Visit from the Shelleys!

We had a wonderful weekend with our good friends, Josh and Danielle Shelley and their little boy Harvey, who came up to visit us from Memphis. The Shelleys were in China with us for four and a half years, and we were teammates for 2 of those years. We actually had the privilege of seeing their friendship blossom into romance, then engagement, marriage and right before we moved home last year--parenthood! Though, actually, we also knew them at UNC, though they were a couple of years younger than us. Oh, and we all went through new staff training for Campus Crusade together. So, yeah, our friendship goes way back! We had been trying to figure out a way to get down to Memphis to visit them over David's fall break this coming weekend, but those plans fell through when David realized he has a 10-page research paper due Monday. So they graciously offered to come up here over Josh's "fall break," (i.e.a half day off on friday and no classes on Saturday) to visit us instead! Josh just started the Memphis Teacher Residency program, a really amazing program training teachers in the inner city Memphis schools. If you haven't heard about it, you should check it out: http://www.memphistr.org/

Anyway, they arrived on Friday afternoon, as Memphis is just a 4.5 hr drive away. OK, so for friends on the East Coast that probably seems like a long way, but in much of the country, someplace you can get to in half a day is pretty darn close! That evening we decided to check out this food truck gathering they were having at a park in the city. Food trucks may be a familiar thing to many of you who've lived in a bigger city in the U.S. over the past several years, but they are a relatively new concept for David and I. I'd heard about the phenomenon several years ago, but this was my first time to try it out. I love the idea of chefs producing just a few really good, simple things and selling them inexpensively out of a truck--its basically just all about how good the food is. I had Korean tacos, and they were out of this world. David had a Vietnamese Bahn Mi sandwich, and really liked it. It was a fun chance to try out some new and creative foods!

Another highlight of the weekend was how well Sarah and "Baby Harvey" got along! Sarah is really into babies and toddlers these days, and you could just tell that Harvey thought she was about the coolest older kid he had ever laid eyes on. They played and played and laughed and laughed and only a handful of times did we have to intervene over shared toys or whatever. Sarah was so sad when they had to leave. She said, "I love Baby Harvey! I want him to stay forever!" It was really sweet. On Saturday, David and I took them to one of our favorite St. Louis attractions--the City Museum. Its a place that has to be seen to be believed--those photos and stories coming tomorrow!