So. Much. Food.

Raise your hand if you’re stuffed full of turkey and other yummy foods.

I hope you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving. We sure did. We kicked off Turkey Day with a brisk 5 mile run. I've run Fast Freddies for 11 years in a row and I love it. My dad is on his third year (plus he competed in the walk event the 9 years before that) and Justin has run it the last two years. This year, my sister ran the race for the very first time. Pretty soon my evil plan will be complete and my entire family will be running with me on Thanksgiving morning!!

 

I managed to keep a 9:40 pace and finished in 48:22 - better than I expected! After a warm shower and a giant mug of coffee, we went to Thanksgiving #1 at my grandma’s house. Her cheesy cauliflower is my favorite food in the whole entire world. I was too busy eating to take pictures so you'll just have to trust that it was a wild and crazy time. We had over 30 people smooshed into my grandma's house and enough food to feed 60!

For dinner, my grandparent’s came over to my parent’s house for some pumpkin pie and (what was supposed to be) game night. We ended up watching the Levi show most of the night. This kid is so awesome. He has so much personality and is a musical genius! He can play the piano and sing...so much talent for a 10 month old :)

On Friday morning, The Boy and and I traveled down to Bardstown, KY to his grandma’s house. We had a delicious lunch with his family and I made plans to visit his grandma again to learn all of her recipes! 

On Saturday, we went to see the Christmas light show in Charlestown, which is just a few miles from my parent's house. For a little town, they do it up BIG. They have two HUGE parks full of Christmas lights and there is a little show set to music. My cousins brought their two kiddos and we all had a blast.

Even though it was a long weekend, it went by so fast! On Sunday we all parted ways to head back to our respective parts of the country. Leaving home is always hard, but it was a little easier this trip knowing that we'll all be back in Indiana in three short weeks.

What is your favorite Thanksgiving food?

Random, but what was the last movie you saw in the theater?

Weekend in the ATL

The Boy and I took a trip down to Atlanta last weekend. He was speaking at the Southern Economic Conference and I tagged along because I love hotels and happy hours.

He loves car rides with me…

Traffic was pretty rough so we didn't get to the hotel until dinner time. We got checked in and headed straight to the local brewery, Max Lager’s. We got a flight of their beers so we could try all of the local brews. Justin liked all of the beers I didn’t and I liked all of the beers he didn’t. #meantforeachother

Justin had to present at 8am on Saturday. I woke up with him at 5:30 so he could run through his presentation one last time…and then I fell back asleep 10 minutes into the presentation. #bestfianceever When I finally decided to wake back up around 8am, I headed down to what I can only describe as the BEST hotel gym I have ever used and ran 3 miles.

Check it out! The Boy is FAMOUS!

I spent then entire day doing homework while Justin attended conference sessions all day. 6:00 took forever to roll around and I was more than ready for Happy Hour. Does anyone remember the Friends episode where they all go to Ross’s conference? 

It was pretty accurate…economists aren't quite as nerdy as TV paleontologists…but they’re a pretty close second :)

My favorite people in the world drove up to stay with us on Saturday night (pretend there is a picture here since I forgot to take one). On Sunday, Justin had to get up and attend more conference sessions while the rest of us slept in and played in the hotel room. 

The 20th Floor is SO HIGH UP!

On Sunday afternoon, we went to the World of Coca-Cola for a tour and tasting. It was a pretty neat place – there were lots of exhibits about the history of Coke and plenty of Coke art to see. I really enjoyed all of the decorated Coke bottles around the building.

We got to see the Coke Vault where the secret formula is locked away. Levi tried to steal it, but was not successful (bummer).

Did you know that in 1995, a Coke dispenser was sent to space on the Discovery shuttle?

We went to a 4D movie (which was a little lame, but probably would have been cool if we were 8) and then it was finally time for the tasting!

There were over 100 flavors of soda to try from around the world. Sodas from Africa were way to sweet. The had one that strait up tasted like toothpaste – so weird. We tried every single one from every single country. There were a few that I liked, but not many I would want to see at my grocery store! It’s pretty crazy how different taste buds are in other countries. Japan even had a “Vegitabeta” flavor.

At the end of the visit, everyone gets a free bottle of Coke! If you visit Atlanta, the World of Coca-Cola is definitely worth the $16 admission fee. After the tour, we had to pack up and head north again. It was a fantastic mini-vacation for me and Justin made a lot of connections at the conference. Now it’s back to the real world for a couple of days before we get a break from Thanksgiving.

Who’s been to Atlanta? World of Coca-Cola?

Who is traveling for Thanksgiving this week?