Ryan's Old Lady

On October 4th I turned 21.  (Haaaaaa.)  I know, I know- exciting milestone!  My sweet hubs and friends ensured that I didn't let this occasion go without notice by planning a joint fiesta for myself and my fellow October compadres.  Between kids, travel (not us clearly), and busy social calendars (also not us) - it's tough to get everyone together so this was perfection.

Melanie, Brendan and Ryan planned - ok, let's be honest- Melanie planned with minimal text interference from Brendan and Ryan- for us all to have dinner at El Tiempo.  Never ones to disappoint the wait staff, we ate more than our fair share of fajitas and downed more than half our side of the restaurant's share of skinny marg pitchers.

Afterwards we all headed over to Melanie and Jonathan's to have cake, more wine and supervise the men so that no one tried to jump over any pools or off any ledges.  I'm happy to report it was a success.  No injuries were sustained in this year's celebration.  Does this mean we're adults?  Or that Obamacare is making us think twice about how much these decisions cost us in dignity AND currency?  Hard to say.

Either way- thank you to all participants.  I love you so very much and am grateful for the temporary distraction from crying to myself while watching LTN thinking of how old I'm getting.  Smooches to you all!

Not good at selfies.

Very good at consuming desserts.

Jen's new boyfran.

The most delicious, and heaviest, cake I think HEB has ever made.

October 4th, 5th & 16th.

 This series of pictures is epic.  #nocaptionneeded

And in case you were worried that the adults were having all the fun, here's a few pictures of what Emmy Poo was busy doing with Grandma & PawPaw Martin.  

Just sitting like a big girl at the fire pit.

Apparently she was really into burning them.  Jen, maybe she's your's?

Flash Dance

On Saturday March 14th, we hosted Emery's 2nd birthday at our house.  Why such a big gap between her actual birthday and our celebration of it?  I am fortunate enough to work 9/80's.  This means that when nothing crazy is going on, I have every other Friday off.  Thanks to the great mystery of the universe, Emery was born in a working-Friday week.  Are you comprehending the weight of this #firstworldproblem?  Knowing myself the way that I do, I am aware that it is standard practice for me to swear up and down that I will put together a simple event and then on my 45th trip to Target the week of said event realize that I've once again duped myself.   This fact causes me to try to book any events within my control (read: Em's birthday party) in a weekend following an off-Friday.  This year in particular I chose the one after her big day because the one before we uncomfortably close to the date I went back to work

Thankfully I recognize this about myself because I somehow thought making 18 animals out of those obnoxiously-difficult-to-work-with tissue paper poufs would be a cinch.  After a few 4 am dates with the alarm clock, late night cut and paste seshs after the girls were asleep and arts & crafts time during lunch hour in my office- I realized that was nooooot exactly true.  Death by Pintrest.

Exhibit A.  Free cookie to anyone who can guess what each of these are.

All of that aside, it wound up being an absolutely awesome day.  The weather had been horrendously rainy, cold and dark the weekend before (and was the weekend after also), so we were so excited to get to see the sun.  Somehow, thanks to the help of Grandma & Pawpaw M coming over early, we managed to pull things together enough to fool people into thinking we life in an organized home.  (Now it's your turn to get duped.)  Other than the fact that Nonnie & Pawpaw B were too sick to come, the star were really aligning.

You could probably shoot an entire Oriental Trading Co ad in my garage.

Per usual I took a picture before food was out.  WHOOPS.  Maybe one day I will learn.

You're getting sheepy.  You're getting verrrrrrry sheep-y.

I took a lot of pictures so my parents could feel like they were there.  I think they were pretty crushed when they realized they still weren't well on Saturday morning.

If anyone ever needs decor for a fiesta-  I am your woman.

Wasn't lying- I reaaaaaally wanted them to feel like they were there.

Queso station.  You know it isn't a Martin-sponsored event without Ryan's queso.

Grandma M was kind enough to hang all the extra paper lanterns outside.  Thank you, Grandma M!

Do you think by next year's party we will have actual patio furniture?  Ohhhh, the anticipation.  (Probably not.)

