It is Finally Spring and I Have Proof!

After a long, cold, snowy winter ... followed by the first month of spring on the calendar being cool and wet ... we have finally turned the corner to beautiful weather!

Flowering trees

















Pretty birds at the feeder
















Fresh top soil in the pots,
awaiting flower plantings
















Moss growing in the fish pond
















Flip flops as common attire
















Bike rides
















And nothing says spring like ... little league!



Welcome spring and good weather. We have missed you!

Relay for Life

Drew is particpating with his fraternity in a Relay for Life event ... here is his event info and a link to his donation page. I know many of us have the organizations that are close to our hearts that we support ... no guilt or begging on his behalf, but if you are interested in this event, you can make a donation to help him meet his goal on his page. Thanks for considering it! Here is his message:

A message from Drew Scott regarding the Relay for Life:

I have committed to participate in the Relay For Life at Carthage through Delta Upsilon. I have learned that this year, hundreds of thousands of people will hear the words "You have cancer”. I know that some of those people could be people that I care about. Instead of being afraid of that, I have chosen to do something to fight back against this disease and I’m asking for your help.

Will you consider making a donation to my Relay For Life efforts? $1 or $5 ... no amount is too small to help. To donate online now, click the link below to visit my personal page.

By making healthy lifestyle choices such as eating right, exercising and not smoking we can reduce the chances of getting cancer by as much as 50%! I’m asking that you consider taking this challenge to fight back against cancer by making healthy lifestyle choices and supporting my fundraising efforts.

Thank you in advance for your support. Together, we will celebrate, remember, and fight back! Eliminate it!

Click here to visit my personal page

Click here to view the team page for Delta Upsilon

Better sit down, this is a rare photo!!

You may have never seen this kind of photo here ... and you may never see it again!

It's an Easter Miracle! :-)

With pride, I show you a picture of the ENTIRE Tremont Scott family ... from those who you see regularly to the one who is usually away at college ... and even the mama who is ALWAYS on the other side of the lens ... all in one photo!!



Thanks to Grandpa Scott for doing the photography duty today! We shared a very nice holiday dinner and afternoon with Grandma & Grandpa!

We didn't really have the traditional Easter Dinner with ham ... we opted for smoked turkey, ceasar salad, veggies and jello ... but everyone enjoyed their favorites and it was a great day. After the meal it was egg hunt time, and here are a few photos of the action! Grandpa and Dad hid the eggs, so it included climbing trees and checking all around the cars to find the loot!

Be sure to check out TJ's enormous carrot in that last pic (you can click on the pic for a full size view). He found that at the store and HAD to have it to go along with his dinner today! ha ha

It was really great to have Drew home from college for the weekend, and to have the whole family under one roof!

There are pictures on Beverly's blog of digging into the Easter baskets and the dinner table, check them out here!

Ten Months in Tremont

Easter Egg Hunt

This morning the kids were up early and ready to head to the community Easter Egg Hunt! It is sponsored by a community group that Mitch is part of, and always a nice activity for the kids. In addtion to finding eggs, they always have a chance to get their picture taken with the Easter Bunny, and our own local "Miss Tremont" ... who this year happens to be a good friend and classmate of Drew's.Abby lined up with the kindergarten/1st grade group, and TJ headed off to meet up with the 4th/5th graders. Can't believe it will be his last year to participate, as he'll "age out" next year! Seems like yesterday Drew was young enough to take part and TJ was just a baby!

After the countdown, they were off! They got lots of yummy chocolate eggs and a few plastic ones with other goodies inside. When the egg hunt was done, Abby was straight off to the monkey bars. That girl can swing along the full length of the bars without stopping, and goes back for more. She has so much coordination and strength, I really should put her in gymnastics!

After the majority of the kids had combed the area and some people were leaving, we told Beverly anything was fair game if she saw one on the ground ... and sure enough, she found probably a half dozen small chocolate eggs! I did put a few pics on her blog too, here ... Ten Months in Tremont

Siblings Weekend at Carthage

TJ and Abby had a great time in Kenosha this weekend visiting Drew for siblings weekend!

Abby spent most of her time with me, but did get some quality Drew time. We had dinner together Fri night, then TJ spent the night in the dorm Fri & Sat nights and had a great time. Saturday they had some planned activities and tye dyed shirts, visited a museum and the Jelly Belly factory, and had a late night movie.

Sat night Drew and Sarah came to the hotel for awhile to swim with Abby, and that is about the only thing I got pics of this weekend, other than the shirt TJ made!

<

Having fun before it melts!

