Martin Party Week

This past week has been filled with one Martin Party after another.  Michelle's older brother Cameron had some work business to attend to in Utah so he, his wife, and kids decided to come from California to visit.  They are also looking for a new company for Cameron to work with that would station him in Utah.  His current one, based out of Utah, has had him working in California for the past six years with no real indication that he would be returning any time soon.  They already have a house which they built right after they got married, but about two weeks before they closed his job transferred him to California and six years later they have never lived in their house.  This week gave him a great opportunity to start looking for something new and help them make the decision to move back.  While they were her we couldn't help but have a few parties.

The first party was to celebrate their arrival, but also to celebrate Cameron and Rachel's son, Owen's first birthday which was earlier this month.  Everyone was able to make it and have a little dinner and dessert.

Before Owen blew out the candle on his cupcake Drew had to have his turn.  Drew loves blowing out candles and sometimes Michelle will sit at home and light a candle over and over so that Drew can blow it out.

Drew was lucky enough to get an early birthday present from Grammie and Papa.  This little toy train had a remote control used to move it around.  Candice and Nicholas could help but help him unwrap it.

A few days later we decided to go to down town Salt Lake and visit the Church Art Museum.  They have this fun little kids are that they just remodeled which has lots of different activities for the kids.  Candice loved getting dressed up and dancing to the music.  Braeden was the perfect little boy and just sat quietly in his car seat while the other boys went wild all over the place.

They even have a fake garden that the kids can pretend that they are planting seed and then also pick the vegetables out of the ground.  Both Drew and Candice loved this part as well as the mini kitchen set with all of its fake foods.

To finish up the week of parties we decided to have one up at our house.  Jill and Brian were in town with their son Steven for another event and it was great to have them for the night.  We had grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, siblings, and everyone else you can think of at the party.

Nettie's fiance, JP, took this opportunity to introduce his mother to all of us.  It can be overwhelming to come to extended Martin party let alone one with just Michelle's immediate family.  The volume is never turned down and there is no mute button, but I think that is what makes the parties so fun.

We did pretty well at getting all of the grand kids that were at the party in one picture.  The only ones that were missing were Jill's kids in Oregon.

The week went by quick, but there was plenty of excitement packed inside.  The Martin's are known for their love of getting together and this week was no different.  We can't wait till we can get back together again, but with Nettie's wedding just a few weeks away we won't be waiting long.