Pseudo Stay-Cation

We had a fun weekend with Max's family this past weekend! We haven't been up for a whole weekend in awhile, so it was fun to have a lot of time with the cousins for Tucker, and Brayden:)

We got up there Friday night and had some dinner with Max's sister's family.  Tucker had fun playing and dancing around with his cousins after dinner.

Brayden loved getting some attention from Auntie Erica and Uncle Mike!

We went back to Max's mom's house and after we got the kids down I found this beauty: Max was a pretty cute kid...and clearly our kids take after him, as if there was a question:) Tucker had fun sleeping at GG's in Max's old room...lots of new toys to play with!

Saturday we loved!  We are big fans of being active on trips so we were pumped that the weather cooperated to climb up Talcott mountain.  We weren't sure how the boys were going to do being in their hiking packs for that long, but they seemed to enjoy the ride.  Thankfully it was a pretty easy hike-I think Max's shoulders started to hurt towards the end, but Tucker is a heavy kid. We climbed to the top and had lunch and walked up to the top of the tower.  The views were so pretty!  Annie and Charlotte did a great job too-little kids don't always love hikes, but they did awesome!

 Ignore the awkward arm hold by Max:)

Group photo:)

 Our kids are great sleepers...but typically in a bed/crib.  Not for lack of trying, but they have never been great at falling asleep in strollers, etc.  Well, they continue to surprise us.  Brayden fell asleep on my back on the way back down.  So cute and adorable!

The girls at the bottom after finishing the hike! So proud of them!

 We continued our day of activity at the pool-some brother sister races and breath-holding contests ensued:)

 Tucker napped for most of the afternoon and thought the pool was too cold to play, but he did have fun in the sandbox with Char.

 All four of the cousins:)

 We finished the night at Peachwave...Max thought he had pulled Tucker's elbow out of its socket, but thankfully ignoring it and a little ice cream "healed" it up:)

 And then he spilled ice cream (liquid) all over his shorts...this was my solution.  Max was a little embarrassed:)

Fun times!

I worked last week at Sports Camp, my last week at JRMS...it was very sad for me:(  Needless to say, it was a bit of a crazy week, but here are some updates from the past few weeks of some fun we've had.

Finger painting with T for the first time...he did the top part.

We like to dig up the rocks back by the lawnmower shed and put sticks in the ant holes

We went to the concert on the green last week...free ice cream from the ice cream truck! Thankfully his pop matched his shirt...it was not a clean eating experience.

 Fun times with Addie and Sienna

 We finally started to let him get his own ice cream...we were holding off because he devours it if he gets his own!  You pay by the pound at these places!

 We went to an indoor play place with DD.  Tucker had a blast and was scaling the "climbing walls" on the blow up obstacle courses...i thought he'd need help on the big one but apparently not...of course he deleted the video off my phone a few days later, but it is on facebook if you're interested:)

Here's a smaller climbing wall

Two Saturdays ago my mom, sister and I had a girls day.  We had a blast!  We started the day by going to The Corner for brunch...we all had french toast stuffed with different things...DELISH!

 We did some shopping at the outlets and then headed up to John Edwards Winery for some wine tasting and quality girl time.  So much fun!!

There was a wedding going on and ironically, it was a girl I went to high school with! Such a small world, and a beautiful place for a wedding!

We ended our day in Mystic with dinner on the water.  More great food and wine and awesome time together.

 These two are so funny together, as I'm sure all siblings at this age are.  Lotsa love...and lots wrestling in their future...they are already getting started.  Here is a rare moment of quiet before bed.

It was SWELTERING last week (try sitting in a gym with 40 pubescent teenage boys running around-jealous aren't ya!) so we only got out once or twice when I got home...Tucker kept saying "too hot" for most of the days.  We had some bubble fun! Brayden was loving the bubbles:)

Friday I took Tucker to work with me...it was SO hot-he had sweat beading down his face!

We had to take some AC breaks!

Poor kid was exhausted and finally went down for a nap when we got home at 330...brand new babysitter came at 345, i left at 430 for Danielle's fundraiser, T woke up at 530...he was a little freaked out!  Not the best time or way to introduce a new babysitter, but we all survived:) And had fun with D and lots of people who came out to support her.  It was a very successful night.  I am so proud of her and all she's doing in Tanzania:)  Check her blog out at www.danielle429.blogspot.com for some stories from TZ.

Saturday night we grabbed some ice cream at the farm with our friends Nick and Amy and their adorable son Ryan.  He and Tucker had fun watching the goats.

 Sunday we had some fun at my parents' house with the pools...the first pics with the big pool are from 2 Sundays ago...the smaller ones are from this Sunday.

Video of T playing in the pool:)

D and my Dad had a water fight...Tucker was a little confused because first my Dad sat in the pool...then D attacked him and a fight ensued.  I tried to put the video up here but it's too long or something...its on Facebook too.

 His hair was getting long...

 So he got a summer cut and drove the cart at the grocery store Sunday morning.  Good times!

 Today the boys were playing at home before we went to my friend Danielle's for some pool fun with a bunch of our friends.

Fun Summer

We had such fun yesterday visiting with two friends from high school and their kids.  Between the three of us, there are 6 kids now in the past 3 years! WOW! We were having so much fun, Brayden took a nap there that I had to wake him up from after 2 hours, and Tucker didn't take a nap until 4, when he fell asleep in the car, fingers in his goldfish (see picture below!)  It was Tucker's first time using the swimmies-you can't use any flotation aids in the town pools and he wasn't old enough last summer.  He was very confused and definitely flailing at first-needed some help for sure. Then he was able to learn from Emily's son (he's 3) and so impressed me! Perhaps it's normal of a 2 year old, but I was impressed.  He was getting the doggie paddle motions down and kicking his legs, and he had no problem jumping off the ladder and submerging himself.  Now we just have to figure out to let him know that he won't come back up if he's not wearing the puddle jumper!

Tucker and Ben eating lunch together

Cute Ben swimming with Daniel

I tried to get him on video, but it wasn't the best...here's a few that I did get.