Weekend with lil' sis

I had a really fun weekend with my younger sister Kathryn! Our parents went to the beach so Kathryn spent a couple of days with me! I can't tell you how much she means to me! I was almost 14 when she was born and for many years she was just my baby sister whom I loved dearly, but now she is so much more! As she has grown older, she has developed into such an amazing young woman, and I can honestly say that she is not so much of my baby sister anymore as she is my dear friend! She and I share a lot in common from our sense of humor to our similarity in looks (you should see the looks we get when we get asked if we are twins and I say that I am almost 14 years older! Speaks well for that anti-aging cream I guess! ;)

Anyway, back to this weekend! She had to fend for herself for two days while I worked, but then on Friday we started our fun! I made some potato soup and put it in the crock pot while I went for a little run:

 When I got home, I chopped up some broccoli crowns, drizzled some olive oil, sprinkled with garlic salt and pepper, and baked at 400 for about 15 minutes while I stretched out (had some multi-tasking going on this evening! :)

 Ended up with some yummy loaded baked potato soup (just missing some bacon!)

 We were going to go out on Friday night, but we ended up just crashing at the house and watched this show called Duck Dynasty (they were airing a marathon of Duck Dynasty episodes and somehow we got sucked in! haha). Hilarious!

Saturday morning, we were up bright and early and headed over to a fabulous little family owned and operated restaurant called Bluegrass Grill for some pancakes and bacon! We ended up meeting a couple while we were waiting for a table, and when a table of 4 opened up, we decided to just eat breakfast together! We actually had a lot in common and several mutual friends! Wish I had taken a picture with our new friends, but I didn't want to scare them! :)

Saturday afternoon we headed here for an afternoon hike:

 The weather could not have been more perfect, and the changing foliage was impressive. Our Creator put on a color show this fall!

 I think Kathryn might have been a little nervous about my trail blazing skills as she kept asking me if I knew where I was going!

 Amazing!

 Sisters:

 After our hike, we went out for some Mexican food, went and saw a movie, and even fit in a little shopping! It was a full day of fun together!

I guess that's why today felt like such a contrast! My little companion had to leave! She returned home this morning to go to her church. After my service ended I called her and told her that I wanted her to come back, that I wasn't done playing with her!! She said something about homework...whatever! I just know that I missed her today!

A lot of my friends were either out of town or busy with other things this weekend, so it meant that today I got to explore this fine city on my own (which to be honest felt really weird!). First off, I went to the open air market where today happened to be "dog day." I felt like I needed to borrow a dog to walk around to fit in! There were some beautiful ones of all types and sizes. Didn't get any pictures!

Next, I wandered to the Hunter Art Museum where they were having free admission because it is the first Sunday of the month! It has been a long time since I have been there, and I enjoyed meandering among great pieces of art!
Kathryn tells me this is called a "selfie!" (a photographic self-portrait). She keeps me up with all these hip phrases!

 I sat for a while in front of this one, and prayed for the elections coming up on Tuesday. I thought about how much our country has changed since his presidency! Thankfully the God who holds the heart of a king in his hands has not changed!

 Beautiful view from the terrace:

 I ended up my solo tour of the city at one of my favorite spots! Enjoyed some pumpkin cheesecake and a cup of Autumn Spice coffee while I studied Mark 7 for my Tuesday morning Bible Study!