This weekend was close to perfect. Not only because our friends (my college roommate) Nikki & her boyfriend Brandon came to visit, but also because for the first time in a while, we didn't have to travel anywhere! Jeff and I seem to be always on the go. But for the next few weekends, we have friends and family traveling to us. We had so much fun hosting Nik and Brandon and wanted to share some of our weekend adventures with you!

Thankfully, they took a half a day of work on Friday so that they were able to leave MD to get to NY without hitting too much traffic. They arrived Friday night around 6:30. We rented Jackass 2 and ate some pumpkin bread/halloween candy and cuddled on the floor :)

The next morning we woke up and took them to the infamous Toast, where I first learned the recipe for our favorite Graham-Cracker Crusted French Toast. After staring long and hard at the many choices on the menu, here's what we each decided on. Can you guess who ate what?

The Garden Scramble:

















Cinnamon Raisin French Toast:

















The "Dig Me" (Egg whites, turkey, spinach)

















Peanut Butter & Banana Graham Cracker Crusted French Toast...WHOA.

























After breakfast we walked around town for a bit, where of course Nikki wanted to pose with the "Welcome to Port Jefferson" sign :) I love spending time with Nikki, especially because we both love taking pictures and never mind making our men pose for several different shots. Brandon and Jeff-you guys are troopers. Thanks for putting up with us!
























We then headed out East where we planned to pick apples. Brandon had never picked apples off of the trees before, so he was excited. However this excitement was soon over when we pulled up to an orchard and saw no apples on the trees. Apple season was early this year, and over by the end of October. Who knew? Not us. Dang.

So we just headed to a few farm stands, took some pictures, ate some cherry salsa, drank some hot apple cider, went through a tiny corn maze and bought some really cute apples to make caramel treats with.


































































This corn (or hay) maze may look easy...but as you can see on my face, it was actually quite tricky.


















Just wondering what the point of buying an already decorated pumpkin is? Are we really that lazy?


















After getting bored at this farm stand, we went to a pumpkin picking patch. It was a ghost town. Probably because we went on October 30th and everyone had already bought pumpkins by then. So we just took some pictures and got stared at by the owners...

The boys did some surfing.
























































We eventually made it back home to make some treats with all of the apples we bought! On the agenda: caramel apple pops and apple crisp. Here's what the boys did while we baked. I guess we can't blame them for wanting to have some "man time" after a morning of picture taking...









































Chopping up some apples for caramel apple bites. We also added some toppings to the apple pops; crushed up chocolate chip cookies, mini chocolate chips, and some pecans (they were random, I found them in the pantry and wanted to get rid of them).




































Then we moved on to the apple crisp. Nikki made this a week earlier and found the recipe on a healthy recipe blog. You find a lot when googling "healthy recipes + apples." It was easy to make and turned out great!

















Mix all of these ingredients together, throw it in the oven, and there you have it. Yummy, hot, healthy, apple crisp...make it unhealthy with a large scoop of vanilla ice-cream :)

















We ate these yummy treats while watching the movie, "The Crazies," since it was Halloween night! Brandon was def a trooper since he hates scary movies. At least we didn't make him go on a haunted hay ride.

This morning we went to church at True North and ate lunch at Chipotle, did some shopping at The Christmas Tree Shop, and then parted ways :( A BIG thanks to Nikki and Brandon for making the long trip (7 hours) to Long Island to spend time with us. I feel bad that they are driving right now, and will be for quite some time, as I relax on my couch blogging and eating a Reeces Peanut Butter Cup. But then again, I made this trip every weekend last year...so I don't feel TOO bad ;)

Hope you are having a HAPPY Halloween! Jeff and I are off on a long run, then handing out candy to the little ones.

















Inside joke of the weekend: "Samples...FREE."
(sorry, no one else will understand this, however it will make Nikki laugh...hard...and that's all that matters :)