An Afternoon in the Mountains!

The sun is back! We have had so much rain lately and we were happy to see the sun again! Sean took the day off and we headed to the mountains to enjoy the beautiful weather.(Sean took his fly rod of course!) We enjoyed a picnic lunch and some fun in the water. Sean caught a few fish and we all had a great time! I'm also posting some pics from this past weekend when all of the Harper side of our family came to our house for dinner. We got our first picture of all six cousins together since Marley has been born! It was a fun night! And I'm also putting up two pictures from our trip down to see Susi in Atlanta. They are pictures of the kids with Susi's new puppy, Barley. See if you can tell who "isn't really into puppies right now." (Direct quote from Helen!)

Sean's second rainbow of the day!

All six cousins together!

Just the girls!

Beckett holding Barley and Helen sitting beside Barley as Susi holds her up close. Helen finally did pet Barley right before we left!

Our Trip to Atlanta

We had a very full day today! We are in Atlanta visiting Susi and we had all kinds of fun! It all started this morning at the zoo where we had a "behind the scenes" tour of the reptile exhibit with Susi's friend Dr. Joe. He is the curator of herpetology at the zoo and he let us get up close and personal with frogs, turtles and snakes! Beckett loved it and Helen was a little apprehensive! After a cool and rainy day at the zoo, we went to lunch at The Varsity! Susi has lived here for 7 years and had never been before! It was a treat for us all! After that, we went to my new favorite place....IKEA! Unreal. There are no words to explain how cool this place is! I am ready to re-do the interior of my house! This was the most unbelievable shopping experience! It has been a great day and I am happy to share some pictures with you all!

"What'll ya have?"

2 Naked Dogs with Fries

Beckett found a chair that he liked at IKEA and Susi gave him a lesson about gathering the information he needed. He was making his wish list! It wasn't nearly as long as mine!

Helen LOVED the see-saw at the zoo!

Dr. Joe introducing Beckett to a snake! 

The pandas were cute!

Well, the computer problem has finally been identified and will be fixed within the next few days. (I won't hold my breath!)

The latest from the Harper's......

Beckett's first baseball game was canceled on Saturday due to rain, so we had a nice, lazy day at home! We were afraid that tonight's game would be canceled as well, based on the weather forecast, but it has been clear and sunny for the last 3 hours, so it looks like the game is on!! Sean is coaching Beckett's team this year and they have a great group of boys on their team, so I'm sure it's going to be fun! Go Rockies!

Beckett and I babysat for our neighbor's (the Guldans) twins this morning while Martha went to an appointment. Matt took their 2 year old son Carson and Helen with him to a class that he teaches for their age group at his gym! Helen had fun "tumbling" and Beckett and I really enjoyed our time with Noah and Turner. They were napping when we arrived and we didn't know which one was which when they woke up! We made our best guess and we were wrong! Anyway, they were so pleasant and such sweet babies! It was fun!

The kids and I are heading to Atlanta tomorrow morning for a few days to visit with my sister! She has several plans for us including the zoo and a couple of museums! We are looking forward to our time with her! She also said that I could use her computer to add some pics to our blog! So get ready......it's been a while!

My computer has gone "Somewhere Over the Rainbow"! I don't know if I'll ever get it back! Sean and I spent some time trying to load the software for my camera on this computer last night, but it will not recognize the camera for some reason. I am a frustrated blogger! The technician who is working on our system says that he has not had this hard of a time trouble-shooting a problem in a long time! Great!

Anyway, just wanted to check in and let you know that we are here and we have so many fun pictures to share of the last few weeks! (Maybe one of these days!) We hope that you all had wonderful Easter celebrations with family and friends! Beckett sang in a children's choir at church on Sunday morning, so my mom and dad and Sean's mom and dad all came to church with us! We were all blessed as these kids led us to worship our risen Savior! It was a wonderful day!

Check back in a few days to see if the computer saga continues or if we finally have pictures!

Just playing around....still can't post pictures, so I'm playing with music! Beckett has been wanting me to change the music on our blog to Toby Mac! It took me a while, but I found a Toby Mac song to put on our site! I don't think it is one of Beckett's favorites, but it will have to do for now!

Sean took Beckett to his first concert back in the fall and they saw Toby Mac. (Christian rock/hip-hop artist) They both loved it! Sean was very impressed with what a great performer he is. He said that the concert was WELL worth the admission price! (Unlike our most recent experience with Mr. Van Morrison!) Anyway, Helen was so disappointed that she couldn't go. We told her that she wasn't "big" enough and that when she got "bigger" she could go. Not long after that, every day she would stand up very tall and say, "Mom, I'm getting bigger" and I would respond that yes, she was in fact getting bigger. Then she would say, "So when do I get to go see Toby?" Well, her wish is coming true! On April 26th, we are all going to see Toby at the Franklin Graham Crusade that is coming to Knoxville. Beckett (and Helen too) know many of the words to his songs and LOVE to dance around and jam to his music!

So, in honor of one of the Harper kid's favorite musicians, I'll leave some Toby Mac playing on our blog for a few days!

I am SO frustrated that I can't share pictures yet! Beckett pulled his second tooth this morning and I haven't even been able to post pictures of his first tooth! We might get our computer back tonight and if possible, I will add pictures from the last three weeks....so get ready!

Van Morrison was fantastic! He is truly a very talented musician and vocalist! Unfortunately, he is also very (how do I put this nicely?) let's just say that he wasn't very respectful of his fans on the night that we saw him. He only played two of the songs that he is well known for. He played for one hour and thirty minutes and I only knew the words to two of the songs! Most of his other selections were off of his most recent album that hasn't even been released yet, or are not nearly as well known as the songs that I was wanting to hear, like "Moondance" or "Into the Mystic" or "Brown Eyed Girl"! We were able to enjoy his talent, but it was definitely a let down that he didn't play any of our favorites! I guess that is a chance that you take! We stayed in Brentwood with my mom and dad and had a good visit! Helen stayed for a couple of extra days with them and mom brought her home on Sunday. This was her first time to stay with Grankaki and Granbob without Beckett and she had a great time!

We are having a pretty quiet week! Many of the school systems around here are on Spring Break , but we are continuing with our lessons. No vacations around here since we broke down and paid the outrageous prices for Van Morrison tickets........live and learn! We did take the kids to see "Horton Hears a Who" last night and then went to Moe's for dinner! It was a fun night!

Hope everyone is doing well! Hopefully pictures will be coming soon!!!

We are heading to Nashville this afternoon to see one of our all time favorite artists...
Van Morrison!! He doesn't tour in the States very often, so we have never been to one of his concerts! We had this dream that we would see him in Scotland when we were there years ago, but it didn't work out that way! SO! We have jumped at the opportunity to go to his concert tonight at the Ryman Auditorium! The kids are going to stay with Grankaki and Granbob while we get to enjoy the evening with Van! :)

Our computer is still in the shop and I haven't loaded the software to do pictures onto this "temporary" computer, so I still don't have pics to share! Hopefully by next week, we will be up and running! I have several fun pics to share, so I'll work on that as soon as my computer comes home! Hope that you all have a great weekend!