall for you guys!

QUESTIONS 

What did you and/or your kids dress up as? 

Thoughts on Season 2 of Nobody Wants This? 

Are you training for anything right now?