How to Get Out of Church

Guess what? Today is day light savings! How do I know? Well, the entire Martin clan trooped into Sacrament meeting-bags, bickering kids, and all-one hour and five minutes late. It took us five minutes more to figure what was happening (to the delight of the rest of the congregation). And that is my life in a nutshell.

Martin Quote

Mommy: Come here let me give you a kiss.
Enoch: Princesses have to kiss.
Mommy: Am I a princess?
Enoch: No, you're a girl!

We Saw the Wheedle

"There's a Wheedle
On the Needle I know just what
You're Thinking
But if you look up
Late at night
You'll see
His red nose blinking"

I got the MOST WONDERFUL Christmas present this year: a weekend in Seattle with Amy! We had so much fun! If I had to choose a title for our trip, it would be Chocolate and Books. But A Weekend of Girly Living would work well to.
Sadly, my camera didn't work, but because Amy is awesome, she sent me a picture book. Please excuse my pictures of pictures...


It's true-GOOD TIMES!



Just of the plane! First moments in Seattle.

Olympic Sculpture Park.




Pike's market with Rachel the pig.



The underground tour. So cool! We got to see the under parts of Seattle and some very old toilets!?



What's he got under that kilt Amy?



Royalty! We ate brunch at the top of the Seattle Space Needle and it was delicious!


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On the Needle, looking for the Wheedle.

Martin Quote

Mom: "Emma you argue with everything I say!"
Emma: "Not EVERYTHING."

California Dreamin'

I just did a super-blog-session of our two week vacation to California. I broke up the vacation into seven different blog chunks.
We miss all our family and friends and can't wait for our next visit.

To Grandma's House we Go

The week after Christmas, the Martin family left snowy Minnesota for rainy California. We began our two week vacation at grandma's house.


Here we are playing at grandma's house. We love the old toys that daddy used to play with when he was a boy. (The faceless boy without any pants is Enoch.)


Emma and Taran coloring while grandma works in the kitchen.


Together on the couch. We love grandma's house!

Ronny

On the windiest, rainiest day, Amy and Ronny came to visit us at my parent's home. Th power was out for several hours, but (or maybe because of it) we had fun.



Getting There

We spent a long weekend at my aunt & uncle's ranch in Big Sur. We had a GREAT time! But, getting there was the hard part. It was rainy and stormy, the power was out through many of the cities that we drove through. The going was slow and boring. We took several wrong turns. Things were getting tense. Okay, we were yelling.
Finally, we pulled off the road and took a break at a seedy little Burger King with hundreds of crowns put out. The burgers were awful, but the hats were super!
We decided that whoever wore the crown longest, would win.
I won!





Cowboy Town, part 1

My Uncle's ranch in Big Sur is named "Cowboy Town." It was gorgeous and with family there, ABSOLUTELY fun!

Here Calvin stands on the landing at Cowboy Town under "Buffalo Billy."



Uncle JB defends himself from an attack by Grant and Enoch.


Playing on the trampoline. From left to right: Jennifer, Taran, Kirsti, Grant, Enoch, Emma, and Bumpa Hasleton wearing Emma's coat.


Emma loved the trampoline. She went down to jump as often as she could. No wonder too, the view of the ocean on a high jump was lovely.


Addy and Calvin playing in the driftwood "tree house."

Cowboy Town, part 2

The children weren't the only ones to have fun...

JB, Jared, & David tossing horseshoes. Were these guys competitive? Is Buffalo Billy missing a leg?

Here the boys strike a pose with their be-be guns. While the ladies do the real work in the picture below...



Back Home in Davis

We had to go back and see how home was doing. The little Christmas tree we planted outside our apartment seven years ago was huge; it almost reached the second story roof.
We loved visiting old friends. Here are two pictures of friends who met us at the church.

Dawn and Chrisana hanging out and talking while kids play around them. Pretty much the exact same thing we did as friends before we moved.

All the kids having a good time.

Donuts!

The last morning we were together as a family, we were tired and sluggish. Most of us parents were in our jammies, David was still asleep, and the children were restless. PJ proposed donuts-RIGHT NOW! We surround David and sang him awake (he was surprised!) and found our shoes (we never found Enoch's) and got into the cars as we were.

Thank you PJ for suggesting and then paying for the donuts!

Here we sit, lovely like the morning, waiting for our sugar and fat.

YUM!

Too many donuts!

Apology

I'm sorry for anyone who has come to see if anything new has happened to Martins only to read that I'm still whining about strep throat. "Get over it already!" Well I did get over it-long ago. But I'm slow-and always will be-about getting pictures up, sorry.
They're coming. I promise.
-Lisa

Donuts!

The last morning we were together as a family, we were tired and sluggish. Most of us parents were in our jammies, David was still asleep, and the children were restless. PJ proposed donuts-RIGHT NOW! We surround David and sang him awake (he was surprised!) and found our shoes (we never found Enoch's) and got into the cars as we were.

Thank you PJ for suggesting and then paying for the donuts!

Here we sit, lovely like the morning, waiting for our sugar and fat.

YUM!

Too many donuts!