The Tremont Scotts Go Beachy!

Don't you love our beachin' new blog? Sun, sand and water, our three staples of fun!

Beautiful Weather

The weather has been so nice ... thought I'd take the kiddos out for a couple of pics, and they wanted to get the pets involved too.

This is Rosie, she's a Husky-Collie mix that we brought home from the animal shelter 11 years ago. She is a very sweet dog and so good with the kids. She doesn't get around quite as good as she used to, but she still enjoys her time outside and is a glutton for dog bones!

Calvin is a cat we found 8 years ago in a culvert near our home. He was so tiny and scared, but you would never know it now. He is quite the pampered fat cat and has a funny personality.

Weekend in St. Louis

We had a fun (and hot!) weekend in St. Louis for Father's Day! On Saturday we went to the Cardinals game, which was very fun. We stayed at the Hyatt downtown and the kids enjoyed swimming in the rooftop pool that overlooks the arch grounds. It's kind of funny to look down on the arch instead of up at it!

Drew took the train down a day early and spent some time with friends from our years living in STL. He had a great time and we picked him up yesterday to return home with us.

Yesterday afternoon we went to Grant's Farm and the kids loved the tram ride to see the animals in the park. We were headed across a covered bridge in a tram and a mama buffalo and two young calves were standing on the bridge. Like any good mama, she stood her ground and protected those babies, stomping her hooves and snorting and not letting us through ... until a park truck came along and moved them onto safety. We then walked through the petting zoo area, and Abby was not too excited about the goats that wanted to nibble on the bottom of her skirt! But she had fun watching Drew give them milk in little bottles.

It was especially fun to have a chance to see the Clydesdales and their foals. We hit the road about 4pm and got home a few hours after a pretty big storm hit here, but we did not have any rain on our drive.

Festival Time!

It has been a long, hot weekend ... but we had lots of fun at the Tremont Turkey Festival this weekend!

We started out Thursday night at the pageant. It has been lots of fun to see it the past 2 years since Drew's classmates are the contestants. Abby went along and got bored pretty quickly, but I think picked up a new behavior to model ... each day ever since the pageant, I have heard her with a toy microphone singing her heart out. I think she enjoyed the vocal solos most of the girls did for their talent. HA

Fri night we hit the rides hard and burned up most of the tix we had. It was a lot cooler and nicer there Fri night than the past two days with 90 degree temps and plenty of humidity. But the crowds came out in good number and I think it will be successful for the community.

Today we went back for round two of grilled turkey sandwiches and strawberry shortcake ... had a couple great lemonade shake ups while we sat in a cool spot waiting for the parade to start. The kids got a huge haul in candy ... here they are trying to get the attention of one of the firemen at the beginning of the parade to toss them some candy. As soon as we came home, they put their candy bags on the scale and I think our dentist would not be happy to hear that Abby picked up 8 lbs of candy, and TJ 10 lbs. HA It was raining candy, much of the parade.

The pic above is of Drew driving in the parade with 3 of the queen contestants in tow ... on the left is Cori, our neighbor. Drew sang a solo on Fri night in the "Tremont has Talent" competition and won first place and a $250 cash prize! He sang "Bless the Broken Road" by Rascal Flatts and did a great job.

Another Turkey Festival has come and gone!

Spring Evening, Spring Flowers

It was a beautiful spring evening tonight and the kids and I spent some time outside soaking it up. It's that pretty time of year when the grass is really green and the early flowers are in bloom ... and haven't been scorched by the hot summer sun yet!

We took some pics of the pond and the honeysuckle that is in full bloom on the trellis over the pond. It is a favorite of the hummingbirds and we see many of them during the summer months.

We also tried to get pics of one of the resident pond frogs, but they all let out a screech and jumped into the water anytime we came near. They are pretty funny, and pretty scared of us. Wonder if it has anything to do with TJ's relentless efforts to try and catch them in a net all the time? ;-)

Then we moved out front to shoot a few hoops. Abby had to get in the action, even though she was in a dress.

While we were there we took some pics of the beautiful Irises that are blooming near the front walk. I wish they stayed this pretty all year long, but soon they will fade.

A Summer-Like Weekend!

It was a balmy 85 degrees this weekend, felt more like mid-July than the end of May. Well, I guess it is now June as of today!

TJ had a swim party for a group of 4th graders on Sat, so he spent the day at the neighbors house enjoying a good cool down. They had balloon fights (girls against boys) and a great time.

Then we went out to the boat on Sat afternoon. After dinner out, we made a quick stop at a local festival to listen to a set by one of our favorite area Jimmy Buffett style bands. After the music we took in a fireworks show, and the kids were beat so we headed back to the marina to spend the night and get ready for a busy day relaxing on Sunday.

Today was nice and toasty, and just the perfect day to try out the new little boat. It was lots of fun and a great day to be out on the water. We took several rides and didn't leave the marina until way late since it was so nice ... at least it's not a "school night" any more, but it is still a "work night"! Well and Drew starts his 8-week Chemistry class tomorrow morning at the community college, to get a jump on the fall semester at college ... so a few of us aren't off for the summer like TJ and do have some obligations tomorrow! HA

Summer is Officially Here!

