Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Talking To The Moon



I heard this song for the first time tonight, and I immediately fell in love with it. Lately I have been missing Preslie badly. I love when I find songs that remind me of her.

Talking To The Moon*Bruno Mars

I know you're somewhere out there
Somewhere far away
I want you back
I want you back
My neighbours think
I'm crazy
But they don't understand
You're all I have
You're all I have

[Chorus]
At night when the stars
Light on my room
I sit by myself
Talking to the Moon
Try to get to You
In hopes your on
The other side
Talking to me too
Oh Am I a fool
Who sits alone
Talking to the moon

I'm feeling like
I'm famous
The talk of the town
They say
I've gone mad
Yeah
I've gone mad
But they don't know
What I know
Cause when the
Sun goes down
Someone's talking back

Yeah
They're talking back

[Chorus]
At night when the stars
Light on my room
I sit by myself
Talking to the Moon
Try to get to You
In hopes your on
The other side
Talking to me too
Oh Am I a fool
Who sits alone
Talking to the moon

Ahh...Ahh...Ahh..
Do you ever hear me calling
Ho Hou Ho ho Hou

'Cause every night
I'm Talking to the Moon

Still try to get to You
In hopes your on
The other side
Talking to me too
Oh Am I a fool
Who sits alone
Talking to the moon

Ohoooo...

I know you're somewhere out there
Somewhere far away

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Chris' First Business Trip

Last week Chris had his first business trip at the National Harbor Gaylord Hotel. Since we only live ten minutes away, Arista and I went along. Our room was on the 17th floor facing the harbor and monuments. Arista loved looking out the windows.



In between meetings Chris took us swimming. Arista was unsure of the water, but quickly warmed up when she realized how much fun it was.





After a little while Arista decided she needed her purse to swim in the water with her.





After swimming Chris had a dinner to go to, so Arista and I got dressed and watched Daddy walk to dinner with his colleagues.





Grandma Sue came out to go to dinner with us. We went to dinner at a yummy place called Ketchup. The appetizer we ordered came with 3 different types of fries with all different kinds of sauces. My favorite ketchup sauce was root beer flavored!







Arista was a huge fan of all the ketchup. She ended up eating it straight. Yuck!



After a yummy dinner we walked through the harbor shops. We found this store called Charming Charley, and they had the cutest accessories ever. They had every color and design you can think of, and they were very reasonably priced. Arista decided she was a big girl and wanted to walk with us, instead of ride in her stroller. She walked right into Build-A-Bear, so she made "Daisy" the Easter Bunny.



After a lot of walking we headed back to the hotel. We went to a restaurant that has the best cotton candy, and they gave some to Arista for free! They also threw in some Peeps. We walked right over to the fountain show that had just started, and enjoyed the cotton candy and Peeps.





After the show we headed up to our room. We said goodbye to Grandma Sue and started getting ready for bed. Not too much later Chris arrived from a fabulous dinner at a restaurant called Bond 45. He said they had the best fillet mignon, and appetizers. While Chris played with Arista I went to the hotel's gym. The gym had Lifetime Fitness machines with touch screens! It was a great workout.



The next morning Chris had to wake up for a 7am meeting. While he was in his meeting, Arista and I got dressed and walked around the harbor. Arista literally walked around the entire harbor. She carried her purse on her arm and her little cell phone in her hand. She would occassionally stop and chat on her phone, it was the cutest thing. I had so many people tell me how adorable she was, and how they loved her purse. Miss Arista is such a celebrity.







After a lot of walking we walked back to the hotel and watched the fountain show one more time, then we met Daddy and headed home.





Arista and I had a blast on Chris' first business trip, and we are looking forward to hopefully going on many more along with him.

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Crazy Adventure

My sister in law works for an adoption agency in Utah. She had to be in Arizona with a birth mother this week, and needed some paperwork done for a mother in Seaford, Virginia. My mother-in-law offered to do it, and I volunteered to go with her. We found out Monday afternoon that it was a go, and that we needed to be in Newport News that night. The agency rented us an 11 passenger van to drive down with since we needed to drive 5 children and mother to the doctor, and to collect information. It was a crazy adventure but it made my so grateful for the 2 beautiful daughters I have, and the family support I have also. Those kid's melted my heart, and I wanted to take them all home with me. I pray that they will have wonderful families.

About to embark on a crazy adventure! Adorable older boys Day 2 Arista loves troll We went swimming the first night. The water was really cold, so Arista wasn't a huge fan. She was sad to take her cute swimming suit off though. We saw a full double rainbow! I promised the older boys ice cream if they would be good at the doctor, Arista loved her cone and ate the entire thing. "Will you take our picture?" Aren't they the cutest? Walking the halls like a big girl

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Private Time



I never liked when people made their blogs private, but I feel strongly that it's time for our blog to follow the trend.

If you would like to continue keeping up with the Martin family, please leave a comment with your email address. Even if we don't know you, and you have followed our blog, we would still love to invite you. I will delete your email address as soon as I can off the comments. Or you can email it to me at dukeofmartin@yahoo.com

Thank you all for following our blog, for your prayers, love, and support during our ups and downs. We look forward to sharing many more memories with you all.

