Memorial Day Weekend

Andrew and I had an eventful yet relaxing Memorial Day weekend, and as usual, it went by way too fast.

On Friday evening we had our friends Justin and Grace over for dinner. Grace and I planned out our schedule to train for the Richmond Marathon this November. I still can't believe we're going to run 26.2 miles!

On Saturday morning I ran in the Appalachian Power Festival Run 10K with Grace. It was my first 10K race, and I did great! If you want to read more about it, check out my other blog, The Running Cook, by clicking here.

After the race, Andrew went for a bike ride on the Parkway while I went grocery shopping. I went to the pool for the first time of the season in the afternoon. Unfortunately, the water is still a little too cold for swimming!

On Saturday evening we met up with our friends Kendra and Derek for a Salem Red Sox baseball game. It was our first baseball game of the season. Andrew had gotten two teacher appreciation tickets through school, so we got to enjoy the game for free. The Sox lost the game, but at least they shot off some fireworks after the game!

After the game we were craving some ice cream...so we went to go check out Scott & Ellie's new location in Salem. Scott & Ellie's serves Homestead Creamery ice cream, which is a local creamery that makes the best ice cream I have ever tasted...no exaggeration. I had some vanilla ice cream with freshly made brownies smashed in and Andrew enjoyed some black raspberry ice cream.

On Sunday we pretty much did a whole lot of nothing. Andrew watched the Indy 500 and the Coca-Cola 600. For dinner Andrew made some steaks on the grill (first time!).

The meal was made complete with a baked potato and green beans.

While I was waiting on dinner to be done, I took a picture of our pretty wildflowers.

This morning Andrew went riding while I went running. We didn't realize how hot it was going to be outside, but combined with the humidity, it was brutal. It really knocked the energy out of us and made it hard for both of us to perform well.

I had plans to go to the pool in the afternoon, but it was just way too hot (I never thought I would say that it's too hot for the pool...). So we had another uneventful afternoon while dinner was cooking in the crock pot. For our Memorial Day dinner, I made pulled pork barbecue (my first time!), homemade coleslaw, corn, and juicy watermelon! I can't wait to eat these leftovers...

So that's what we did this weekend...as for James, this is what he did all weekend:

Actually, that's what he does pretty much all the time. Must be nice!

Now it's back to work for both of us, and soon Andrew will be out of school for the summer!

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Mother's Day and Landon's Dedication

Last weekend we went to visit with my sister and her family for Mother's day and Landon's dedication at their church. On Saturday afternoon we relaxed, played some yard games, and waited on dinner.

A serious game of bocce ball

Cornhole!

wheee!

mmm yummy dinner!

After dinner I was surprised with an early birthday celebration! My grandmother's carrot cake is THE BEST!

After dinner I gave my mom her mother's day present...bullets for her new gun! Apparently Walter and Sarah got the memo too because she ended up with 3 boxes...I mean, what better mother's day present could you ask for?

On Sunday morning we all went to Sarah and Brian's church for Landon's dedication.

Afterwards we went back to their house for the celebration!

Landon is so cute you could just eat him up (ha!).

the Sharpley fam

And last, I know this is a little late, but...

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A Happy/Sad Kind of Day

I'll give you the sad news first...

Today I picked up my very last prescription from Lipes Pharmacy. Lipes is an independent pharmacy in the Crystal Spring neighborhood that has been open since 1929, and is now going to close at the end of the month. I'm really sad about this because I really love Lipes. They know my family, and they know my name when I walk in the door. Not only that, but I don't even have to tell them the name of the prescription I'm there to pick up because they remember every time. Granted I only have one prescription, but when I walk in they just ask me if I'm there to pick up "my regular". I'm really going to miss them. I got a little teary-eyed when I walked out the door, and I snapped a picture so that I could always remember them!

I think in honor of this we should go to Fork in the Alley and enjoy a Lipes Burger (burger topped with Tinnell's pimento cheese and a pickle!). Maybe we'll have to do just that later this month...

Alright, enough sad news. Now onto the good part!

Today during lunch, my friend from work, Kelly, walked with me to the Strawberry Festival. We've been looking forward to getting our fill of delicious strawberry shortcake for literally 2 months now. As always, it was so good and I ate every last bit of it.

If you didn't get a chance to go today, the festival is going on tomorrow from 10-4, but don't wait too late because they've run out of strawberries before (now that was a sad day...). While you're downtown, be sure to check out the Chili Cook-Off, too!

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Holden Beach

Last week Andrew and I had an amazing time on a week-long vacation to Holden Beach, NC. Our trip was planned somewhat last minute, but we're so glad we decided to go somewhere over Andrew's spring break instead of just staying at home. It was so wonderful to be able to get away from everything and just spend time relaxing together with few distractions. We had never been to Holden Beach before, but after last week I have a feeling we'll be back!

The weather was perfect with only two days being rainy or extremely windy, but it worked out perfectly because we went outlet shopping on the rainy day and went for a walk on the beach (making sure there weren't any tornado warnings) and watched movies inside when it was really windy. On all of the other picturesque days, we went for bike rides in the morning and in the afternoon we were on the beach reading, sleeping, or just watching the waves roll in. We went out to dinner three nights and ate in on the others. Overall I'd say it was a perfect vacation...we didn't really want to come home!

I took a ton of pictures, but they were mostly of the beautiful sunsets we witnessed nearly every night. So with no further ado, I'll let the photos roll...

This is the house we stayed in. It was on the 2nd row (way cheaper than the ocean front homes!) so we just had to walk across the street to get to the beach!

Even though we weren't right on the ocean, we still had a little bit of a view from the upstairs. We ate breakfast and drank coffee out on the front deck in the mornings.

One of the things I really loved about the house was all of the windows upstairs displaying the beautiful views in the front and the back. Behind the house was a marshy area and the intracoastal waterway, so even with all of the windows it was still pretty private. The picture above is from the kitchen...I would just LOVE to have a view like that from my kitchen at home!

Now onto the many beautiful sunsets...these first few are of the sun setting over the intracoastal waterway.

We even got a beautiful rainbow and sunset on the rainy day.

And here are a few more pictures of the beach in the late afternoon.

Besides shrimp, I'm not a huge fan of seafood, so of course Andrew was really excited that he got to eat his fill during the week!

Becks!! (somewhat of a Sharpley family tradition/novelty)

I enjoyed some shrimp with a delicious pasta from Sharky's in Ocean Isle.

And of course, who doesn't love HUSH PUPPIES!?!

We also ate at Inlet View Bar & Grill (no food pictures, sorry!) and I enjoyed a delicious grilled shrimp burger and Andrew had yet another seafood platter!

Now onto a few pictures of us...

The island was great for bike rides in the morning.

There was a pier about a mile away so we walked to it when it was too windy to sit out on the beach.

Gettin' our beach on!

On the back deck

Trying to get some photos worthy of the Christmas card...

And a few more random ones...

Boats in the intracoastal waterway

A cute little house!

And this ends the slide show of our vacation. As you can see we didn't do way too much, but that's exactly the way we wanted it to be. Holden Beach is a beautiful place and we really enjoyed it. Although we didn't want to leave, we came home relaxed and refreshed...and looking forward to going back again!

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