Zoo

On Wednesday my bestest friend Janelle and I took the munchkin's to the zoo. Her adorable younger sister's were staying with her for the week and she wanted to do fun things with them, and luckily me, Jax, Ella and Gabe got to tag along! We got there shortly after it opened to avoid the heat....yeah right! Although it was a much more comfortable temperature than in the middle of the afternoon. But it was still rather warm! The kids didn't seem to mind though, they were too busy running around looking at all the animals. Jax was the most excited to see the giraffe's because his favorite animal...that goes EVERYWHERE with him is a giraffe, whom Jax has lovingly named Giraffeee...however Jax was not overly fond of the stench inside the giraffe exhibit. Actually none of us thought it was a particularly appetizing smell, I think Jax was glad that is beloved Giraffeee doesn't smell like that. Ella was content to just sit in her stroller and look at the animals and everything going on around her. That is until I let her get out of her stroller for a minute....BIG mistake! She threw a fit every time I tried to put her back in, surprise surprise. The kid's weren't too happy when it was time to leave, but let's face it, there are only so many hours you can spend at this zoo, it's not one of the more spectacular zoo's, but the kids love it and that's all that matters. Thanks for lettin us come to the zoo with you guys!!

Happy Birthday Gabriel!

Last Sunday was Gabe's birthday party, his actual Birthday was yesterday and he turned 4! His party was a "superhero" party, his cake was even an "Ironman" cake. The handsome birthday boy got a ton of presents...most of the presents revolved around superhero's, because, as you may or may not know, little boy's lives revolve around superhero's! At least Jax and Gabe do! They love anything that has to do with superhero's and they love to pretend that they ARE superhero's. The party was fun and I think that the special little birthday boy had a lot of fun too! I can't believe he is already 4 years old! They grow up way too fast!

Birthday boy checking out all his presents!

Little boy heaven!!

Say CHEESE!!

Fun in the water!

Visiting Family

Over the weekend we went to Southern Utah to visit some of Nick's family. We love it when we get to go visit all of them since we don't see them very often, and the kids love spending the night at Grandma Jane's and playing with cousins. Nick and I had thought we were being smart when we brought our portable DVD player to keep the kids entertained for the drive there, however we forgot to charge it....yes we are geniuses. So instead Jax asked us every two minutes if we were there yet. We stopped in Salina first to visit family that lives there, it was so good to be able to see Nick's Grandma Gwen, we haven't seen her since Christmas (yes I know we are horrible) and it was fun to be able to visit with her for a while. Then we went to Central to stay overnight at Grandma Jane's and visit all of the family that lives there. As usual Grandma Jane had made a ton of food and goodies. The kids got to ride Uncle Beav's 4-wheeler, he took them out to the garden to pick fresh peas and took them on a ride in the wheel barrow. When he asked Jax if he wanted a ride in it Jaxson's response was "Uh...it doesn't look very clean to me." There was dirt in the bottom and Jax was obviously concerned about it. Which was funny considering the fact that as Jax said that he was digging in the dirt looking for worms! Once he got over the fact that he would be sitting on dirt, he didn't want the ride to end. On sunday the kids got to play with cousins and ride the 4-wheeler some more. None of us wanted to come home, we were having too much fun!

Jax is pouting because he has to let his sister

have a turn on the 4-wheeler.

Hike

Yesterday evening we decided to go on a hike up Bell Canyon, we went hiking there on the 4th of July and the kids loved. It was such a perfect day yesterday, and we wanted to do something fun to celebrate the adoption being final, my mom came with us too. We strapped Ella into a hiking backpack that our neighbors let us use, she wasn't overly thrilled with it at first but once we started hiking she thought it was pretty cool....as long as Daddy didn't stop, then she would throw a fit. Jax had so much fun running up the trail, he kept telling me that it was making his muscles even bigger because it was good exercise. He had more energy than all three adults put together. When we got to the reservoir we decided to keep going a little further and we found a little trail that went around by the river, we even saw a deer. This time the battery in our camera was actually charged so I got a few pictures. When we got back from the hike Jaxson said that he couldn't wait to go on another family hike so that he could get some more exercise and see more deer.

It's official!

As of yesterday Jaxson is officially a Martin! We went to court yesterday to finalize the adoption, Nick and I had been eagerly anticipating the day. Nick has been Jaxson's dad since before we were married, he has always loved him like he was his own and Jax has always called him Daddy, but now it's official and we couldn't be more excited! It's a huge weight lifted off my shoulders to know that Jaxson is legally Nick's son. Nick had a grin from ear to ear all day yesterday. We wanted to suprise Nick's parents with the adoption, so we had a cookie bouquet sent to them yesterday telling them Congratulation's Jaxson was now offically a Martin! Not only has Nick always loved Jax as his own, but his parents have too. They have spoiled him and treated him like part of the family since Nick and I were dating and I am so grateful to them for that! Jax absolutely adores his Papa George and Grandma Bonnie, he looks forward to each and every time they come to visit. He also thinks the world of his Daddy and they love to go and do "guy" things together. Obviously Jaxson doesn't know what happened yesterday, he is too little to understand it. But I hope that when the time comes for us to tell him he will understand that we all love him more than anything in this world and that he has the best Daddy in the world too!

4th of July

For the 4th this year we did the traditional parade by my mom's house. Jaxson and uncle Colby rode in the hot rod and Uncle Derek and Gabe rode on Derek's dirt bike. As always, the parade was a lot of fun! After the parade we went on a hike up Bell Canyon, the boys thought it was a blast and it was a beautiful hike. When we got back to my mom's house the kids played in their blow up pool and ran around spraying everyone with squirt guns, they would laugh hysterically every time they snuck up on one of us and sprayed us. After we had some yummy dinner and dessert we went back outside to take turns riding in the hot rod and on the prowler. This was the first time I had ever ridden in the hot rod, Colby took me on a ride and it was a blast! Although I think I swallowed several bugs on our journey. When it was dark we went to my mom's neighbors and lit fireworks...A lot of fireworks! The second we put the kids in the car that night, they were sound asleep. They had such a big fun day! Unfortunately the battery in my camera died halfway through the parade so I didn't get to take very many pictures that day, not very good planning on my part which isn't surprising.