As I've documented multiple times on this little blog o' mine, my sweet eldest child inherited her father's extreme skepticism coupled with her mother's extreme aversion to risk.  Bless her, I know.  All week Ryan and I worked on her to get her ready.  We told her about her party.  We told her people were going to come see her.  We told her WHICH people were coming.  We told her there would be good food.  All week things seem to be going pretty well.  She was excited.  Enter the moment we came downstairs from her nap to a house full of people... not so excited.  She did not love a bunch of people in her house.  She did especially did not love being the center of attention.  She did not want to be put down.  At all.  Aunt Julie was Emery's personal chauffeur for a solid 10 minutes.  I eventually convinced Emery to let Julie and I attempt a hand off- trading E for B.  At which point I was really wondering why I had devoted so much time to mental prep for the birthday girl at the expense of bicep prep for yours truly.  

Luckily, not a moment too soon, cousin Kylie showed up and Emery relaxed.  She finally agreed to be put down and spent the remainder of the party running around and playing.  And grabbing cookies from the table while no one was watching.  I know because I can't begin to quantify the amount of hot pink icing Ryan and I cleaned up from the rug in the front TV room.  

It wound up being an incredibly awesome time for at least all of the members of our house.  We were humbled and so thankful to everyone who came out to show us their love.  Thank you so, so much for being such an awesome support network.  We are way too lucky.  Way, way too lucky.  We know that driving out to the 'burbs, even if there is the lure of lots of beer, isn't easy.  Again, THANK YOU.  And, of course, to my favorite two year old - happiest of birthdays.  I know you won't remember this one, but your Daddy & I always will.        

This series of pictures really highlights what a sweet, patient cousin Kylie is.  The look on her face leads me to believe Emery just did something ridiculous.

... Like perhaps stealing her cousin's club?  Because clearly Emery needs both.

Sweet, sweet Madison.  She was such a cuddly little doll!

Babies and balls.  This isn't leading anywhere good.

Bahahahahahahaha.  Patrick demonstrating that he's absolutely all boy.

This is not what I envisioned when Emery kept telling me she would "shaaaare" all week.

Ahhh yes.  Our little lady.

Thank you for mothering our children, Lynda!

Aunt Niffy with her nieces.  (Is Brynn trying to karate kick Emery?!)

Just a Daddy and his beer daughter.

Yo, Mom!  Grandma said you cut me off from the cookie table?  Did you not hear that it's MY birthday?!

Sometimes when a jungle isn't available, Tarzan has to improvise.

I really think she might be the happiest 3 (now 4) month old on the planet.

What's that?  You dare me to put my whole fist in my mouth?  Challenge accepted.

Hey ladies.  Want to crawl into my make-shift Minnie tent?

Oh Uncle Matt.  You had no idea what you were getting yourself into, did you?

I think Kylie actually had a more firm grasp on how to put this together than Ryan did.

Let me get this straight.  You gave me a glorified stick... for play?  Which means... I can dust ANYONE I want ANYTIME I want?  Best. Gift. Ever.

Oh, nice.  This model looks like it has a longer handle for more reach.

Brynnie says parties are exhausting.  We all looked like this by 8 pm.

The aftermath.

Mama (and Yanny Mac) are OLD(er)...

... but trust me when I say that no one is wiser.  See below.

In the chaos of trying to furiously finish up Bucket's room, finish 57 hours of CPE and all the other last minute oh-m-gee-a-baby-is-coming-soon to-do's, my birthday nearly came and went without my even noticing.  Melanie, ever the considerate wife and friend, combined powers with Ryan and they planned a small little joint shindig for my birthday (October 4th) and Jonathan's (October 5th).

We got babysitters, actually did our hair and met at El Tiempo for dinner and then headed over to Chateau McClain for an after party.  You would think with a total of 4.5 kids combined between the 10 of us and the fact that most of us kissed our college years good-bye more than 5 years ago that this would equate to a fairly quiet little evening.  You would be completely mistaken and I wouldn't have it any other way.  There's no need to get into details because as mentioned before, we are role models now, but suffice it to say that a fellow restaurant patron and his 15 year old son were so amused by the girls' end of the table's conversation that they sent over a pitcher of margs on them.

