nie recovery 5K (in virginia)

where do I begin? well, I suppose the beginning is a good place . . .

friday: I met my sister, helena, in d.c. (after getting massively lost in the murder capital of the nation) and then headed to the home of the gracious host and hostess of the 5k (david and carrie marriott) - they were getting their three delicious children ready for trick or treating but she sat us down to some fabulous chicken chili, local apple cider and pumpkin cookies. I was in heaven (especially since we hadn't eaten all day). after their kids had made the neighborhood rounds and sufficiently filled their bags with candy, we headed out to the marriott family farm in hume, virginia.

sorry about the awful focus (helena is a self-proclaimed "horrible photographer").

saturday: the next morning we woke up to the most beautiful day in history (probably). the weather was perfect and the fall leaves made helena and I "die" over and over again (we're a family of exaggerators). we headed over to the manor house (which is a bed and breakfast and supposedly haunted by the ghost of mary marshall - spooky). we started getting ready for the race (though I didn't help much - I just took pictures) and the nicest people started arriving. helena gave a wonderful speech about christian and stephanie. then, after a resounding gunshot, we were off on the race. I make it sound like we were booking it - but the truth is, helena and I walked briskly. it was much too pretty to run through the beautiful farm land (yeah, that's why).

after the race, we had a delicious breakfast of french toast, fruit, bacon, eggs . . . yum . . . and got our balloons ready for stephanie's famous balloon launch. I just love those balloon launches.

people started heading home and we felt encouraged by their generosity. then, david marriott started advertising jeep rides around the farm and I couldn't pass that up! we had a small mishap, but it was very fun (and just the right amount of dangerous).

that afternoon, we raced back to d.c. so that we could frantically get ready for dinner at cityzen. it was a prix fixe menu and I can't even tell you how amazing each course was. if you know me at all, you'll understand my extreme excitement about food. I so wish I could have taken pictures of each course but I have enough class to realize that doing so would have been inappropriate in such a swanky restaurant.

sunday: we went to church and then met up with the marriott family for brunch. it was very nice and they are such great people! I really admire the whole family and am so thankful that carrie put so much work into organizing this event. from there, helena and I sadly left for the airport. I was excited to see my honey but also very sad to be leaving "sweater weather" for "shorts weather".

in any case, it was a wonderful weekend and a huge thank you to the marriott's for their kindness, generosity and hospitality (no pun intended).