Piano Man

Beckett has really enjoyed "playing" around on the piano this summer. He has made up some songs...some with words, some without. This morning he asked me to record his latest "arrangement" and put it on the blog! Watch out Billy Joel!

Harper Hullabaloo Hiking!

We spent the weekend with my aunt and uncle in Waynesville, NC and had a great time! On Sunday we went to Black Balsam Mtn. and did some hiking, enjoyed fabulous views and amazing temperatures! The kids both did great walking/hiking/climbing! It was a great day and a wonderful weekend! Thanks for everything, Auntie Mame and Uncle Ron!

Family Shot!
Helen practically ran up the mountain!

Check this out!

Friday Night Fun!

On Friday night, the whole Harper crew got together at Jill and Darrin's house for supper and swimming! Here is a picture of almost all of the cousins getting ready to jump in the pool with Nana and Papa looking on! We are all excited about our family trip to the beach in October! Just under 8 weeks to go and counting down!

Sweet Memory
I just wanted to write a quick post to share a sweet experience that I had with my children this morning. I have been getting up at 4:50 (yes, that's AM!) for the past several weeks and meeting my neighbor every morning at 5:00 to walk. This just seems to be the best time before kids are up and Sean heads off to work. It has been hard adjusting to these early mornings, but I do seem to get a lot accomplished most mornings after we return. However, last night I stayed up way too late, so when we returned from walking, I must admit that I laid back down and fell asleep. (I was just going to "rest my eyes" for a minute! Ha!) So, when Helen woke up, I went in and got her and put her in the bed with me and turned on PBS cartoons so I could "rest my eyes" for a minute more. Beckett woke up not long after that and I could tell that he was whispering a lot to Helen. They both got out of my bed and said, "Mom, you stay here and just rest." So, I did. I did hear a little commotion in the kitchen, but I had an idea of what was going on, so I stayed put. Not long after that, they both appeared beside my bed with breakfast for me! There, on the yellow plate, was a breakfast bar (smeared with peanut butter....my favorite way to eat them!) some blueberries and a glass of water! They were so proud of themselves for fixing me breakfast in bed and I was so touched by their kindness! Sweet memories!

The Harpeth River

The kids had lots of fun this past weekend playing in the river that runs through Grankaki and Granbob's backyard. (It provided hours of entertainment for Susi and me when we were growing up as well!) Anyway, here are a few pictures of our river fun! We are headed to Waynesville, NC for the weekend to visit my aunt and uncle! Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Fun with Grankaki's I-Mac!

We are still in Brentwood, but our car is fixed and we will be headed home in a few hours! Unfortunately, it was more than a simple fuse. It was the alternator! Several hundred bucks later, here we come! :) 

One of the fun things to do at Grankaki and Granbob's house is to play with the "Photo Booth" feature on Grankaki's I-Mac! So here are a few pictures from the last few days!

Tunnel vision!

Seeing double!

Stranded!

Aunt Susi was working at the Brentwood REI this past week and had a few days off before she had to fly to the next REI in Raleigh, so we came to visit Grankaki and Granbob for a couple of days so we could see everone! We have had a great time but our stay has been extended due to car trouble! We had planned to return home on Sunday in time for growth group, but we have been delayed! On the drive over here, I made a big deal out of our 99 Nissan Altima's mileage flipping to 189,000! We patted her on the dash and encouraged her and told her what a good car she has been for our family! However, I guess we didn't stroke her ego enough because on Saturday afternoon, everything electrical QUIT! Nothing on the dashboard works (MPH, RPM) no blinkers, no AC, no power locks or windows.....NOTHING! Fortunately, I was able to drive her to the repair shop here in Brentwood where we have always taken our cars and they got to work on her first thing this morning! Looks like we blew some kind of fuse and hopefully replacing that will take care of it! If you have to be stranded, what better place than at the grandparent's house? In a few minutes we will head down to the river in the backyard to play and ride in the canoe and then we will possibly take a trip to the museum to see the planetarium show later today! I'll have a few pictures to post when we get home! Hope you are all staying cool! Give your cars a little extra love on these hot summer days! :)

Busy Week!

We have been busy this week! Today is our first day to just stay at home, so I thought I'd post a few pictures! On Monday we went to Nana and Papa's house and canned tomatoes! Papa planted over 100 tomato plants this summer and they are all coming in fast! So, I had my turn to get some tomatoes and Bettye and I canned 13 jars of tomatoes and 6 jars of salsa! Yummy! We will certainly enjoy all of these tomatoes this winter! Thanks Nana and Papa! Beckett and Helen enjoyed playing with Lillie and Connor while we worked on the tomatoes! It was a good day!

On Tuesday, we went to the last free family movie at Regal cinemas and saw "Firehouse Dog". Beckett loved it! He says it is his favorite movie of all time! After the movie we met our friend Julie and her nephew Mark at his neighborhood pool and swam all afternoon until the storms rolled in! That was a lot of fun! Thanks to Mark and "Jujy" for inviting us to swim with you! Sorry I didn't get any pics for the blog!

On Wednesday, we went to Dollywood with the Kirklands. "Kids Fest" will be over on Sunday and we wanted to get up there to see the Kratt brothers from the PBS kids show "Zoboomafoo"! Beckett has always enjoyed that show as well as their National Geo shows for kids, so we didn't want to miss them "live" at Dollywood! We are so glad we did! It was a great show! Very well done! Unfortunately, no flash photography was allowed in the theater, so we didn't get any pictures, but I did include some other pics from our day. It was very warm, so the kids wore swimsuits and did all of the water rides!

While we were there, we ran into our friends, "the heaters" aka The Baileys! Wheat, Lake, River and their mom and dad were at Dollywood too, so we had a quick picture with them!