Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Weekend with the Tuttles

Prepare to be shocked and amazed - the content of this post is from this past weekend! No, it isn't a month or two late like most of our posts lately... it is actually an on-time post. Woohoo!


This past weekend Meagan, Ryan and Wesley came up to visit with us. We had a really fun weekend together. They arrived past bedtime on Friday night, so we chatted for a bit and then all went to bed. The next day we went through lots of things we could do, but in the end decided to stick around here. The kids went swimming before and after naptime, which they all loved.

Cameron, ready to splash someone with his bucket

Ryan shows off his slip and slide skills to Wes

After dinner we started a fire and made s'mores. Of course, everyone loved them. First Wesley sampled the uncooked marshmallows.

Leah thought this was a pretty good idea and went for her own

Cooking marshmallows over the fire

Leah, Wesley and Cameron loving their s'mores!

Ryan also loves his s'more

And apparently, he loves Meagan's as well

Messy face kiddo #1

Messy face kiddo #2

Another view of Wes, who showed his love for the s'mores by rubbing them all over his face, hands and clothes

Messy kiddo #3 (of course, since Cameron is the oldest, he has the most experience with getting the s'more into his mouth instead of all over his mouth!)

Our campfire

This is about all of the pictures we have, so it doesn't show all of the fun we had. We also went for a walk, played outside, and played with every toy in our entire house. The adults enjoyed some delicious chocolate mousse and we played many card and dice games. It was great having them up here - thanks again for visiting guys!

Monday, August 22, 2011

Meeting Baby Lucia

On Thursday, August 4th, our newest niece entered the world! Cathy and Ron welcomed sweet baby Lucia Hazel. She is just adorable and we were so excited to meet the little peanut!

Hello Miss Lucia! She was so alert the whole time we were visiting, her eyes open and checking out the world. What a sweetie!

Kristin with Lucia. She is so tiny - 6 lbs, 11 ozs at birth, so a bit smaller than that when we met her. My kiddos were both 2 pounds more than that, so it was fun to hold such a sweet little baby!

Tim and Lucia - she only has eyes for him

Leah got jealous and wanted to get up on her Daddy's lap!

Grandpa and Lucia

And of course, Lucia and her Mama, Cathy

Lucia spending some time with her Mimi

She loves her fingers and usually had at least one in her mouth while we were there.

We were so excited to meet Lucia and loved spending time holding her. Cameron and Leah overall were not too interested in her. They did go over to her immediately when we got there, but once they said hi, they wanted to go play. :-P Cameron spent most of his time playing outside with Uncle Ron, and Leah just caused trouble inside. Tim and I took turns holding sweet little Lucia, it was so nice to meet her!

While we were in Swansea for the weekend, we were able to go sailing on our sailboat. It was not in the water at all last year because it was broken, but it got fixed this summer and was just put out on the water a few weekends ago. It was great going sailing!

Coming in to dock - Tim is on the front of the boat, Tom is steering. The rest of us are along for the ride.

Our sailboat, tucked into bed for the night (well, that is what we told Cam anyways)

Cameron was goofing around with Leah's life jacket on and asked Tim to pick him up by the handle on the top. Tim did and Cameron liked hanging there - he asked Tim to keep holding him off the ground. Tim got tired of holding him up, so he hung Cam up for a while...

Luckily, Cameron thought it was HILARIOUS. He was laughing and hanging there and was probably getting a giant wedgie. Fun stuff!

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Cameron Plays Outdoor Soccer

Cameron has been playing outdoor soccer this summer. He has been having a very good time and we are really proud of how well he is doing. He loves to score goals as well as play goalie. He has been doing really well in the past few games, passing the ball to other kids so they can score. That is tough for a kiddo who would much rather be scoring the goal, but he has been doing great. Tomorrow is his last game, parents vs. kids game followed by awards and pizza.

These pictures are from a few weeks ago. Here is Cam in goal, waiting patiently. Actually at this age playing goalie seems pretty boring to me because they don't get down to the goal very often.

Cameron makes a save!

Kicking the ball! Well, actually I think he ended up stepping on the ball and falling over this time, but it is still a cool picture. :)

Cameron gets a breakaway...

.... and shoots and scores!

Cam with the ball again. He is getting better and better with dribbling the ball around the other kids.

If you look at this picture in large view (click on it), you will see that Cameron is making a crazy face. He makes fierce, concentrating faces while he plays, it is pretty funny!

Scoring a goal

It has been a fun season and Cameron has really enjoyed playing!

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Miscellaneous Summer Fun

And now, a random mix of summer fun pictures from July!

For the few weekends we were actually home, we filled up the pool and let the kids swim. These pictures are from one night after work when Mama wasn't around. Daddy let the kids swim and they had a great time!

Smily Leah, loving the pool.

Cam's splashdown!

Two swimming kiddos. The pool is great for their ages because it is deep enough for them to swim but shallow enough to sit up and not be underwater. They love it.

Miss Leah, not so happy about going underwater.