Even though we really didn't want any more snow, at least it gave us a few laughs around here today with snowman building and snowball fights!

Roxy was having a great time jumping to catch snowballs. It's over 40 degrees and melting fast! Click on any picture for a larger view.

We are Home!

We arrived in Tremont about 10:15 pm last night after a very long driving day on Saturday. We got up early and loaded the car and pulled out of Destin a little before 7 am. It was raining hard and the wind was blowing, and there were lots of flooded roads. The Payne family was a couple hours ahead of us getting out, and they let us know that our normal route was almost impassable with high waters, so we took a different route. We ended up coming to a road that was closed due to flooding and police had it blocked off. That area has had 10-15 inches of rain over a 3 day period and it was tough going for a couple hours. Can't imagine what it is like there in a hurricane!

By the time we got to Birmingham, AL the sun was out. We had a few showers on and off, and during a rainstorm in Kentucky the sun came out again and we got to see this rainbow for quite a long time.

We drove back into rain in IL, but we fortunately arrived home before the snow started. We woke up this morning to a winter wonderland, even though it is now technically spring.


From gorgeous beach days to tornado warnings and monsoon rains to winter storms ... we have seen it all this spring break! Fortunately none of the weather issues caused us any problems. And spring snow never seems to stick around long, it is supposed to be 41 degrees today so we'll see some melting. Good to be home! Now it's time to unpack and get ready for school and work tomorrow!

Friday in Destin

Repeat after me ... it's still my mantra ... A rainy day at the beach is still better than a sunny day at work! :-)

Rain, rain and more rain again today. So we fixed breakfast in the condo and lounged around a bit in the morning. Then it was time for lunch at a favorite restaurant, and we took the kids bowling.

We had a really fun time ... the bowling alley was packed with many other families looking for an indoor activity, so the kids played pool during the 45-ish minute wait for bowling lanes.

But then they bowled two games and had a lot of fun. Abby managed to win the first game in the girls league (with bumpers, of course!) and TJ won the first game of the guys league. TJ had at least two strikes and did really well, bowling a 105 both games.

Now it's time to pack the suitcases (sniff, sniff) for an early morning departure. We normally stick around until early/mid afternoon on Saturday, but the weather forecast is still for rain and storms, so we will hit the road early.We have made the best of the rain here since we did have four gorgeous beach and pool days at the start of the week ... and I told the kids you can either sit in the condo and pout that it is raining, or go out and find something fun to do. So we did.

But we are headed out of the rain to SNOW (!!) at home. Maybe as much as six inches, according to the National Weather Service site I pulled up tonight.

UGH, UGH and UGH!

Guess I won't be wearing the flip flops home! ha ha

Next post from Tremont!

Thursday in Destin

The morning started out with tornado warnings and thunderstorms, and it stayed cloudy all day ... but my new mantra is that a rainy day at the beach is better than a sunny day at work! :-)

We fixed a sausage/egg dish for brunch in the condo and watched the rain fall. The good thing about being in a condo versus a hotel room is that there is room for the five of us to spread out and have our space! It definitely makes an inside day more tolerable for the kids.

TJ went out to eat and shop with his friend's family, and Mitch vetoed shopping so the girls and I headed to the outlet mall. Bought a few things at the Nike and Aero stores and headed back to the condo. Beverly joined up with TJ and the Payne family to go to a movie, so they were happy to get out and about for awhile longer.



Abby and I went on a beach walk once the rain cleared. It was amazing to see how far the surf had washed up during the storm, and there were lots of jellyfish. There were lots of these Portugese Man-of-War, on the left ...









and this really large Moon Jelly ... click to see full size view,


Abby had a great time looking at them from a distance and writing her name in the sand.


I was taking a picture of her when a lady came along and offered to take a picture of both of us. I agreed since I am in very, very few of our family shots since I am always behind the lens!

Wednesday in Destin

Wednesday was a cloudy day, but we still found ways to have a good time.

After a morning swim ... where the kids had the pool all to themselves ... we headed out for lunch at a spot that has some small alligators on display. The kids always enjoy seeing them and even got to touch one (whose mouth was firmly taped shut!).

TJ always wants to try the crane machine games, even though they usually take his money and no prize. But today he plucked a toy right out of there, so of course had to try again for Abby. Luck on the second one as well. Who would have thought he could do it three times in a row, but he did. So he was quite happy!

We walked around a shopping area and then after we came back to the condo, Mitch and Beverly played a little tennis. Went to a late dinner with the Payne family, and the relaxing day was over.

A few more pics on Beverly's blog.