Martin Family Beach Day!

Michael and his 3 brothers are all born in July. Early this summer Papa & Ruth told us that a friend of theirs had offer to let our family use their property to have a fun family BBQ / Birthday party for the Martin boys. There was only one Saturday it would work for our family with me and the kids being gone so much in July. Thankfully that was the weekend that it worked out to have the Martin Family Beach Day! 

It's was Saturday, July 25th and it was a gorgeous day!!! 

Their property was right on Puget Sound and also right next to a park that they reserved for our family to use as well as their yard. 

The kids has the best time playing down at the beach and on these rocks. Papa & Ruth made hot dogs for us and then each family contributed with food. I spent an hour the night before making the yummiest pico de gallo and then I left it at home. I was so mad at myself. I did bring the chips and cookies though. 

 

Us ladies had such a nice time chatting while sitting in the sun. It was quite windy up by their property so I was super glad I brought a long sleeve shirt at the last minute. 

Papa & Ruth's friends yard was so gorgeous...she had so many flowers. 

Michael brought the Corn Hole boards he made a couple years ago! Good times!!! 

Only our family and Rick & Michelle's family were able to make it for the birthday celebration, but that didn't hold us back from having a good time. 

I thought we might actual stay and have a fire, but once the sun dipped behind the hillside it cold down real quick...especially with all the wind. It was a such a wonderful day and we were so grateful to Papa & Ruth's friends for letting us enjoy their property!

Wyoming Road Trip 2020 - Day 10 & 11

When we stayed at the C'mon Inn on our way out to Wyoming I made a reservation for our return trip on Friday, July 17th. I wasn't actually 100% sure if we would be coming home on that day...I thought we might actually stay until Saturday. The more I thought about it though it made sense to come home on Friday. It would mean that we'd get home on Saturday night and still have a whole day left of our weekend to spend with Daddy who wasn't able to come on the trip with us. 

Of course the kids had been sleeping in a bit the whole trip so getting them up early so we could get on the road wasn't their most favorite thing! 

Sleepy Heads!!! 

Loaded up and ready to go! 

The Crazy Mountains in Montana! 

Back at the pool at The C'mon Inn. It was much busier this time around. It was fun when I went to check in the guy at the front desk said, "Your back!" It was fun that he remembered me. There was a change from our first stay in that the workers were now all wearing masks. During our previous stay only the workers that were handing out the Continental Breakfast were wearing masks. 

I was SO tired!!! All those busy days and then that long drive. I just wanted to go to bed, but I toughed it out and let the kids swim. 

Sweet little fishes! 

Zeke Man is such a cute little guy he's always cold! 

Even though I was tired I was willing to sit there and let the kids swim longer, but there were these two boys that really took a liking to Ella and they would not leave her alone. They were very touchy feely and it actually made me a bit uncomfortable. I talked with Ella about it and ask her to tell them not to touch her, but it didn't seem to bother her. That bothered me even more since she was allowing these boys to touch her when I didn't feel it was appropriate. Shortly after that I decided it was time to get out of the pool. 

I've been working on my French Braid skills. It's definitely easier for me to braid Ella's hair now that it's shorter. 

The next day we slept in...we were beat! I don't think we got on the road until 9:30am, but we knew we were going to gain an hour once we crossed over into Pacific Time. We stopped at the $50,000 Silver Dollar so Zeke could buy the wolf he saw on the way out to Wyoming. I wanted Burger King so we tried to find one in Spokane of course there were none right off the freeway where we were so we ended up having to drive a bit. We also needed to go to the bathroom so we stopped at a gas station. This was the first time I was told that we needed a mask to be in a building. We all pulled up our shirts to cover our mouths. The first gas station we stopped at didn't have a public bathroom. We drove down the road and found another one. Then we went through the drive thru at Burger King and were back on the road. 

Our next stop was in Thorp where we wore our face shields so we could buy some products and get some candy from the gas station. 

All the many times I've driven over to Eastern Washington I have never stopped at the lookout points near Vantage. I thought it would be fun to stretch our legs a bit so we got out. 

It was so hot and so gorgeous! 

These sweet kiddos did so amazing on our road trip. It was truly a joy to take them! 

There was a couple standing over at this lookout point and I asked them if they would be okay taking our picture. Thankfully they said yes. 

We took two pictures one looking north and one looking south! 

When we got home Michael wasn't even home yet...he was out golfing with his friend. At first I was a little peeved. Here we gone 11 days he's not home to welcome us, but then I decided it was actually a good thing. I know that if he had been home we would have just plopped down on the couch to talk about our trip and then we would have been so tired we wouldn't have gotten back up to deal with the van. Since he was gone we just got right to work. By the time he got home we had completely finished unpacking everything. Of course in normal fashion I forgot to take a picture of us all once we arrived home. In all we were gone 11 days, we in 4 different states and drove over 2,300 miles! Great trip and great memories! 