Afterwards we took our margs, our ridiculous conversation and brilliant ideas back to Mel & Jonathan's where we were treated to some DELISH homemade cake from Melanie, a heartfelt rendition of "Happy Birthday" from the crew and a troubling plan for a future compound with a chicken nugget shooter from the men of the bunch.  Many laughs were had, a few terrible-tasting drinks were made (*cough* Shawna *cough*) and lots and lots of memories were made.  Muchas gracias to the muchacho and muchacha who planned this get together.  It was absolutely just what the doctor ordered.  I think it's a sign that this is going to be a great year!

Big men.  Little seats.

I think we've now shared 19 birthdays together?  Is that right?  Someone should audit that math.

These 3 look like they'd make great sister wives, right?

Derrick & Ryan were pretty amped about chips.  Austin, not-so-much.

If margaritas to go aren't on the menu sometimes you have to take matters into you own hands.

Oh, and I would be remiss if I did not give a shout out to my ah-mazing coworkers who decorated for my birthday AND treated me to Starbucks.  Molly & Becca are THE BEST.

Good thing I'm not in charge of HSE because I'm pretty sure a chair had to be used for those top stars.

Julie's Wedding - The Outakes

Okay, and now to round out your Herndon wedding tour, I bring to you all the things that didn't fit into the other two posts.  So basically this will be a montage of the well-mannered and sharply-dressed people you have seen in the previous posts behaving slightly less well-mannered and looking much more scantily clad in most cases.  Sound exciting?  It was.

What did we do with our in-between events time, you may be asking?  Oh, you know.  We admired the scenery.

It's like a postcard.  Only it was real life.

Mmmm... reminds me of Galveston.  Right?!

This is what the beach looks like from a boat.

This is what a beach looks like from a different angle on a boat.

We lounged at the pool or by the beach.

This is the adult pool where my family could be found 95% of the time.  Also a group of drunken cougars from Tennessee could be found here about 95% of the time.  No correlation.

Sunscreen in one hand & beer in the other.  Double-fisting island style.

I have no doubt that Aunt Jean was imparting priceless wisdom upon these kids.

We wandered around the resort aimlessly trying to find one another.

... and we looked good doing it?

Seriously.  We wandered around a lot.

We ate a lot.

Perhaps this heading should also mention that we drank a lot.

I couldn't drink a lot.  I requested decaf coffee.  I did not realize it would be a DIY situation but it was.  Apparently no one has requested that since 1971 because I am fairly certain this tub they brought me was hanging around since then.

Mom & Dad having a wild night out.

John & Aunt Jean getting their grub on.

More evidence that my Dad's goal was to stand on every possible surface of the resort to take group photographs.  Also, a bunch of hotties.

My Mom's stellar friends, the Luchts & Mrs. Howarth.

It looks like Brendan is trying to discipline these children.  Good luck, sir.

We tried to babysit our husbands.

Small flotation belt?  Not enough support for this "man" (see below).  Essentially styrofoam, unstructually-sound horse?  Sure- game on.

Pesos make $100 look like a lot more.

A few of the men in the family, both my Mom's side and Dad's side, were brave enough to do a deep-sea fishing excursion.  Of the crew a fair number had done it before and a fair number hadn't.  Two newbies experienced vom sessions and probably won't become seasoned deep-sea fishing veterans as a result.  However, the group did manage to catch a really big marlin.  So I think the vast majority would chalk the excursion up as a W.

View of the beach from the boat.

Deadliest catch has nothing on this motley crew.

And then, my friends, we decided to take an excursion.  Jen, Shawna & I decided on day 1 while our other halves were golfing to go look into what adventures we could sign up for.  Apparently if you are with child there's only one excursion deemed safe enough for you.  Luckily said excursion was one we were considering in the first place, so I don't think that Shawna & Jen are too angry with me.  The excursion that we settled on defaulted to was one where you go out on a boat, snorkel for a bit, swim with stingrays and sharks and then end your trip with a cool down in the water complete with a "floating bar."  We thought surely the boys would be amiable to this and asked them to meet us in the excursion office to book our tickets as golf wrapped up.  

