Memorial Day fun

The Rutledge crew spent Memorial Day weekend at home this year. We rolled out a badminton net, set up a poor man's bocce court, invited some neighbors over to share in the fun and sun, and tried to relax as much as possible.

Saturday night ended up being one of the funnest nights we have had since we moved to Apex 4 years ago. There were 45+ people here with kids of all ages. The rain forecasted all day long held off, and once the sun went down and the lightning bugs came out the kids broke into a game of flashlight tag which took me back to the days on Kelly Drive playing that game with all the neighborhood kids. It was a great night.

Sunday was recuperation and re-hydration day. We tried to take the kids out for pizza last night and were quickly reminded that we have 3 small children. Tess, ever curious to see our destination's bathroom as she is potty training, had Amy up four times because "she had to go." Of course the one time you don't take her is the one time she's not crying wolf, so we take the bait every time. Meanwhile Owen decided he was all of a sudden not a fan of pepperoni pizza, so he moaned and groaned the whole meal. Amy & I were very happy to put kids to bed and call it a night.

Memorial Day was a pool day for our crew. The boys are bound & determined to learn to swim this summer, and it's time. Owen surprisingly has more courage in the water than Gus does. We'll see if we can get the two water bugs to be self-sufficient in the pool by summer's end.

Hope everyone's Memorial Day weekend was a relaxing one. We remember those who paid the ultimate sacrifice so we can enjoy fun-in-the-sun weekends like this.

Cheers!


Finding a dozen 2x4's in the workshop from the previous owner of our house yielded the perfect poor man's bocce court.


Even the bees enjoyed the neighborhood get together as this poor fella was stuck to a bowl of melted ice cream when we went out to clean up the next morning. Looks like Owen isn't the only one who can't resist chocolate.
Tessa Lou was in prime form at the pool....
...while the boys try to get their sea legs back as quick as possible getting comfortable in the water.

Reunited, and It Feels So Good

Holy cow. The blog. Where do I begin? It has been such a neglected part of the Rutledge life, frankly for the last six months.

Life got busy. Really busy. And it remains really busy. Kiddos and sports, two working parents, a new demanding job, trying to serve in a leadership role at Covenant, and doing our best to find time for ourselves and each other, it can be pretty difficult to find a few minutes here and there for anything.

Then there was that contrived one-night stand with Facebook. Oh Facebook -- where do I begin with you? In reality Facebook is fun. It's voyeuristic and visceral. But it can also be laboring and pointless. I mean, I do enjoy getting a friend invite from someone that I forgot that I went to middle school with. But frankly I don't care what their high score is on Farmville.

So it's good to be back. For however long this lasts. Maybe just today, but I'll try to throw up some pictures every now and then. I think our readership dwindled down to single digits. We'll build it back up eventually.

Cheers everyone!



This photo was taken to show that I do have a daughter, despite the fact that she wipes off my kisses and cries by the minute for "Mama!" Tessa Lou is a mama's girl for sure. (She'll come around.) ;-)


The boys play soccer now. They are in a 5-6 year-old league where it's very low key with no pressure for winning -- or positions really. The kids all rotate from defense to offense, and in Owen's case "gazelle" as he hops and prances all over the field. When he's the goalie, Owen stands there with his hands up in front of his body ready to pounce as his coach once told him to get his tiger paws up. Obviously that stuck. He even had a game where ran after some poor little girl on the other team growling at her.

Gus is a little more competitive but still is learning the game. Today he was the most aggressive he has been, and we're hoping he gets a goal before the season is up in a couple of weeks. He still doesn't like his picture taken though.

Amy's annual Mother's Day picture where she begs the kids to sit still for 3 milliseconds so I can snap a picture without a finger in the nose or an elbow to a sibling's head. Note the contrast to Tess's happiness from the picture above! (Her dating age just got moved from 23 to 28.)

Chah-lston

Last week Amy & I concluded the summer with a vacation down to Charleston. We rented a house on James Island just a hop, skip & a jump across the marsh from Aunt Mel, Uncle Dude, Corinne and Sam and a mile from Folly Beach.