Friday, April 8, 2011

Virginia is for Visitors



The past few weeks have been CRAZY! We are all moved into our townhouse, with only a few boxes to unload and pictures to hang. A week after moving in my sister Mikelle and her boyfriend Kyle, flew from Idaho to visit us for their Spring Break. We were true tourists, who wanted to experience everything. We made it everywhere except the capital, and the top of the Washington Monument. We decided that will be the first thing we do next time.

The first thing we did when they arrived was walk around the National Harbor. We took some great picture of "The Awakening", walked through the Gaylord Hotel, and even did a PEEP scavenger hunt.





Mikelle and Kyle tried the famous "Cake Love" cupcakes, and wasn't impressed. They described it as dry with no taste.



Arista didn't mind the cupcake...



The next day we headed downtown to look at the Washington Monument, World War 2 memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Veterans Memorial, and of course...the cherry blossoms.











We also walked to the White House.





President Obama came out and invited us all into the Oval Office, he even agreed that we'd make a better president. ;)









After a lot of walking and pictures we headed towards home on the Metro. I told Kyle all about how Chris and I met on there. The story never gets old.



We ended the night playing some serious rockband and watching a movie. A perfect ending to a great touristy day.





The following day we woke up and went to the National Archives, unfortunatly they no longer allow photography inside. Afterwards we headed to the Air and Space Museum. We spent a lot of time there, and I saw things I had never seen before. We even did a simulation ride.









After the Air and Space Museum we went to the American History Museum. This was my first time visiting since it had been closed for renovation for a few years. The museum was MASSIVE! Our favorite part was seeing the first ever American flag. There is no photography aloud, but the image is engraved into our minds. We also saw Dorthy's ruby slippers, Kermit the frog, and Julia Child's kitchen!







After a lot of walking we decided to take a day off from touring and we drove to the Potomac Mills Mall. It is a huge outlet mall about a mile long, with a ba-zillion stores. After the mall we met Chris and his Dad for dinner at this pizza place. Chris had a coupon for it, so we tried it out. We weren't that impressed...











The next day we relaxed at home and hung out. Our legs thanked us! That night we celebrated Chris' birthday, since he was going to Texas for the Final Four tournament. I ordered Chris Chris' Outrageous Chocolate Cake from the Cheesecake Factory. We couldn't even finish our slice because it was so yummy and rich.









The next day Chris flew to Texas, and we drove to Arlington Cemetery. There were 4 funerals while we were there, and we heard the band play some songs. We saw the changing of the guard, and General Lee's house.







After visiting Arlington Cemetery we played more Wii, watched movies, took naps, read stories, and played with dollies.











The following day we hopped onto the metro and visited the Natural History Museum, where they have the Hope Diamond. Arista loved looking at all the stuffed animals, while Mikelle and I LOVED looking at all the jewlery.











My favorite part of the museum was the live butterfly exhibit. They have over thousands of live butterflies flying in this little habitat that you can go into.







Kyle put a butterfly on Mikelle's nose. She was terrified! It made for a neat picture though. I didn't stop talking about the butterflies for days. Arista and I are going to go back and visit there really soon.





After the museum we took the metro back to the car and Arista crashed. We went to Outback for dinner, and Arista slept the entire time. After dinner I drove Kyle and Mikelle to the Jefferson Memorial, FDR Memorial, Air Force Memorial, Iwo Jima Memorial, and Pentagon Memorial. They were exhausted afterwards!

















The next day was rainy and wet but that didn't stop us from visiting my new favorite place Mt. Vernon. Kyle took a National Treasure tour, where they show you secret tunnels from the movie. Mikelle, Arista and I toured the museum, and then we all went through Washington's house.











It was neat to see Washington's old and new tomb, as well as the slave memorial. Arista's favorite part was all the animals.





After Mt. Vernon we ordered pizza and watched movies. Arista was EXHAUSTED. She just loved laying next to Kyle.



The next day we drove downtown to Ford's Theater. It was the first time I have been in, and it was really neat. It was cool to see the booth Lincoln was shot in. Mikelle and Kyle saw the gun that shot him too!





After Ford's theater we walked to the Holocaust museam. There were no tickets available but Kyle worked his charm and got us some! After 5 minutes of being in there Arista had enough, so we walked around while Mikelle and Kyle went through.



From the Holocaust we walked down to the tidal basin to take more pictures with the Cherry Blossoms.









After a long walk back to the metro we stopped at a frozen yogurt place called Fro-Zen-Yo. It was awesome!





On their last day of visiting Kyle got really sick, so Mikelle and I went to breakfast at Panera then took Arista to the National Zoo. It was a beautiful day!





After a drive through Georgetown we picked up lunch and went to pick up Kyle. After a tear-filled goodbye and many tears shed after we said our fairwells. Arista and I spend the rest of the night cleaning the house, reading stories, and getting ready for Daddy to return home the next day. Chris had a great time in Texas celebrating his birthday, going to the basketball games, eating good food, and being a part of our nephew Andrew's baby blessing. He even won a signed basketball!





It has been a fun filled couple of weeks, and we miss our visitors already! We can't wait to see Mikelle and Kyle again in May! We love and miss you guys!! Okay, who wants to come visit us next?