Welcome to Tuttle!

How about this??? We drove into town and there's a new Tuttle sign!! I think they felt some pressure after Scott erected his 100th Meridian Duck Shack sign??

Even down Main Street there have been some improvements! The local cafe is now sporting a mural of the town of Tuttle!

This is actually a pretty neat painting! I'm not sure who the artist is, but they did a fine job giving the cafe some "curb appeal"! Gage also informed us that they painted the swingset at the school and put a new board on the "carousel" (merry-go-round). I'm not sure what's going on in Tuttle, but I can't wait to find out!

Not too long after we arrived, there was a beautiful rainbow in the sky. My pictures don't do it justice, but the kids were very excited to see such a wonderful rainbow. Gage wanted to go look for the pot of gold, because he could see the end of the rainbow was "just over there!" Dustin assured him that it wasn't, "just over there!"

We got just a few drops of rain after we spotted the rainbow.

I'm not sure I've ever seen such a big rainbow and could actually see all of the colors very distinctly?

Here I am hard at work! I've got my iPod going underneath the ear protectors and I love just sitting there and listening to the music. The yard definitely needed mowing. I'm not sure when it was mowed last, but I know it's been over a month since I've mowed it! We have had some guests off and on staying at the house, and one of the guys has been known to hop on the mower while he's there.

After I finally had to stop mowing because it was too dark, Scott started up the little campfire and we made s'mores. I couldn't believe how much the temperature dropped! It was very windy and quite chilly out! Thankfully Scott has all of his duck hunting parkas there, so we were all toasty warm in those!

Colton waiting patiently for his s'more!

I've decided that making s'mores isn't actually that much fun. I get stressed out because the kids can't seem to keep a safe distance away from the fire, Scott won't let anyone start cooking marshmallows until there are just orange embers burning, it's too dark and you can't see what you're doing, and I always end up with sticky gooey marshmallow all over my hands (and face!). I think maybe we should start doing them earlier. Starting around 11 pm is a little too late! YIKES!

Scott decided he needed to chop some wood for the campfires we have.



This was one tough little log. I'm not sure how many times he whacked at it?

Scott is good at finding projects to do while we are in Tuttle. He's in his own little dream world trying to make his "dream home" the best that he can. He also put up a utility sink on the side of the garage for cleaning the ducks in the fall. Our friends were getting rid of theirs from their basement and Steve and Scott both thought it would be a great addition in Tuttle. After Scott started talking about trying to put a little roof over it in case they want to clean their ducks in the rain, I just had to walk away. I assured him that if it was raining, no one was going to want to be standing out there cleaning their ducks anyway, and if they did, I would buy them rain hats to wear!

Dustin assured me that he was NOT going to waste his summer reading books!!!!! I think those were his exact words on our trip here. The other day after dropping Colton and Emma off at Safety Village, I took Dustin and Gage with me to run some errands. We stopped at the library to drop off Gage and Emma's reading logs for the week (Oh, by the way, Emma won the weekly drawing at the library! We had a message on our answering machine telling her to come down to the library to get her prize and they are going to take a picture of her for the bulletin board!) and then we also stopped at Barnes and Noble. It has been a personal goal of mine (for a few years now) to get Dustin into reading books. A few years ago I gave him a book for his birthday and he went into the house crying because that's not what he wanted! I continue to give him books, but I usually try to add something "fun" to go with it. Anyway, while we were at Barnes and Noble, Gage was picking out his free book that he won for filling up the summer reading log and Dustin pointed out a book on the table that he had read, and enjoyed! Jackie and Me. A baseball book about Jackie Robinson. Dustin loves sports and I try finding him sports books that I think he would enjoy reading. I hit the jackpot. I found several of these baseball books, and I told Dustin to pick one out and I would buy it for him. He picked out Babe and Me. He has been carrying this book around with him ever since we got it, and whenever he has a spare moment, he opens it up and starts reading! When we were in the car on our way to Tuttle he panicked and said, "Do you have my book?" He was relieved when I told him I brought it along. Then the same thing when we left Tuttle! :-) (Don't worry G'ma Pipi, I bought one for Colton, Gage and Emma too! :-)

Dustin did NOT want me taking his picture while he was reading a book, because he didn't want anyone to know that he spent any time reading this summer! I snuck up on him to get these two shots. He told me not to put them on my blog. Oops, sorry Dustin! :-)

When I came into the house (after I finished my book outside in the hammock) I found all of the kids with a book in their hands! It was awesome!

I don't even think this book has any pictures!? Colton was sure enjoying it though!

I wondered why it was so quiet when I walked into the house!

It was a bit chilly and extremely windy while I was in the hammock reading, but I am so into these books my friend Shannon loaned to me that I didn't care if I was swinging all over the place. I only had 2 chapters left to read and I wasn't stopping for anything! :-)

A little later it was time for some target practice. Dustin was having a hard time hitting the target, so I asked him if I could try it to see if there were actually BB's coming out. I shot once and hit the target and I believe that made Dustin try a little harder because he wanted the BB gun back and he hit the target first try after seeing me do it! He quit after that! :-)

The kids had a great time in Tuttle. In fact, Colton and Dustin were begging to stay another night; however, I want to take them to church tomorrow morning though, to see if they enjoy that as well. I knew there would be no way for us all to get up and leave in time to make it to church from Tuttle, so we made it home around supper time. The kids were exhausted from our late night last night and Gage and Colton went to bed pretty easily at 8p. Emma; however, is still singing away in her room as I type. I told Colton and Dustin that maybe we could go back to Tuttle next weekend and have my sister Kysa, my Mom and Dad meet us there on their trip here to get the boys. They thought that was a great idea! We'll have to see if the weary travelers will think that's a great idea though!

P.S. I'll try to post more 4th of July pictures tomorrow.