Summer Vacation

We had a jam packed summer vacation trip to San Diego. Here are my little traveling pros the day we flew out. Thank goodness for electronics. 

Poppy went too! 

First stop was La Jolla Beach. Avery loves the beach! The water is so cold there though. 

After a change of clothes from the beach we went to see Aunt Amanda and finally got to meet Emily. Avery was most excited about this! 

The next day we went to the zoo. Sadly, Ross was sick and he and Don didn't make this outing. 

Guess what little person didn't touch that Madagascar hissing cockroach? Ding! Ding! Avery

She got to pick out one thing as a souvenir and got a cheetah headband. 

The next day we went to SeaWorld. It is always a huge hit. One of our favorite things is feeding the seals. 

This was a fun little air car ride across the area. 

Dolphin show is mega fun too. 

Ross and Don are on this ride. 

They talked me into it. I got soaked! Not in the picture is Avery, who braved it and rode the ride as well. Mega huge deal.

The ride home went about like this. :)

Our final outing was Legoland. (our least favorite thing) 

Don't mind my finger. ha

Aunt Amanda rode a ride with Avery. 

Finally caught up with Ross at one point and took him to meet Emmet. Shortly after he immediately left me to go ride more rides. Hence, the reason I don't have many pics. 

In the meantime Avery, Reid, and I watched a fun little play. Reid is just as nervous about rides as Avery is. 

The ride home went like this. Thank goodness b/c it was a long ride home in traffic. 

We met up for breakfast on the day we left to go back home. Breakfast every day was SO good! 

Fast forward to the next day when we were home and running and errand. The kids were exhausted. Their parents was too. 

Last Day of School

The last day  of school rolled around quickly, and they were quite happy about it! 

First day/ Last Day comparison pics. 

Let the summer fun begin!

Ross Graduates in Martial Arts

Ross has tested for 2 belts in the last several months. The first was moving to green belt.

He has worked SO hard to be able to do this full stretch. 

He did great! 

They started sparing at this level. 

All smiles. Testing finished. Graduate to green. 

The next testing was for senior green. He knew these moves very well. 

Gladiator and Spartans that moved up a belt.

Avery Takes Martial Arts

Avery shook the dust of dancing off her feet and said hello to martial arts. She absolutely loves it. 

Her first day. A princess fighter. 

Her first testing was much fun! It was great to see her progression. 

I have several videos from testing, but this is my favorite. The warm up. The best. 

Fast forward 3 months and she tested again and had 8 strong moves. She did great! 

No pics, but I do have the video. 

It is great to see the kids figure out their favorite activities.  

Mother's Day

I can't believe I'm just on Mother's Day for 2017!

I took the kids to a cookie class the day before Mother's Day and they decorated cookies for Mam and Granny

Avery made one that looked like her with "golden hair".

They loved it!

Ross made this one. "I Love You"

Ross's finished products.

Avery's finished products.

My goods from the kids. Avery's things about me. 

Ross made this. Each finger represents something about me. I absolutely love it!

He also filled this info sheet out about me. #4 is hilarious!

They always pick me out a new dress, courtesy of their Dad taking them. Hands down my favorite dress ever! They also got me a necklace this year.

After church, we all met up and went to lunch together.

Goodbye Red Chair

This chair has been with us since Ross was 1. They were sad to see it go. To be honest I was too b/c it means they've grown up. That chair has been through a lot of things and was given much love by all the kids that came through our house. 

Here Avery is about the same age as Ross when he first got the chair. 

Farewell, red chair. 

Ross's Baptism

One night Ross and his Dad were doing a Bible devotion and the topic of salvation came up. Of course, we've discussed that with him before but this particular night is the night he said he had asked Jesus into his heart already. He came into bedroom and told me. SUCH AN AWESOME day for parents! Nothing will ever top it.

May 7, 2017 was the day he was baptized. All our family was there, and it was a great day of celebrating!

We are so proud of our guy!

The Martins Visit the Texas Rangers

We decided to take a quick trip to Dallas during the Labor Day weekend to catch a Rangers game.  We've also decided that as a family we want to visit all 30 major league parks, so this is the first one for the entire family to visit.  To say that our trip was eventful would be a little bit of an understatement.  We left Little Rock on Saturday morning and checked in to our hotel, which as our luck would have it was hosting an S&M conference.  Before you scroll down looking for those pictures - there aren't any.  However, we do have a few from the game.

Here's our family picture at the game.  We had great seats, the sky was cloudy, and there was a great breeze for most of the game.  Simply put, you couldn't ask for a better night at the park.

Our better luck is that it was Star Wars night at the ballpark.  In the first picture you can see a bobble head which was given to the first 1500 or so folks to enter the park.  The one immediately above is Ross clowning with... well, I don't know.  I quit watching Star Wars after the Jedi fought back many years ago.  But Ross knows who it is and this guy was kind enough to pose.  Noticeably absent was Avery, who was desperately clinging to my leg as I took this picture begging me not to get any closer.  The fact this picture exists at all is a sheer testament to Apple products and my balance.

As we checked out the ballpark we cruised to the center field area and found the Nolan Ryan statue.  Of course the kids had no idea who he is, so I had to (wanted to) show them the video of Nolan popping Robin Ventura in the face repeatedly although he was about 20 years older.  It was awesome, and still is.  That's not the point.  The point is we found the statue of the coolest Ranger ever and the kids held still just long enough to get a picture of the strikeout and no-hitter king.

The girls went for a round while running some errand and found the upper deck.  Avery was quite stoked about this, which would have been nice to know before I bought the more expensive tickets.  Needless to say she loved the view and surprisingly did really well at the game.  She has deemed it a success and still wants to go see other parks.

Seriously I was very proud of the kids; they did really well at the game.  Probably the highlight of the night came in the top of the ninth with the Angels down by two.  When they got a runner on first I casually mentioned to Scarlett how funny it would be to see the Angels hit a homerun and the game go into extra innings.  The words had barely left my mouth when a laser shot scraped the top of the left field fence and the game was tied.  We left with the score tied, and heard the game end in the car in the 10th inning (Angels win).  A fun time was had by all and I can't wait for the other 29 parks!