and on the 8th day, He created pumpkin spice doughnuts.

 And it was good. Very, very good.

We had a fabulous weekend celebrating the arrival of fall and hanging out with our siblings in Charlotte, NC. This was our first ever 'siblings weekend' (we need a catchier name)-- Matt and I drove up, Amy (Matt's sis) and Tom (and baby Timmy!) drove down, and we all crashed Stephen (Matt's bro) & Jessica's house for the weekend! We split our time pretty evenly between playing games, shopping, and eating Krispy Kreme Pumpkin Spice doughnuts. And honestly, it wouldn't have killed me to spend a little MORE time with those doughnuts because HOLLA they are good. Oh, we made s'mores, too! In the fireplace! So fun. Basically, we did not starve.

Also, we barely took any pictures. That's how you know you're having fun-- when you're too busy to take pictures or to be thinking about your future blog posts and how you will wish that you'd taken pictures. Good times, living in the moment. 

Here we are last night, cozy by the fire (HELLO FALL, YOU ARE WELCOME HERE!) playing Family Business. I'd never played before but I did manage to win my very first game of it, so obviously I have what it takes to be in the Mafia.

Naturally, playing with Timmy was a highlight of the weekend. I think the highlight of HIS weekend was trying to pet Steve & Jess's kitty and climbing into these ottomans. And then he looked like a jack-in-the-box and it was super adorable. So at least I got a picture of that!
 

PS. Jess would probably like you to know that she is reupholstering this ottoman...it will not remain pink. She likes pops of color, but not like that.

The ladies did some shopping for the wedding on Saturday and I'm happy to report that I did find a dress. I need a few key accessories before I'm ready to call it a done deal (namely some awesome bright-colored wedges...I'm thinking mustard or purple), but I think it fits the bill. It also has an exposed zipper that runs down the entire front of the dress, from the neckline to the bottom. And it's functional...so like...scandaloussssss!!! Hahaha. It was very strange unzipping the entire dress, slipping it on, and then zipping it back up. I hope nobody gets any cute ideas about 'oh, I'll pretend to unzip Erika's dress!' and then...does it. Because it would totally go all the way down. Luckily I'm not in middle school, so the odds of this happening are slim, but still. Maybe I should wear a bathing suit under it or something.

It was a great weekend-- I must say, the only way it could have been better would have been if we'd been able to eat Krispy Kreme Pumpkin Spice doughnuts a few more times. Truly, I feel like we could have been a little more committed to the cause. Oh well. There's always next time...we'll all be back in 3 weeks for our cousin's wedding! (PS. The Krispy Kreme was in the same parking lot as an Ulta and I DID NOT EVEN GO IN ONCE!!! Can you even believe it? Have I gone insane? Who even am I?....)