Amy & I crammed as much work as we could get done in the weeks leading up to vacation, led a Worship & Wonder training the morning that we left, and a finished up a multiple's club consignment sale that afternoon. We both slept hard the first two days that we were down in South Carolina.

The vacation was a really good one in that we were so ready to leave town and escape the day-to-day life at home by the time we departed and then we were ready to be back in the comforts of home by the time we returned at the end of the week. That's what a vacation should be, I suppose.




On Tuesday our friends Debbie Barrett and Chad Nance brought their litter up from Bluffton, SC -- Aidan, Abby, and Anmei -- and shared our place for a couple of days. I am not sure if the kids wore us parents out or if all the fun we parents threw at the kids wore them out. But either way, it was a really good time seeing the Nance crew.

Off the boat dock from the back of the rental house, the marsh rose and fell with the tides. It made for some good bird watching and fiddler crab hunting.


The parents loaded up the kids for a trip to the South Carolina Aquarium, which sits on a gorgeous spot in downtown Charleston on the harbor. The kids got to pet an alligator and saw plenty of penguins, sharks, fish and jellies to provide a good thrill.

Gus, Aidan & Anmei posed for their Nemo shark bait moment.


One of the fun parts of trips are the impromptu moments that you can't plan for -- like when six kids are tired and hungry after a morning of sightseeing in the aquarium. So the parents pulled out the beach chairs and fed the kids sandwiches & goldfish right there in the parking garage. All we were missing was a cooler and a football game....


The Rutledge crew got to reunite with the Crumptons and meet cousin Sam for the first time. He is a laid back little fellow who takes in the two year-old tornado that is his big sister Corinne with a big gummy grin on his face.

Corinne experienced the Owen shun first hand as she was enamored with her older cousin, but he did his best "girls are icky" impression all week. (Talk to Tess, little peanut -- the two of you can share stories.)

Corinne and Gus on the other hand are cut from the same cloth -- both rowdy & rambunctious and (too?) lovable with their younger siblings.

What fun we had and will have as this group gets older.


The rest of the week was dedicated to entertaining kids. We beached it several times. At first the boys were very cautious of the water, which is what you want as a parent when it comes to the ocean -- a combined sense of awe and excitement with a healthy respect for the tides when you only weigh 35 lbs.

By the end of the week though, both boys had their badges of courage with the water and were body surfing and sticking their heads underwater. And of course, the receding tides offer wet sand which is just perfect for building sand castles....


and making mud balls to throw at each other.


Little Tess enjoyed herself as well -- chasing sea gulls, playing in the sand, walking Tucker on the beach, and adapting very well to the relaxed beach schedule which sometimes led to lunches at 2:30 in the afternoon.

We did break out of the beach routine a few times. This was our first visit back to Folly in two years since Gus had his fall that put him in the hospital. So we drove by the house where we had stayed to see that the open stairs had been closed off with a deck on the back of the house. Little Owen and his crazy accurate memory remembered a lot of it two years later and was full of questions. It gave a good sense of closure, especially for Amy.

Then we drove over to the park a block away where the kids ran off the rest of their morning energy. Owen does his best eerie devilish impression coming out of the slide.


Finally, we hit Splash Zone -- which has to be one of the coolest water parks there is -- on the morning before we drove back home. The boys were just tall enough to ride down the monster water slides with Dad, Mom & Uncle Dude.

All in all it was a good way to end the summer before preschool started back for the boys this week. We finished the summer with a splash & a bang.

Cheers!

Superhero Summer

Owen & Gus have had quite the summer for four year-old little boys. After having GJ & Pappy visit their house for 10 days, the boys rode back to Kentucky to begin their Bluegrass Adventure without Mom, Dad & little sister. What fun!

After spending a few days in Glasgow with GJ & Pappy the boys journeyed across the state to spend time with Nana, Granddaddy and the Paducah crew. While there, there were reports of a superhero sighting nearby -- more on that in a moment.

When their time in Kentucky came to a close the boys piled into the van with their Aunt Ashley, Uncle Scott, and cousins Mason, Gavin & Brooke for the long return trip back to North Carolina. The kids were all reportedly on their best behavior -- funny how being together can bring the best out of each other.

Amy and I were very happy to see the boys for the first time in 8 days. It was obvious that we missed Owen & Gus more than they missed us. Oh well, that's the sign of a great visit right there.