She quickly got over being upset though, and decided to sample the water. Gross.

Cameron using a creative technique to get out of the pool. I am guessing that Tim told him not to get his feet dirty, so he was getting out any way he could that did not involve feet on the ground!

Cameron has been very creative lately, doing lots of imaginative play, building stuff with his legos, and coming up with elaborate scenarios that his Little People play out. These are some creatures that he made. It is a Daddy, a Mama, and a Baby. The big block behind his leg is their home. He had a big story about them, where they came from, why they look like they do. The baby doesn't have wings because, as Cameron tells it, that kind of bug doesn't grow wings until he gets older. It was very cute and he was so proud of the bugs that he made.

Cameron making goofy faces during his bug photo shoot.

One of the weekends, we went to the zoo with Nana while Daddy was working on the shed. I didn't really take many pictures, but here are a few. Leah, slightly sweaty, ready to go back into the air conditioned buildings.

Cameron roars with the tiger! He actually wanted to ride on it but it was such a hot day that the tiger was way too hot to sit on.

Cameron with an early harvest from our garden. It is actually funny to see it now because it is such a little harvest. Most times when we go out now (daily or every other day), we get 20ish tomatoes, 3-4 carrots and 5 or 6 cucumbers. All of the beans and lettuce are done.

It has been a busy summer, but luckily we have still had some time to have fun at home.

Saturday, August 13, 2011

Weekend at the Cottage

The second weekend in July, we went to the cottage. It was just the four of us up there at both cottages, which was kind of fun. The weather was nice and we spent a lot of time outside.

When we got there and were unpacking, Leah got into the cooler and helped herself to blueberries. She hid away in the porch so we wouldn't catch her so quickly. Tricky baby! Although, when we did catch her, we just congratulated her for being so smart, and she got to finish up the blueberries!

We had corn for dinner on Friday night. It was yummy!

Leah loves corn, she just goes to town on it.

She made sure to eat it from every angle in order to maximize the number of kernels that she got.

For dessert we made s'mores. Cam and Daddy found the sticks in the woods, and Cam was very excited to use actual sticks (as opposed to store bought roasting sticks). I have no idea why Cameron wanted to wear his life jacket while roasting marshmallows, but who am I to tell him not to?

Daddy didn't get to eat much of his s'more because Leah commandeered it from him.

Cameron loved his too, especially because he made it himself.

Leah's face after her s'more. To say she enjoyed it is an understatement. Her hair was also quite lovely after she ran her marshmallowy hands through it.

On Friday night Leah went to bed early, and the rest of us stayed up playing games. Cameron discovered Sorry and loved it. Here is the face of a happy boy who gets to stay up late and play games alone with Mama and Daddy!

The next morning we just hung out around the cottage. Cameron and Leah found this book that turned into a truck. That kept them busy for an hour or two, in and out of the bus, zamboni, ice cream truck, etc.

We walked down to the old cottage to get the boat. It was a buggy walk, but luckily the black flies were only interested in Tim so the rest of us were left alone.

Life jackets on and ready to go. Cam told Leah that she always has to hold a grown-up's hand on the dock. Apparently he counts as a grown-up.

We drove around the lake for a while, spotting a few loons. Here is Cam pointing to one of them.

Close up of the loon

Happy kiddos on the boat

They both loved it!

After naptime, Cameron wrapped himself up in his blanket and put his hat on. I guess this means he is ready to go?

We went swimming down at the old cottage. Mama and Leah floated around the raft.

One, two, three, JUMP!

Leah got a bit chilly, but of course wanted to still be fashionable. Towel first, hat second though... she is practical if nothing else.

We went back into shore and Mama caught a frog for the kiddos. The frog wanted to kiss Leah. Leah did NOT want the frog to kiss her.

Cam with the frog.

Sweet peas warming up in the sun

What a sweet baby!

We took the boat back up to the new cottage. Cameron wanted to help Daddy drive.

After a few minutes of lessons, he took over the motor on his own. He actually did a really good job, except the few sharp turns we took. No one fell out, so I would call that a win.

After dinner we went into town for DQ, of course. Everyone loved their ice cream but then had tons of sugary energy to run off. Luckily, Mama remembered a playground in Perth so we went there to play for a while.

Leah in the ladybug

Cam the climber

And the monkey swinger. He definitely liked climbing better than monkey bars.

The aftermath of a race down the racing slides.

As the sun started to go down, Leah got tired so she relaxed in a swing with Daddy.

Leah Bee on a bee!

On Sunday we returned the boat back to the new cottage and played there for a while. The kids both liked playing in the hammock, in fact we pretty much had to drag them out of it, kicking and screaming.

Pensive baby (in her hat, of course)

Sweet smile!

Cameron surfing in his life jacket. No, we were not going on the boat, he just really likes to wear his life jacket.
Smile!!

We had so much fun at the cottage. The kids really love being outdoors and swimming, boating and playing. Hopefully we can go for a bit longer next time!