Busy, Busy. Busy

Okay, I know it has been awhile since I posted but I have been extremely busy. Of course it did not help that my computer crashed, I panicked and did a system recovery and lost everything on my computer. I don't think it was a coincidence that I had three six year olds and two pre-teens on-line the day my computer went beserk. I have come to the conclusion that the boys need their own computer! I am trying to decide if I can work on a laptop.

I went back to work two weeks ago and it has been hard after being on vacation for 8 weeks. My sister Rose was in the hospital twice and almost had her new kidney and pancreas but it did not happen. We are in full swing of our soccer season and tomorrow is the first day of 1st grade for the boys!

Day 2 of Vacation

Our 2nd day of vacation we went on a family cruise on the Southern Belle Riverboat. We had lunch on the boat and had a nice view traveling down the Tennessee River. The boys and Katherine sat in the Captains helm and the boys asked some good questions. How far did we go down the river, were there sharks in the water and was the water salt water or freshwater?

We then went to Incline Railway which is the worlds steepest passenger railway. It takes you up to Lookout Mountain where on a clear day you can see the Great Smoky Mountains which are 100 miles away. Of course we get up to the top and the boys say "Can we go back down now?" They are to young to appreciate the view and they were to jet lagged to walk to the bluff where General Ulysses S. Grant stood! I know their limits so luckily Craig did not mind going back to the hotel with the boys while Katherine and I continued on to Rock City. We had to pass on Ruby Falls because we did not have time but I figured we may never be in Tennessee again so I wanted to do as much as possible. Rock City was absolutely amazing! From the top of Rock City you can see seven states, Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, North & South Carolina, Tennessee and Virgina. The massive rock formations were spectacular, there are two gigantic boulders called fat man's squeeze because you can barely fit between them to walk through. We walked across a swing-along bridge and walked under a 1,000 ton rock balanced by another. The evening was spent with all the Harper's.

Vacation Day 1

We arrived in Atlanta at 2:45 PM and as soon as we walked outside we could feel the stiffling heat and immediately began sweating! I knew the plane would be cool so we were wearing jeans and long sleeve shirts! Craig's parents, Uncle and Cousin got in around the same time we did so we saw them at the car rental site. We had a two hour drive to Chattanooga, TN so we stopped at Chick-Fil-A to eat, Chickfila is a fast food place but it was really nice inside. The drive to TN was pretty, lots of green trees. We also noticed a food place called Waffle House, there were tons of them so we commented we would have to eventually eat there because Evan loves waffles. We arrived at the hotel and began three days of Harper Family Reunion events. This was our first time meeting many of the family members at the Reunion and they were so sweet!

Around 9:00 PM we decided to get a bite to eat before we went to bed so we got in the car thinking we would find a fast food place. We were wrong! We drove around for about 1/2 hour and did not see one fast food place. Were we in the twilight zone! This was definitely not Californina with a McDonalds and Starbucks on every corner! We finally got on the freeway (Craig's Aunts call it the bypass or highway) and found a crusty Wendy's (I did not eat).