We were then treated to a few days hanging out with the Posey crew in North Carolina. After an unsuccessful badminton attempt (cheap plastic poles from China!), we rebounded with bocce, a trip to the swimming pool, a campout in the backyard while it thunderstormed, and a great trip to the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and the North Carolina History Museum.

It was a tremendous time getting to see the Posey crew. It took the boys a couple of days to recoup from their trip and the fun of the visit. Tess had to adjust to not having her cousins around to dote on her as well. We look forward to many return visits!

Cheers!

Recipe:

The first step in a successful museum visit is hydration.



Pack up the van so there are enough seat belts and car seats to go around.


Throw in some sea horses and plenty of fish.....



....and the occasional 50-foot long plant-eating dinosaur.....




.....a stuffed pelican going after its prey.....


......some sea turtles......



....a few minutes to rest & catch our breaths.....



.....some peanut butter & jelly on the concourse.....



......a little fun goof-off time by the pirate ship at the history museum.....



.....and out comes two extremely happy superheroes.
(Nana took this picture across the river in Metropolis, Illinois. An instant classic for us!)

Week of Independence

In what is becoming an Independence Day tradition for our crew, we were joined over the holiday week by grandparents as Pappy & GJ made their way down from Kentucky. As Amy is back to work full time, the July 4 weekend represented a busy quarter close time for her at work. So Pappy & GJ agreed to come down & help out with the kids. We all ended up having a tremendous time.

The hit of the week was the swimming pool. With the weather in the low 90's and moderate humidity -- by far the best July 4th weather we have had in our 12 years in North Carolina -- the pool became a destination on several days.

Owen is definitely a natural water bug. Even the life guards were laughing as they would talk about how excited he got as he winded himself up before jumping off the side into waiting arms.

Gus was slower to get comfortable with the water and getting his face wet. You can see the progression from the first day when his apprehension level was high to the last day when he was putting his whole head under water and holding his breath.

Little Tess was very mellow in the water. Amy, Pappy, GJ & I passed her around and around as we took turns catching the boys as they jumped off the side and she didn't mind a bit. Once I took her out to deeper water where I threw her up and caught her, she found the joy that is the swimming pool. She kept putting her fingers together which is her sign language for "more." Kids, swimming pools, and summer -- quite a combination.


Once Tess finally wore herself out from the sun & water, she found happiness in Mom's arms.


Another fun part of Independence Day week is Wimbledon. This year's tournament was terrific with a Williams sister final on the women's side and an incredible five-set match on the men's side between Roger Federer and Andy Roddick.

Amy & I even got out one night and dusted the old tennis racket off up at the neighborhood courts while the grandparents hung out with the kids. As much as I tried to safety pin Roger's talent to me, I just don't measure up.


After camping in Mt. Airy the boys brought back a taste for roasted marshmallows. So one night we gathered around the fire pit and made S'mores. Just when they thought it couldn't get any better than fluffy white sugar on a stick, the boys were thrilled as chocolate bars & graham crackers were added to the mix.

A sporting goods store close to us had a great sale on tents. So I picked up a 6-person tent and put it up in the backyard. Gus & Owen immediately wanted to sleep in the tent so after devouring some marshmallows the boys & I piled in for a good night's rest. Serta mattress not included this time.


Finally our last night together we borrowed a Raclette grill from our friends the Learys and cooked up a great dinner of bread, cheese, apple sausage, pepperoni, peppers, onions & potatoes. The boys -- excuse me, Batman and Robin -- were not impressed as they quickly begged for PB&J. Oh well, the adults and Tess enjoyed the heck out of it.

Cheers!

Mt. Airy

Last weekend the Rutledge crew packed up on a Friday afternoon and drove out of Dodge. Our friends Brian & Kelly Wise have a house out in the country in Mt. Airy, North Carolina, home of Andy Griffith and the model for Mayberry on the TV show.

Owen & Gus were incredibly excited to be around Gracen & Cate, and Tess seemed very happy being around two girls for a change. She actually got to play with dolls and push a baby stroller instead of playing with trains and Planet Heroes.

