Harper Family Highlights

We are finally back from an amazing once-in-a-lifetime trip to the Holy Land.  Our amazing 16-day trip took us to Egypt, Jordan and Israel.  Some of the highlights of the trip were climbing Mt. Sinai (four miles up on a camel in the middle of the night, 750 more brutal steps to the top, watching the sun rise, and finally 3000 steps down), a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee while watching the sun set (the boat ride had been postponed from the morning when it was too choppy), floating in the Dead Sea (the Sea water burned William's legs and he screamed and screamed), seeing the old roman ruins at Cesarea on the Mediterranean, a night tour through Joffa, visiting the ruins of Masada, reading Matthew Chapter 6 aloud to our group on the Mt. of Beatitudes, hiking down the canyon in Petra and seeing the treasury for the first time, getting to know the people of our tour group who came from every Christian denomination possible and having them love our children and ask about what Mormons believe, the amount of attention and gifts William got, the most amazing hotel in Aqaba, seeing the Pyramids, going to church in the Jerusalem Center with an amazing view of Jerusalem, singing Christmas carols at Shepherd's Fields on Christmas Eve and seeing a single star appear over Bethlehem, the Garden Tomb sign that says "HE IS NOT HERE, HE IS RISEN," Seth's Baptism in the Jordan River, shopping in the old city of Jerusalem, spending time with family, and most of all, having my testimony strengthened.

We all have major jet lag going on and I have over 800 pictures to sort through.  I'm sure I will be posting about this trip for months to come.  I have laundry to do, suitcases to unpack, a Christmas card to write, mail to sort, and food to prepare.  But it is good to be home.

I hope you are all having a wonderful Christmas season. 

More to come on our Christmas adventures soon.

Anyone know why my header picture just got smaller?  Or maybe how to fix it?

We've been getting our house ready for Christmas.  Everyone loves to help decorate the Christmas tree.  This year, William was actually a little bit helpful.  He understood that we were to put the decorations on the tree, rather than take them off. 


 Rachel had a violin concert last weekend. 

She had her face painted at an activity she went to earlier in the day, so I let her keep it on for the concert since it was so festive and well done.
On Monday for Family Home Evening, we decorated the gingerbread house.  We tried Andes mints for the roof for the first time.  They were kind of heavy, but I think it turned out okay. 


 Hope you are having fun getting ready for Christmas at your house too. 

I recently came across a quote that seems fitting for today.


I'm so grateful that I've had another year of a good life, full of good people, good things and good health.  Birthdays are good days.  And, though I wish a few less parts ached and sagged, I don't wish to be younger.  I'm not sure if I can qualify as wise yet (although the primary song says I get wiser each year), but 38 is good.  Happy Birthday to me.

Rachel reminded me that we hadn't made waxed leaves this year yet.  So a couple of days before Thanksgiving she and I gathered some leaves and dipped them in hot wax.  Kate helped too.
We laid them to dry on waxed paper, and then hung them as a garland over the kitchen window.

On Thanksgiving, the big girls set the table beautifully.  We had a fun day celebrating with our friends the Huillets. 
 Rebekah and William were so darn cute together. 

Ben and I ran a 10k on Thanksgiving.  Does that make me real runner now?  I have been running about 3 miles a day at least five days a week for years now.  I am consistent.  I'm probably in decent shape.  But I've never thought that really qualified me as a runner.  I've never really run long distances, mostly because it takes so much more time.  I can do my three miles in about a half hour.  That's about all the time I have to devote to exercise each day.  And it gives me an excuse to watch the news each morning as I run on the treadmill. 

I decided I wanted to take it up a notch.  So I signed up for a 10k.  Mostly to see if I could actually do it.  Ben wanted to do it with me.  He is an amazing runner, and can run 4 or 5 miles without even thinking about it.  I started setting aside a little more time for my workouts and I added a bit more distance.  I ran 4 miles, then 4 and a half.  On the Monday before Thanksgiving I decided to do a practice run. I did it--I ran all 6.2 miles.  I felt prepared for the day of the race. 

On Thanksgiving, I got up early, had a little breakfast and got all ready.  I was most concerned about the rain, but when I looked out the window, the rain had stopped.  We had had several days of downpour.  I was hoping even for just a slight drizzle, but we were blessed with perfectly dry weather for just the few hours we needed.  It started raining again just an hour or so after we finished the race. 

The run went well.  The biggest obstacle was the hills. The second leg of the race was quite hilly, something I did not train for on the treadmill.  My legs are still feeling it...  But we made it through and pushed hard all the way to the end. 

We did it!  We ran it in a little under 65 minutes.  David met us at the finish line and took a picture.



Afterward, Ben told me how much fun he had had running it.  It was fun!  I loved having a partner to keep up the pace.  He did pull me a long a few times.  He was good to stay with me. 

And maybe, just maybe, I can say that I am a runner now.

 We had lunch of finger sandwiches, croissants, fruit kabobs, and cheese and crackers. 
After lunch, the kids donned hula skirts and we had a hula lesson.  I even downloaded the Hukilau song for the occasion. (I'm so glad that nobody else was there to witness my terrible attempts at teaching the kids hula.  Good thing they are young enough to not really know the difference...It was hillarious!)

Aren't they adorable?
 We had the limbo
and hula hooping contests.  One of the best games was a beach attire relay where the girls were in two teams and they had to run across the room, put on various articles of beach clothing and accessories and run back, tag the next person, then run back and take them all off before the next person put them on again.  I had them put on a couple of my old swimming suits, beach hats, flip flops, sunglasses, and a beach towel. 

 I love how all the girls gathered so close around Kate while she opened her presents. 

This was absolutely the easiest cake I've ever made for a birthday party.  I opted for this one over a much more complicated beach scene cake we found on the family fun website.  It was a wise choice. 

Hopefully more wishes will come true. 

And then I breathed a sigh of relief...another party done. 

 6.  Sarah got her hair cut.  It's pretty short but we both love it!  She also started her own blog this week. 

William loves running around and exploring. 

The view is amazing. 



 and climbing over walls. 

 I like looking at all the beautiful and unusual homes in the neighborhood.  Look at that cool front door,

and this neat staircase.


 I adore this red bench!
I've loved this uninterupted time to be with William each week.  I love seeing him explore the world.  One week he spent about 10 minutes playing with a helicopter leaf--throwing it in the air and watching it twirl down over and over.  Each rock is amazing discovery.  The world is so new and exciting to him, with so much to explore.  It is amazing to rediscover the wonders of nature with the eyes of a child.