The three of them wandered in and immediately Austin and Ryan turned into terrified school girls.  Austin kept asking us if we had heard what happened to Steve Irwin.  Ryan peppered the lady with questions about the sting rays and sharks including, but not limited to, "do the sharks have teeth," and "have you removed the sting rays' wieners?"  Brendan was definitely husband of the hour.

As the excursion lady laughed and Shawna and I questioned our life choices to date, eventually the men somehow came around.  Probably because Jen kept telling them they needed to get their lady bits in check and come "protect Amy and her unborn child."  So we paid the lady and promised to arrive at 8 am on Friday morning.

At 8 am on Friday morning, we all met at the agreed upon location and Austin had already bailed.  Stingrays/sharks - 1, Excursioners- 0.  Undeterred, the 5 of us set out on this excursion amped up to see some wildlife.  Ryan had his party hat on which I can only assume is the one thing that kept him calm.  

Things went swimmingly (see what I did there?) until we all hit the water to snorkel.  I have snorkeled before, but somehow each time my anxiety when I hit the water ratchets up just a bit higher.  I eventually mellowed out, caught up with Jen, Brendan and Shawna only to realize that Ryan was not around.  We all seemed to realize this at the same time.  So we turned around to locate him and spotted him, several yards behind the whole group, snorkel gear on head yelling, "I HATE the ocean.  This is miserable.  Where are the sharks?  Tell them to take me now."  This moment answered the long-standing question of where Emery inherited her flair for the dramatic from.  He went on to spew off borderline incoherent statements about how the life-jacket belt "was made for people like Shawna," and "wasn't ready for a 200 pound MAN."  (This is my real life guys.)

Luckily he managed to dig down deep within his soul and propel himself along to catch up with the rest of us- including his pregnant wife.  It's a real survival story, I tell you.  Once in the area with the stingrays and sharks he found himself outraged that the stingers were not removed and that they were definitely "real sharks."  He also refused to touch the stingray claiming that it "looked like a dinosaur."

Despite Ryan's Mariah Carey-esque moments, we all made it back to the boat un-maimed.  Thankfully then we all got to relax and enjoy something much more his highness' speed- drinking and hanging out in the water.  All in all, it was actually an awesome excursion and I'm glad that we did it.  Mad props to Shawna and Jen for being the instigators.  Also, don't believe Ryan when he tries to tell you his survival tales from Punta Cana.  

Nothing scares off wild-life like a little pre-snorkel flexing.

3/4ths of the Martin fam.

Take another one Brendan- take another one!

My fellow stingray survivalists.

Snorkel gear: making people look hot since... whenever it was invented.

The girls.

Jendan.  The one true man who adventured with us.

The official excursion photographer loved Shawna.  He took about 50 pictures of her.

Our devilishly handsome crew sporting some JT-esque dance moves.

The gang meets a dinosaur.

Last, but certainly not least, I would be remiss if I didn't fill you in on what Miss Emery was doing while her parents were galavanting about in paradise, wouldn't I?  Emery was originally supposed to go with us and due to a mosquito virus we found out about last minute, she stayed home with a combination of Aunt Melanie, Uncle Jonathan, Jakey & Avery and her Grandma & Pawpaw Martin.  As luck would have it, while we were gone she also came down with a respiratory infection and an ear infection.  Aunt Melanie was a superstar and took her to the pediatrician and managed to ignore the looks she was getting for having a 15 month old and nearly 5 month old.  We are eternally grateful to all parties for taking such good care of baby girl so that we didn't have any added stress.  It was comforting to know she was in such good hands, even though we missed this little love bug terribly.  You guys are the BEST!

We skyped with our confused Princess.

Aunt Melanie, are you SUUUURE my parents have to come back?  Your house is way more fun.

Sooooomewhere out theeeeeere.

Getting her spa treatment on at Grandma & Pawpaw's.

Hard to say whether we were more relaxed or she was during this vacation.

Just having a deep conversation with Lola & Grandma.