For Amy & me, it was a great chance to get out of town without cellphones, email & 98 degree heat to spend quality time with Brian, Kelly and all the kids. The Wises have a great piece of property on top of a hill where the breeze always seems to blowing, which comes in handy on warm summer days.

There was fishing, four-wheeling, camping, marshmallow roasting, slip n' sliding, and plenty of relaxing. It was a tremendous getaway, one we hope to be able to do again.

Cheers!
The boys' unanimous favorite moment of the trip: Roasting marshmallows. Forget catching fish, throwing rocks, staying up late, or sleeping outside. The guys were in hog heaven with those little fluffy white puffs of sugar.
If you have a farm, you just have to have a four-wheeler.



Tess proved that she is indeed Dad's daughter. Corn on the cob is her new favorite food. As if I needed another reason for this little girl to have me wrapped around her finger....

Most men would be ashamed to be seen lugging a Serta mattress into a tent to camp for the night. Not these guys. Hey, the women slept inside in beds with Tess & Cate!

The fishing pond was stocked with bluegill that were pretty easy to catch, which made Owen's first fishing experience very exciting. Owen is definitely showing signs of being an outdoorsman. He was very patient while we fished and was in his element all weekend, content to fish or just throw rocks by himself into the pond. Apart from the marshmallow roasting I think his highlight may have been picking out which lure to use to catch those monstrous bluegill.


Three peas in a pod were Owen, Gracen & Gus.

Tess was so happy to be amongst female companions. Gracen & Cate show Tess that girls can have fun jumping on the bed too.


The slip n' slide was a joy for all the kids, especially Tessa Lou.


Sunday morning saw a great hike down to a creek looking for deer footprints...and deer poop. On the hike back up the mountain, Gus was happy to ride the four-wheeler with Gracen & Brian. Owen was happy strolling back up with his mom.


Being out in the country spoiled us. It was so peaceful. The bullfrogs would come out at night & compete with the crickets for control of the songs for the evening. The sunrises were incredible...

...even if you were snoring away on a Serta mattress in a tent while the sun came up.

Race for the Cure

Normally when Gus, Owen or Tess are awake before 6:00am on a Saturday morning, Mom & Dad aren't happy. But Amy & I actually woke the crew up before sunrise this morning. Today was the Komen Race for the Cure over in Raleigh, as 22,000 runners united for the annual race for breast cancer research.

Amy & I had planned on running the first 5K race at 7am and then coming back home in time for breakfast with the kids. But we couldn't in good conscience ask someone to provide childcare beginning that early in the morning. So we signed the boys up for a fun run at the Kids' Zone and took the whole crew.

I ran the 5K at 7:00 while Amy entertained Gus, Owen & Tess. Then I took over with kiddos as Amy ran in a women's-only race at 7:45. The race is such an uplifting event as it winds through older neighborhoods in Raleigh where residents turn out to cheer people on and shower runners with their yard sprinklers. Pink shirts are everywhere as breast cancer survivors and their teams of supporters come out in droves. Bands and church choirs dot the course and perform for hours as runners make their way in three different races.

Meanwhile Amy & I had built up the notion of a kids' race for Owen & Gus -- how else were we going to get 2 four year-olds up at the crack of dawn without a scrum? So after our races we headed over to the kids' section where their "race" was supposed to take place. As it turned out the start to finish was probably 50 ft. which we figured would be a big disappointment.

So Amy & I decided to line the boys up for the 1 mile fun run which was taking place right next to the kids' section. The boys were all about it. Owen & Gus ran their little hearts out the whole way, stopping a couple of times to catch their breath. When they crossed the finish line you would have thought they won the Boston Marathon. Two excited little boys for certain.

So it was a long -- but very enjoyable day for the Rutl crew. Gus & Tess were falling asleep at the dinner table tonight. Thus, it's bedtime. Mom & Dad arent' too far behind.

Cheers!

Mom, the sprinter boys & Tessa Lou

The Rutledge dude runners.
Tess enjoyed the "pink" theme as she found a resting place.

The kid crew in a picture which is essentially a microcosm of their sibling relationship -- Gus gives Tess his Chick-fil-a cow stuffed animal while Owen scrubs Tess's head. Brotherly love comes in different forms.