Chad's 34th Birthday - July 14

Chad turned 34 today, July 14th... and we celebrated his birthday all weekend long!

When I was trying to decide what to start this blog out with, I thought I should do a little research on his zodiac to see if I could provide a little insight into his "crabby" Cancer being. I found one line in the many webpages I looked at, and felt like this one summed it up pretty nicely...

The essence of the Cancerian personality can be boiled down to one word, sensitivity, when examined is a maze of winding roads that can lead anywhere and everywhere.

The other interesting qualities that I found when looking at the Cancer sign included; Patient, sensitive, romantic, sociable, and maternal. All of which describe my husband in 5 perfect words.

Celebrating the big 34

We had a big Jimmy Buffet style birthday party for Chad on Saturday night, and celebrated with a few of our closest florida family friends. We grilled hamburgers on the bbq, served frosty margs and played lotts of card games. Sunday was a relaxing day, most of which was spent at the pool! Then today, his actual birthday - Chad wanted blueberry pancakes, biscuts and gravy, sausage, eggs and peach/lemonade smoothies. And yes, he got his birthday wish - there was WAY too much food, but it was really yummy... and it was nice to have his birthday breakfast with the whole family!

A Florida 4th

Happy Independence Day! We are truly enjoying our long weekend by doing a whole lot of rest and relaxation! We started our long holiday weekend with a pancake breakfast and then loaded the whole family, even Jackson, into the van and headed to Jax beach!

I'll admit that while the beach thing is most certainly one of my favorite things to do, it isn't so much for some of the other members of the family! I had to do some convincing with Chad, Brandon and Caitlynn (who still isn't so sure about that BIG ocean :)). Kenny and Ty love the beach scene just about as much as I do, so there was no talking into with them. In our drive on the way there, Tylar had the 'martin quote of the day' with... "The beach is the most popular thing on the planet, next to watermelon and candy." - I'd have to agree!!

We ended up having a really great time, even Caitlynn who FINALLY got her feet wet... literally! It took a little bit of coaxing from Chad, who told her that if she is afraid of the water all she has to do is "kick it away". She totally went for it and after a few karate kicks, she was just as happy splashing around as the rest of the kids all around us! The water temperature was wonderful, and the waves were perfect for the boys to do their boogie board riding. Chad and Ty tossed a ball around a bit, and we even built a few sandcastles before the day was over.

Brandon and Jackson weren't as into it... guess going to the beach with your folks isn't the "cool thing to do". And poor Jackson was pretty warm, despite his 3 bowls of water that he drank! Oh well, guess I can't win them all! After a few hours playing in the sand we decided to head back home and jump into the pool. By 2ish we were a waterlogged group, and everyone took a few hours to nap and relax.

What would the 4th be without fireworks!!?? We ended up meeting up with Nelly & John and Mo & Dave to watch the downtown fireworks display right at the banks of the St. John's river! We saw three displays going on at once, and at the finale Janell and Mo serenaded the group with "Proud to be an American" :)... who could ask for anything more patriotic!! We plan on spending the rest of our weekend at the pool... big surprise, right!!?? Love to all, and hope everyone is enjoying the holiday weekend!

Moving Week

The Martin family is finally settled into our semi-permanent location, having just signed a 1-yr lease on a lovely townhome in the southside area of Jacksonville. Moving day started on Friday, June 6th having all of our household goods delivered by the corporate moving company in the morning. Between unpacking and arranging our stuff into a much smaller place than we had in RI, we eneded up putting a great deal of our things in storage - totally my fault... I forgot Chad had so many TOOLS!!! And if you can believe it - tempratures were in the high 90s the whole weekend, making frequent trips to the pool a must!

Moving continued throughout the week with the ongoing transfer of "stuff" from our temporary housing into the townhome, finnaly finishing everything up today! Everyone seems to be happy with the place, albiet a bit cramped. Chad and I figured that we'll spend most of the time poolside, so hopefully the hot months will be enjoyable and we'll be in a good place to sell the RI home and buy our new FL home next summer!

What is Kenny up to???

We are so very proud of our Kenny!! He has grown so much, not only in height, but academically over the past year. He just celebrated his 5th grade continuation, and is headed to middle school next year.

He made so many great friends, and grabbed the hearts of his teachers in his school in North Providence that we were a bit worried about how the move to another school so close to the end of the year would go. Well... he handled it better than we ever could have hoped, and even had his new teacher at his school in Jacksonville tell us how much she "wished he could have been in her class all year!"

The last day of school was today (6/5), and now the hunt is on to figure out what kind of camp we can him into to occupy him for the summer months!