The Martin Family: June 2009

The past two Saturdays Jared has miraculously not had to work so we drove the 2 1/2 hours to the beach. Sam had fun playing with his friends Tucker and Kylea.

I think peer pressure helped him get over his OCD not touching sand and his fear of the water. It probably also helped that the first Saturday we went it was 98 degrees outside. I love this picture, I don't think they were expecting the wave to come up where they were sitting.

Jared surfing. I'm glad he's getting some use out of his board since we hauled 3000 miles across the country.

Our friend Rudy surfing.

The only picture that Sam is actually looking at the camera.

We miss California and the beach being so close but it's nice that the drive is doable and we can spend a fun day at the beach.

The spent the week at Lake Powell last week with Jared's last week of vacation for his first year of residency. (We've got less than one month of year 1 left. Yay!) We had a great time. This was how it started out. Sam was a little nervous about the "fast boat".

These are some of Sam's cousins. They all had fun riding in the front of the boat.

After a few minutes Sam had warmed up to his cousins and the "fast boat".

The kids and Jared had fun pushing Mike off the boat.

Lake Powell has got some really amazing spots. I don't remember the name of the place we hiked around the first day but we had a lot of fun. The kids found a frog that they all pet and took pictures with and then let it go. Sam was a little hesitant to get near but a few minutes later he found his own "froggie" (He picked up a rock and called it a froggie.) He started petting his "froggie" and even gave it a kiss. Later on in the hike we found a little swimming hole and we were playing in and around that when another group came through. They had found a frog and were showing it to the kids. This time Sam was ready and actually pet the frog. I wish I had taken picture of it but, of course, I left my camera on the boat. (We did keep the rock.)

The second day Mike took us to an old native american dwelling. This is the view from the house. Jared and Sam are in the picture if you look really hard.

This is Mike wading through some very questionable water trying to find a way for us to get up to the house.

I don't think Sam was ever without a stick or rock in hand, unless he was throwing them.

Here is the dwelling. This is the doorway, not a window. These people were either super short or were always bent over.

The ladder takes you down into a hole, I guess another part of the house.

There were lizards all over the place. The kids had trapped one under this rock. Sam was helping out.

Sam loved staying on the house boat and going up and down the stairs all day.

He had so much fun with his cousins. His cousins did such a great job of entertaining Sam. Max, came up with a chant while they were in this tank..."Water is my daughter". It rhymes really well and Sam loved chanting it back to him. That day on the boat Sam would say it and one of his cousins would repeat it and went on and on. They would do different voices and all. Yesterday Sam and I were in Wal-Mart and he started it up with all the voices. It was great, it totally kept him entertained the whole time we were in the store.

I love this picture even though it's kind of sad that at 2 1/2 he already knows about guns.

Another day we went to Rainbow Bridge, one of the wonders of the world. It was pretty amazing.

Here's a lizard we spotted.

The next group of pictures I still can't believe. I took over a hundred because I think it's amazing how brave my kid is and how crazy I am to let my 2 1/2 yr. old do this.

Yes, that is Sam getting ready to go on the inner tube to be pulled behind a speed boat. He totally asked to go out on the tube.

This is right after the boat started, I was so afraid he wasn't going to be able to hold on or that he would totally freak out. He does look a little nervous.