More photos from Tylar's birthday weekend...

Tylar opening presents... this one was from Dave and Monica and was his very own iPod Touch!! Doesn't he have the BEST Florida Family :). Look at Caitlynn's face, her expresion about sums up the excitement Tylar had when he opened it!

Pics from the Bowling Alley.... Brandon and Karol :)

Tylar's friend's (Justin & Erin) and Caitlynn trying to get in on the action!

A good view of the "luxury" lanes!

Caitlynn after bowlng a STRIKE (we had bumpers :))

Kenny, after his strike!

Ty and his friends again

Tylar Turns 13!

Tylar Joseph Martin turned 13 this past Friday on March 18th!

Friday... the fun begins...
A fun filled celebration weekend started on Friday when we suprised Tylar with a round of golf. It was a suprise because we had him get up, as he would any Friday, to get ready for school at about 6am... then, just as he was about to walk out the door to leave for his bus, Chad sprung it on him that we were giving him the day off and that we were scheduled for a 9:30 tee time to go golfing! He was so excited, it was actually one of the things he wanted "SO BAD". Chad, Brandon, Tylar and I made the foursome... was a lot of fun to spend the day with some of my most favorite boys :).

We got home mid-afternoon and that evening we went to Daruma, a local Japanese Steakhouse, for his family birthday dinner. This is the 2nd year in a row he's chosen that venue for his birthday dinner... and if memory serves, is a favorite of Brandon's as well for his birthday dinner. For finiky eaters, they all enjoy the habacci! The only family member missing was Brandon, he had to work.

Saturday... the fun continues...
Saturday morning Tylar was able to celebrate his birthday with is friends at Latitude 30, a new "Luxury" bowling alley alley. He invited his friend Erin and friend Justin. So, with all our kids and the two friends in tow, we headed out for 2 hours of bowling fun!

After bowling we headed home for pizza and birthday cupcakes, and invited a few of our friends (our Florida family) over to celebrate with us SOME MORE!! We opened presents and had an all out competition on Wii Just Dance. So competetivite in fact, that our good friends the Lupcho's went to Walmart this morning to get the game for thier Wii collection!! I am thinking there will be some pretty intense dance-offs in our future :)

Sunday was actually a day of rest... and boy oh boy did we need it!! Below are a few pics from the celebrations on Friday. I have to hunt down my camera to get the pics from Saturday loaded as well... stay tuned for those!

Kenny, Tylar, Caitlynn and Karol after dinner at Daruma

Tylar, excited to be 13!

This was the golf scoreboard after 9 holes... yea, we stopped keeping track on the back 9 :)

Chad & Ty headed out to the course

Brandon & Ty chillin' in the cart

My little Tiger (golf comparison only...)

Showing off the driver

A few fun videos... the first is Tylar catching a shrimp in the air, the second is his "Happy Birthday" song and blowing out the candles (hopefully this makes everyone feel like they are able to celebrate with him)!

After 11 years in Florida... the Martin family has a BOAT!!

Okay, okay... so it isn't a yacht, it isn't a sailboat, and it isn't a rowboat, BUT it is a boat nonetheless!

I guess the official kind of boat that it is, is a "Pelican Bass Raider". Not sure what that really means, but I DO know that it is about 8 feet long, 3 feet wide, has seating for 2... and MOST IMPORTANTLY fulfills Chad (and the kids) need to get out on the water to do some fishing :).

They've already taken it out twice since getting it on Saturday, and lucky for us they don't have to travel far as we have about 4 small lakes right in our neighborhood!

Chad, Tylar, Caitlynn and Kenny right after buying the boat

Tylar striking a pose... we are in the process of naming the boat -- Tylar's suggestion "BASS HUNTER".

Gander, where boating dreams come true...

Home Improvements...

Our beautiful new mantle and mirror

Spring has officially sprung in the Martin house... starting with some good old fashion spring cleaning, followed by Chad's latest woodworking project in building us a new mantle for our fireplace! Yes, for you Colorado kin, Florida houses do have fireplaces... we don't use them, but we have them :) Completing the whole fireplace "wall" we found a beautiful mirror to top it off!! We had our good friend John Carter helping to pull the pieces of the mantle together -- who knew it was so complicated to put 5 pieces of wood together + the 1 that hooked it to the wall? Certianly not me -- my idea was to get two brackets and put a nice shelf on it. Good thing I'm not in charge of home improvement installments! And, good thing I have a husband who insists on doing things the hard (I mean right) way :)

Next on the list is to refresh our landscaping around the house. The weather is finally steady in the upper 60s and 70s with little chance of freezing, so we figure we are safe to start planting our spring/summer flowers.

After the very, very, very cold weather we had this winter, we are all very happy for the return of the warm sunshine!

CHEERleading!!

Caitlynn just finished her first season as an Upward Cheerleader, and to my JOY, loved every minute of it!!

She did such a good job, so much so that she is anxious to get onto another squad to do some more. Just so happens the pop warner teams are starting to gear up -- and with that we'll be signing her up to join a squad with that league! The Upward squad she was on cheered for a local basketball league associated with a neighborhood church... and over the past few months, she had practice every Thursday, and a game every Saturday morning.

Caitlynn's good friends Adison and Ashley (my good friend Stacy's daughters) were also on the squad and Stacy was the assistant coach -- so made it nice to have good friends in it as well. I posted a few of my fav pics, and a video, from her season...

Caitlynn & Jordan playing with the megaphones on the sidelines

The whole Upward Squad, and coaches (Caitlynn is in the bottom row, far right)

Adison, Ashley, & Caitlynn before thier first game

My bug

Short video clip from one of her games -- This one is titled "Jammin' in the Stands"... Caitlynn is in the back row, middle.

Our little missionaries

What could possibly bring us more JOY than to have our boys doing missionary work??? The answer -- dunno, because it is a pretty cool thing!!

As a part of the Youth activities at church this month, the Young Men and Young Women were called to serve as a missionary in the Florida Jacksonville Mission. And served they did, for about 6 hours in total between their training earlier this week and the ministry to other ward members this evening.

Elder Martin and his companion Elder Powell

(the other) Elder Martin and his companion Elder Hayes

The St Johns Ward "junior" Missionaries

Kenny thought the whole experience was pretty cool -- hence the thumbs up :). All of the kids were invited to share their testimony from their experience. While we didn't get to hear it ourselves, several of the sisters who were there said that Kenny's was very sweet. We were told it included something about the dinner he had before doing his lesson (it was Ratotuie), and something about Jesus as a baby. When we asked him about it on the way home, he said "Yea, I was talking about that guy, his name starts with a J...". CRACKS me up!!

Had to snap a pic of the boys before heading off to the church, I really must snap more of these sweet moments!

It was a pretty neat experience to have the boys prepare for this evening. Starting last Sunday when they received their letters. On Monday we helped them to prepare for their discussion about the Restoration in our FHE, and on Wednesday they were asked to report to the Youth Missionary Training Center Jacksonville South Stake Center in St Augustine, where they further prepared to preach the gospel (complete with lessons on leading a discussion and an obstacle course)!! Come today, I think they were ready to go!

I am so thankful that we had this experience together as a family. Missionaries have always played a big role in our lives, making sure to keep us connected to the church as we've moved all over the east coast. We love missionary work, and know that the boys will be ever so blessed for being able to participate in it!