Since the last post

A lot has happened around our house since I last posted.  Let's catch up, shall we?!?

Memphis had a football game on a Thursday night, which is a school night.  I was done by Thursday night.  Fred, Jack and Clayton went to the game and Andrew and I stayed home.  I think they had a blast.  I know I did.

Saturday morning we had the usual football and soccer games.  Then, that afternoon I met several friends for our first ever freezer cooking party.  We worked for about an hour and a half and then we all left with 6 meals.  It was so much fun.  We are making preparations for the next party.

Later that evening we celebrated my birthday at Fred and Renee's house with Mexican chicken and cheesecake.  I have no picture.  I was too busy eating cheesecake. 

Monday morning I cleaned a house and then Aunt Janice came to take us all to lunch for my birthday.  She then took the boys home with her.  They played dominoes, ate whatever they wanted, and helped at tutoring. Before they left Andrew told me the kindergarten students could just call him Mr. Shackelford.  Too sweet. 

 Mr. Shackelford even took a little bit of his homework to work on while he was there. 

The idea was that Fred and I could stay home and go out for dinner/a nice evening, but my stomach had a different idea.  Instead we stayed at home, watched Netflix, and ate chicken noodle soup.  Good times.  

Tuesday morning we headed out for our fall break trip at Fall Creek Falls. We stopped halfway at a bookstore and then headed straight to our cabin. 

Wednesday morning we woke up and headed out to hike at Fall Creek Falls.  Since it hasn't rained much this summer, I've renamed it Fall Creek Trickle.  FCF is typically a roaring waterfall, but not this time.  It was a little disappointing, but the hiking was still fun. 

 There are cable bridges at Fall Creek Falls and it is so fun to explore. 

 You can see the falls over my shoulder.  Again, this is usually roaring.  Not this time, but we still had fun.

 This picture does not capture the colors of fall, but it could not have been more beautiful.  The colors grew more red and orange and yellow each day that we were there.

Thursday we headed to Rock Island State Park.  The waterfall there was breathtaking.  Again, the pictures don't really show the massive expanse of the falls. It's about 200 feet wide and 75 feet tall.  This waterfall, unlike the one at FCF, is fed by an unknown source coming from a cave, so it's not dependent on rainfall. 

 We then hiked to a second waterfall.  It was really a nice hike with more beautiful views. 

We didn't hike as many miles on the second day as we did on the first day, so we headed back to FCF for one last trail...after a quick trip to Sonic, of course.  The trail we wanted to hike was one we had never done before.  It was a cable trail that descended 120 feet into a gorge.  When we looked at reviews online it was labeled as difficult and for the "extreme adventurer" and only for "experienced hikers".  It certainly wasn't recommended for children.  We decided to hike to it and then make our decision.  Before we could decide Jack and Clayton headed down.  Again, pictures do not do this hike justice.  My thighs are still screaming from this one. 

 There were drop offs and rocks that had to be climbed over and around and at times we just had the cable to hold on to.  The views at the bottom were totally worth it though.  I'm so proud of Andrew.  My other two never would have attempted this at his age. 

Finally made it to the bottom of the gorge.  The water level was so low, that a tree branch was sticking out of the water. 

Friday morning it was time to leave.  Fred and Jack went on a walk/run before we loaded up.  Look at those two walking and talking.  Is that not the sweetest?

On the way home we had to drive through some pretty curvy roads.  Some of us deal better with curvy roads than others...

Before heading home we stopped at Cumberland Caverns for a little tour.  A cave tour never ceases to amaze me.  From there we went to Linden Valley for me to drop the boys off at RA Camporee.  They were thrilled!  Almost as excited as me as I headed home to be by myself.  I waited at camporee until they got the tent set up.  Since it was raining, Fred wanted to wait to unload all of their things.  I didn't get a picture before I left.  They were excited.  I was excited.  It was a win-win situation for us all!  I heart fall break.  Until next time fall break...you were wonderful, as always!