The 2011 Harrison Mens Basketball Team

And if you think these guys look tough, wait until another diaper dandy arrives in a few months.

New Orleans

This past week we took a road trip to New Orleans, where Kristina had a conference.  Among the highlights were the train ride (technically a streetcar, but considered a train in this family), the zoo, the aquarium, City Park, and some good eats!  Also, we stopped at Bellingrath Gardens in Alabama on the drive there.  Here are some photos.

 Bellingrath was beautiful, and despite great weather we felt like we were the only people there.  Which allowed us to participate in hijinks like this.

When we saw the "Great Lawn" at Bellingrath Luke was positive it was a golf course.  Which was great, since he had his golf shirt and golf ball already!  Too bad his silly parents didn't realize they were going to a golf course and left his club in the car.  We tried to find a suitable stick to use as a club but no such luck, and we had to resort to a soccer-ish style of golf.

A relatively cute kid near the riverfront in New Orleans.  He's excited because he did a very good job on his dinner and now we are on our way to get ice cream!

But first we had to check out this very tall basketball player.  Couldn't figure out what basket he was shooting at though.

 Again on the riverfront, with the morning fog.

City Park had a story-land with scenes from Peter Pan, The Three Little Pigs and others.  We're not sure what story the fire truck was from but fun to drive nevertheless.

Yeah, that's a Duke shirt and a Duke hat, and we are pretty happy about it.  Attaboy!

January Extremes

Earlier in January, Atlanta was shut down for nearly a week after a snow/ice storm, but warmed up to 70 degrees this past weekend.

Belated Christmas Post

We haven't completely forgotten how to make a blog post.  Here are some belated pictures from Christmas.  Grammie and Gramp came down from Vermont, and Santa was very good to Luke.  Took days to open all of the presents!

guess who most of the presents were for!

Luke throws one down on his new hoop

getting the hang of opening presents with Mom

with Grammie and Gramp and the ever present golf ball

Ben & Luke on the green that Ben made (for Luke, of course) that now sits in Ben's office

in the Mickey ball pit tent!  Note the static electricity!

On the beautiful rocking horse that Grandpa made.  You can really giddyup on the hardwood floor!

Ella

So back in September when Luke was naming his friends from school to Aunt Robin and Pseudo Uncle Dana, we started prompting him with the names after the initial two (always "Kaki" and "Big Jack" in one order or the other).  When they got to Ella, he broke into a big smile and said "ELLLLLLLLAAAAAAA!"  So we've teased him about this once or twice but didn't really hear anything more about it until one day Kristina sent out an email to the class parents (K and B are co room representatives!) and got a response from Ella's mom.  Her email had a PS saying "By the way, I just have to let you know, whenever we ask Ella to name her friends from school she always says Luke's name first.  We'll ask her about her day at school and she'll respond with something like 'Fun Luke! Play Luke!'.  I talked to the teacher the other day who told me Ella had been helping feed Luke his lunch and had been chasing him through the tunnel outside!"

Now, we knew he was a womanizer when it comes to little old ladies (LOLs), as they just melt in his lap on a regular basis, but he is apparently the Dogwood Toddler class charmer as well.  The other day Ella was out and so he was "in the tree" (outside on the playground) with Olivia instead.  Apparently, we've got quite the ladies' man.  (Do you think he gets it from his Dad??)

The Hat (and our trip to NC)

What, did you think we were going to reference this blue hat with tassles and not give a picture?  Here are a few from our trip to Sapphire Valley, NC last weekend.  It was a bit chilly (notice the snow in the last photo) but we managed to do some hiking, shoot some hoops, and play mini golf.  Thanks to Grandpa and Cathy for letting us use the time share (and for leaving balloons!).

The BoyCow

For Halloween, Luke was a cowboy, or as he would pronouce it, a boy-cow.  Make that a hatless boycow, as unless the hat in question is blue fleece with tassles and a velcro chin strap, we aren't wearing it.  No sir, no way.  Luke did have fun though, and trick or treated at about 10 different houses.  He even said "trick or treat" at two of them.  Here are some photos.

Who wouldn't give this kid candy?