Following God Seminar

Yesterday I had the privilege of going to a ladies seminar in NH to hear Elizabeth George speak. I have read several of her books, so I was really excited to hear her speak. Here I am with Elizabeth George along with Sarah, Rebekah, and Emily Beals. She gave three sessions on Following God in Devotion, Following God in Prayer, and Following God in Life. All were excellent. The ladies at Merrimack Valley Baptist Church did an incredible job with the organization, planning, and hosting of the event. I was very impressed with them as well. It was a refreshing day, and I think Stefan and Daddy had a good day together as well.

Fun Friday!

This morning we went to the birth place of Yankee Candle. It was such a fun store. The place was huge with all sorts of fun things. Stefan is a little young but there were several types of candles kids could make, a candle museum, the Christmas shop complete with Santa and just plain fun shopping! I can't believe I didn't get a picture of me in the giant candle store. Oh well!



After the Yankee Candle experience we went to Northampton, Ma for some Church History. We saw the church where Jonathan Edwards was pastor and then was later forced to resign. We also visited a nearby cemetery where we searched for, and finally found, the graves of David Brainerd and Jerusha Edwards (daughter of Jonathan and Sarah Edwards).

See more pictures here.

Our morning!

We had a lot of fun this morning "making crafts." We crumpled paper, colored, tore paper, etc. (Did I really teach my son how to tear paper?) He really had fun! [notice the gorgeous Gerber Daisies that Brian totally surprised me with yesterday---I have the most amazing husband in the world!]

After our craft time we headed to the hospital to make a visit. Poor Mrs. Beals, sr. crushed a vertebrae in her back yesterday and is flat on her back at least until surgery on Monday. Stefan and I enjoyed a nice visit with her. On the way home we stopped at the "Nip," a beautiful lake just down the road from us. It is thawed out, and we are somewhat warmer (50 today!!!) so we stopped to run some energy off. We are home, have eaten lunch, Stefan is down for his nap, and it's only 12:30!! I teach piano in a half hour so I am hoping that I wore him out enough to sleep through the lessons! After lessons Stefan is getting his 2nd haircut!!!

Oh the fun we have...

Talking out the window!

Stefan had great fun watching a mulch truck out the window.

Playground fun!

Brian's Birthday

We made a kind of last minute decision to go in and visit Boston's Museum of Science yesterday. We waited until the library was open and headed there to get a library pass (which was a huge savings) and then headed into Boston for the afternoon. It really was a great museum. There was plenty to do for both adults and children so that was nice. We also got to see an Imax show of the Amazon which was amazing. The largest Imax theater (screen that is) in New England. Well, let's just say that Stefan and I didn't really enjoy it and Brian really did. A little scary for Stefan, but we were all ok afterwards! We were there for 4 hours and did not see nearly everything that was there. We were glad we went, very glad for the library passes, and have now "checked" that off our things to visit in Boston list! We had a fun day.


We parked at the top of the parking garage and had a beautiful view of the city!

Ok, so obviously Stefan is the one we take pictures of! Hmm... wonder why?! Wherever there was a button, Stefan was sure to be pleased. And there was plenty of that so he had a blast. Stefan and Daddy are excavating for treasures as well.

Here Stefan is delivering presents to Daddy. He is also thoroughly enjoying some of Daddy's birthday smoothie, and Brian is getting ready to eat his birthday dinner.

We had a wonderful day. Another day of fun family memories. It was even worth the horrible, crazy driving and traffic that is always to be found in Boston. Brian expertly handled the roads and I was very glad he was driving. It never ceases to amaze me how there can be five lanes of traffic going in one direction completely packed with vehicles. What can we say, though. There are pros and cons to living next to a huge city!

Happy Birthday, Brian!

Happy Birthday to the most wonderful man in the world! Thank you for being such a wonderful husband and daddy.
From the two people who love you most,
Johanna and Stefan

Our concert pianist

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to capture the full spirit because he saw the camera each time I pulled it out, but here is a little glimpse of our little pianist. One of his favorite things about the digital piano is that it has pre-recorded pieces on it. He knows how to push the demo button on and then goes to town with the body movements and drama! It's pretty cute.

Pics of our week!

Enjoying Uncle Tim and Micaiah

Experiencing play-doh for the first time (and getting a taste of it as well!)

Pretty excited about our 60* weather on Sat! (I'm trying not to think about the snow predicted tomorrow:-( ) We went to some outlet stores nearby and ended our little shopping trip with some Friendly's ice cream.

Our date

On Friday we had a wonderful date in Boston. Tim and Ruth graciously offered to watch Stefan so that we could go in for a Boston Symphony concert. We got into the city early enough to get in line for rush tickets for the matinee concert. We were in line about 45 minutes but came out with our tickets for only $9 each. A steal for the BSO! With tickets in hand we then sauntered around Boston. We walked down Newbury Street where I insisted on going in nearly every shop! Of course, we tried to act rich so people wouldn't think we were just window shopping, and of course it was all just acting! Ahh...the prices were unbelievable (expensive that is!), but I still had a great deal of fun window shopping! We had a nice lunch at a cafe. It was a beautiful day out and we were able to enjoy the nice weather during our lunch. After lunch we headed back to Symphony Hall (sorry the picture is fuzzy!). It really is a beautiful hall and we enjoyed a wonderful concert. We got to hear pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet, a famous French pianist whom we were both glad to get to hear in person. He played the Liszt Second Piano Concerto. Oh...did I mention we were on row C just to the left of the piano?! Perfect!