Our trip to Asheville, D.C. and Gatlinburg

We left church and headed east about a week ago. We had no destination this particular evening. Our goal was to drive as far as we could. We made it to Crossville. The next morning we left the hotel and headed to our first destination--The Biltmore in Asheville, North Carolina. Unfortunately, our camera card started acting up and we don't have any pictures from the Biltmore. I can just sum it up for you...it was a really big house. We stayed the night at Ridgecrest just outside of Asheville (for $34 a night b/c Fred is a pastor!!). Once we got settled in the hotel we headed back into Asheville for dinner at Tupelo Honey Cafe. We discovered this on foodnetwork.com with Rachael Ray. It was delicious!! I highly recommend downloading the recipe for sweet potato pancakes! After a wonderful nights rest we headed to D.C. We had a LONG drive in for an appointment at the capital. After a few tense moments we made it to our tour...an hour late. We headed into Georgetown later for dinner at an Ethopian restaurant--interesting experience. Saturday the Shackelford storm hit the city like nothing it had seen before. Here are a few pictures from the day...

We got a little turned around at one point and it seemed like every time we turned a corner we came to a new Department of Agriculture building. We took a picture of it for that reason and for our good friend Alex Bomar.

We had lunch in Chinatown.

Arlington National Cemetery

At the end of our day we headed back to the train station. It had rained on and off all day and this is what we saw when we got off the train...

We had a really full day: Arlington National Cemetery, National Archives, White House tour, Chinatown, Union Station, National Gallery of Art and the Air and Space Museum.

Sunday we woke up early for a run. Since we are both training for a 1/2 marathon we had to fit our runs in. Fred mapped out a run for us past all the major monuments and through Capital Mall. I don't have any pictures from this part of our trip, but if I did it would just be a picture of the back of Fred since that's all I saw!! After our run we headed to Capital Hill Baptist Church for worship. It was so nice to just go to church and sit by Fred. We then had lunch and headed to Gatlinburg, Tennessee where we finished our trip. A lovely cabin in the woods awaited us and we thoroughly enjoyed it! We shopped, layed around, read, ate, relaxed and didn't tour anyones home!! All and all it was a really good trip. We are so grateful for the opportunity to do something like this...thanks to all our family and friends for making it possible!!

Jack DOES NOT need any clothes!!

Yes, this is Clayton sitting by a pile of Jack's clothes. Jack was napping, thus the reason he is not sitting by the clothes...Today was around 40 degrees so I thought it might be time to get out a few warmer things for the boys. I had put a few long sleeved things and pants in both of their closets, but we needed more...ridiculous!! Can you believe this pile of clothes?? Granted, most of the clothes are things Clayton has outgrown (last season) or things people just give us. Thankfully I did not just go out and buy this many clothes. Children should not have this much "stuff", but we'll save that blog post for another day! I've said all this to say...JACK DOES NOT NEED ANY NEW CLOTHES!!!!

Fall Break

We're back to blogging!! I left my camera in Memphis when we ran the race and I just got it back. Thus, the blogging has gotten a little behind. Here we go...
We headed to Memphis with our youth for a little mini-mission trip. We had such a good time. They got to go to LeBonheur and pass out treat bags. Then we had lunch at Dyer's in downtown Memphis. It was delicious!! After that the boys and I headed to the Peabody Hotel to see the ducks and head to the roof. They really enjoyed it. Then we met up with the youth again to do a little work at Brinkley Heights. It is a school in Memphis. We helped pass out flyers in the neighborhood to help tell about the Trunk or Treat they were doing. Clayton was really excited. Here are a few pictures...After a busy day in Memphis we decided to have a little fun at Incredible Pizza. Clayton said, "It's called Incredible Pizza because it is INCREDIBLE!!" Mawmaw, Pawpaw, Lee and Tori met us here. It was a fun time full of pizza, games, go carts and mini golf!

Splash and Dash-2008

Friday night was my birthday. I turned 30! Fred thought it would be an excellent idea if we ran a race to celebrate. We ran the FitCity Splash and Dash in Memphis. Everyone minus Fred participated in the "short" race, which was a 2 mile run and a 150 yard swim. Fred did the long race...a 2 mile run, 150 yard swim and then another 2 mile run and 150 yard swim. Here we are before the race. (On a side note I would like to add something...You can see from this picture that I am slightly in front of Fred. Well, shortly after this picture was taken he asked me to please get behind him before the race started...how funny!! He thought I'd slow him down!! hehehe!) Just getting started! Fred and Corey are LONG gone!! Fred is finishing up his second half of the race...After the race we were all smiles. The s and l on our arms stands for short race and long race. Mine is still visible.
They also wrote our age on our calf muscle. I proudly told them I was 30!! Again, the 30 is still on my calf!!

Here we all are still smiling at the end! What fun!! Thanks to Fred, Renee, Tim, Dale, Liz, Zach, Tori and Lee for helping cheer us on and watching our children! What a fun weekend! I will always remember my 30th birthday party!!


Birthday cake at Neely's BBQ in Memphis...yummy!!Thanks also to all of you who called, sent cards and e-mails. You will never know how special you made this day for me!

I finally got it done...

Fred's sister took some of the most precious pictures of the boys. She ordered these huge prints to check her camera. I had them mounted on foam boad and used artist clips to hang them. She gave them to me this summer and I'm just now getting around to it! I am so pleased with them! Great work, Liz!! (Sorry the picture of the picture is not the best quality, but you get the idea!!) Thanks to Aunt Janice for taking them to Hobby Lobby and having them put on tag board and then footing the bill!!

Running, Running everywhere!

For the past two Saturdays Fred has run in a 5K. Last weekend he ran in Camden to help raise money for St. Jude. Today we both ran in a Run for the Cure 5K for Breast Cancer. As you can see below Fred went two for two. Last week he finished 3.2 miles in 24 minutes and 37 seconds, taking first prize in his age group. Today he finished 2nd in his age division (only to his work-out partner!!) with a time of 22 minutes and 58 seconds! Unfortunately, medals are not given for simply finishing so I have nothing to show other than an amazing sense of accomplishment and a smile. My running partner and I ran it in 36 minutes and we never walked, which was our major goal! My camera was not functioning today so we did not get any pictures, but one picture will always stick out in my mind. As Christy and I rounded the final corner to the finish line, Fred, Jack and Clayton were waiting and cheering. Jack started screaming my name and tried to run onto the course. Fun times!!

It's Fall at the Shackelford house!

It may be eighty degrees and I still may be wearing tank tops and shorts to work in the yard, but Monday was the first official day of Fall! We are ready! Thought you might like to see our front porch. It will look better when the mums begin to bloom in the planter, but for now this will do...

Happy Fall everyone!!