Wyoming Road Trip 2020 - Day 9

Day 9 

Our last full day in Gillette, Wyoming was you guessed it BUSY!!! 

Ella got invited to go with Madison and her Dad on a scavenger hunt put on by the library. They had to figure out clues and then solve a rhyme. They had a great time and thankfully got done around noon so they weren't out there in the super hot heat of the day. 

They had so much fun that Ella wanted to go play with Madison at her Grandma's instead of going to the park with Pa & the boys. 

Here's what my Dad said about their time at the park word for word...

Wool, we went to McDonald's before hand, and devoured our Footage in an enclosure for that purpose. Then the Boys Played and Played on the equipment there, for maybe a little shorter time than I expected. We had a look see at the War Memorial set up there next to the park, and headed back to Linda's. It was GREAT FUN for me, to spend the time with Owen, Jackson and Zekester!!! 

Jack took this picture of Zeke, Owen and Pa! 

While Pa was with the boys and Ella was with Madison, I got to go shopping with 2 of my favorite people in the world. Went to couple cute shops that have house decor, clothes, jewelry and more. At the first shop, I ended up getting a weekly calendar organization pad that is titled...Get your ducks in a row. I thought it was cute because there is a lady at church that just loves watching our family walk in to the building because the kids are always following behind us like ducks in a row. I also bought this cute Kitchen Rules sign. 

I love that this sign is in the shape of a Mason jar. 

After that we went to another shop where I bought myself a cute long sleeve shirt that is super comfy. Mom found Dad's Anniversary gift which I actually picked out. It was a sign that said, "Isn't She Lovely" It's the title of a Stevie Wonder song that my Dad and I danced to at my wedding. It's such a great song because Stevie wrote it for his daughter about how lovely she was even though he's blind and couldn't actually see her. Sniff sniff!!! Even though it wasn't a song that was about my Mom and Dad the memory was still linked to a wedding and my Mom is loveliest person ever to my Dad! Ahhhh!!! :) 

After that store we headed over to the furniture store so my Aunt could order two loveseats. By this point us ladies were hungry!!!! 

We decided to have Mexican food. This was the first time I'd eaten in an actual restaurant in months! It was so nice to be able to do normal things. The whole trip I'd been uploading photos to Instagram each night of our daily adventures. I took this picture and then realized that taking it that direction was going to cut off either Mom or I when I uploaded it to Instagram so I tried the other way! 

This did not go well! Hahahaha! 

The food was super yummy and we had such fun being together! 

After we got back Ga-Ga, Zeke, Ella and I went to Famous Footwear. Ga-Ga always buys the kids their new shoes right before school starts. Since they were having the BOGO sale it seemed like a good time to go. 

Ella was looking at all these Converse tennis shoes. I just knew they were going to get filthy in no time. Then I turned around and saw these super cute Sketchers and she amazingly thought they were cute. I swear whatever I think is cute she hates. I remember the same thing happening with me and my mom growing up though too! 

Zeke was so happy to get black Nike's again. He didn't really like his Under Armor shoes as well as his Nike's. 

After dinner it was time for me to take the older boys out for their special adventure. 

My cousin Tiffany had been posting on FB about the Axe House and I thought it would be fun, but I wasn't sure what the age limit was. I sent her a message on FB and she responded letting me know that it was for anyone 12 years and older. Yahoo! 

We went ahead and signed up online for a lane. It was super easy! We had to fill out a waiver form as well. 

My other cousin Dillon...Tiffany's brother also works at the Axe House. I can't remember if he was actually working or not that night, but he did come in to give us the run down on all the rules. 

I reserved the first time slot they had which was 5pm so we were the only ones there in the beginning. 

The boys loved the Shurikens since they stuck in the wood much easier than the axes did. 

They were having the time of their lives! 

Even though Tiffany wasn't working that night she came to hang out with us. There was this cool wall mounted Jukebox that Aunt Linda had play one of her favorite songs so she had to dance with Tiffy. 

I love my Auntie!!! 

Tiffy & Pa! 

I really wanted to throw axes more than the playing cards or Shurikens. 

 

Owen lovin' on his Ga-Ga! 

Got it to stick!!! 

So much fun! 

Even Auntie Linda got in on the action. Nice shot!!! 

Such a great time with my bigger boys! 

Later that night while the kids were upstairs in the media room at Aunt Linda's house we started having Alexa play all sorts of fun old music. I decided the kids needed to get in on the action so I had them come down and be with us. We ended up dancing in Aunt Linda's living room to the chicken dance and the Macarena. It was so great just being silly and having fun. Such a wonderful memory!