Nothing like a three-day Memorial Holiday weekend to get summer underway!

It was supposed to be yucky all weekend according to the weatherman, but apparently it all went around us. It did cloud up a few times, but we enjoyed some sunshine too. We spent the weekend at the boat, from about Sat Noon through Mon Noon and only had rain overnight last night.

TJ was in heaven with the extended time to drive his new remote control boat and got a chance to demo it for lots of people on the dock. The marina is a great place for him to use it and it keeps him busy during the times we are just relaxing on the dock.

The marina is gearing up for summer with lots of people and boats, and of course no summer could start without a parade of baby ducks! It's fun to see the mama ducks swimming with them around the boats and waddling up on the jet ports.

After we left the marina today we dropped the kiddos off at home and made a short trip to pick up a new water toy ... a 14' SeaDoo Speedster. We're thinking the kids will love the chance to tube and hit some river beaches, plus we can all fit in it for an excursion instead of taking two separate jet skis ... with room for floating toys and a cooler to spare. And it has a nice trailer that makes it a lot more mobile than our other boat, which can't be trailered at all.

They were very excited when we pulled into the driveway with it and jumped at the chance to help Dad wash and scrub it up. TJ's wondering if we can buy a tube in time for next weekend since it's Monday already. hahaha

Pre-School Graduation!

We have another graduate in the house! Abby's pre-school graduation was this week and it was a fun night for her! Click picture for a larger view.

She has been so excited about this for so long. They have been practicing the program they did for the parents since March. So at home, we have been hearing songs and memorized lines from "Goldilocks and the 3 Bears" for many weeks now! A couple of weeks ago they made their shirts for the program, which had painted stamps of a house and bears.

She could not stop smiling that night and was so excited for us to be there and see her on stage. I think we might have an actress on our hands! HA

After the program each child received their "diploma" and a treat bag. We capped off the night with dinner out and Daddy gave the graduate 5 gold dollar coins. TJ got some too since he is "graduating" from grade school to middle school without fanfare. Hey it was only fair after Drew's graduation haul!


Our little one is crossing that bridge from pre-school to kindergarten in just 3 short months. She is so ready! It will be fun to see her get on that bus in August with TJ ... and she's eager to learn so she will have some good years in grade school!

Graduation Day!

Well the big day was lots of fun ... actually, it started as a big weekend as we prepared most all of Saturday. We had a combined party with our neighbor whose daughter is in Drew's class, so on Sat a tent arrived and there much much to do to get ready for Sunday! You can click on any of the pictures to see a full size version.

The ceremony yesterday was very nice. Here you can see how much Abby enjoyed it. HA Before the diplomas were handed out, Drew was part of a Senior Ensemble that sang ... it was so fun to see them smiling and having fun during the song that I didn't even cry. Until the end. HA! Here's a You Tube video of the song ...



Then it was time to get serious. There were exactly 100 graduates in Drew's class who walked graduation yesterday. A few graduated early, but this was the largest class to ever graduate from Tremont HS. It was so wonderful to see Drew cross that stage and receive his diploma, and incredible to think of him crossing the bridge from being a kid in school to his young adulthood.

They did a wonderful job and even with the song and some after-diploma sillyness ... we were out of there in 40 minutes flat! The moment it was announced that the class was approved for graduation, the Silly String popped and the noisemakers started, and it was quite funny. Might be hard to tell, but that is Silly String in the air and hanging off the mortar boards!

The ceremony that was filled with so much dignity and pomp and circumstance left us all smiling instead of feeling the impact of the bittersweet changes our kids just went through. I greatly appreciated the chance to smile with them and for them! It is so unlike THS to have anything but a serious program, so it was extra funny to see them cut loose and just enjoy the moment.

Then it was party time! We had a wonderful crowd of people ... teachers, mentors and friends. It was almost 9pm before we closed up shop, and we got started about 3:30, so it was a good afternoon and evening.


Now today is going to seem pretty routine and boring. HA


Congrats Drew! And congrats to my nephew, Zach, who graduated at virtually the same time, but 3 hours away!

THS Baccalaureate

One big graduation event down, one to go! Tonight was Baccalaureate for the THS Class of 2008, and it was a very nice event. At least with the cooler weather outside it wasn't as hot inside the gym as usual!



Hard to catch good pics in the lovely lighting of the gym, but I did get a video of Drew and two other Seniors (Lisa and Kristen) singing "Amazing Grace" during the ceremony. I was zoomed in, so it is shaky ... and it's from the digital camera not the camcorder, so the sound quality isn't that great ... but you can hear them! HA They practiced only 1 time (busy Seniors, you know!) at 6:30 tonight, before Baccalaureate started at 7:30!



Not long until the big day now! Saturday is going to be a busy day cleaning and getting ready for the after-party, and Sunday will be here before we know it! Drew is singing again with a group at graduation on Sunday, so that will be fun.