10 Reasons we LOVE Grandma & Grandpa Martin's House

Albuquerque is fun to visit for a lot of reasons. But, our favorite reason is visiting Grandma and Grandpa. So, here are our favorite things about visiting Grandma and Grandpa's house (in no particular order):

1. The Bouncy House

Max was so fun to watch with the bouncy house. He couldn't decide if it was safe to get in or not, so he spent a good hour running around the outside, teasing the kids on the inside. No matter how hard we tried to get him to go in, he wanted nothing to do with it. Then, after an hour of investigation, he finally decided that it was safe, got in, and we couldn't get him out until it was time to go in for the day. It was SO CUTE!!

2. Feeding the Turtles

Grandma and Grandpa have 3 small turtles that live in their backyard. Every day, the turtles come to the back door looking for something to eat. The kids LOVE giving them bites of bread. I didn't get any pictures this year, but this is Max feeding one of the turtles last year. Bria loves the turtles so much, she talks about them at home all year long!

3. The Slip-n-slide

Yet another fun thing to do at Grandma & Grandpa's. The kids LOVE it!! They played for hours one afternoon with Bion and Orion. Thank you Grandpa for all the work putting up the bouncy house and the slip-n-slide!!

I didn't take any pictures!! DARN! Dave took our camera to Colorado thinking that he would want to take a million pictures, but in the end he only ended up with 13 total. Meanwhile, I was borrowing my mom's camera and ended up with over 200!! Maybe we should have re-thought the camera situation. But, really, I think we got plenty of pictures....just missed a few things like the kids playing on the slip-n-slide.

4. Sleeping Over

Bria, Max and I shared a room. But, I didn't particularly want to share a bed with TWO wiggly sleepers, so I had Max sleep on the floor. The only problem is that he's such a mover, he kept getting caught under the bed in the middle of the night. So, Grandpa got out a cot and we set it up next to the bed. Max thought he had the COOLEST bed EVER!! He was just about ready to take the thing home!

Bria, on the other hand, thought that sharing a bed with mom was an extra special treat. She had been looking forward for months to having a sleepover with mom. She sleeps a lot more still, but likes to cuddle, so often ends up in the middle of the bed.

Probably my favorite part of sharing a room with Bria and Max is discovering that Max talks in his sleep. I don't normally spend a lot of time around him in the middle of the night, but he apparently has very vivid dreams and talks about them while he's sleeping. My favorite was hearing him shout "Nemo!! NO! NEMO!!"

5. Visiting the family

Nothing gets better than spending time visiting everyone we haven't seen in such a long time. We had an extra special treat this time because my sister is living there with her twins. Addison(but everyone calls her Addibelle) and Payson are 3 months old - and they are DARLING! It was so much fun to watch Bria and Max around the babies. It'll be fun to see how they are with our new baby in a couple of months.

Chamron holding Addibelle and me holding Payson. Grandpa's taking a break from grilling some burgers.

Grandpa with Payson. You can see just a little bit of Addibelle in the background with me. I couldn't get enough of holding those cute, cute babies!!

6. The backyard playground

7. Orion's toys

Orion has probably every book and toy you can imagine. He is also very generous and doesn't mind sharing his toys with our kids. I can't even remember the number of hours the three of them spent playing in his bedroom. Thanks, Orion!!

8. Playing with cousins

Bria hasn't ever played baseball before, but she did AWESOME!! She didn't hit the ball every time, but quite a few considering she hasn't ever played before. Orion is a pro! He hit the ball into the neighbor's yard several times. It was so fun to watch them play!

9. The hot tub

To our kids, the hot tub is just like a kid-size swimming pool. Bria probably would have gotten in every day if we would have let her. Max on the other hand was a little more reserved. He didn't ever actually get in, but we did convince him to soak his feet. So much for all the $$ on Little Swimmers! Hopefully he'll get over his water anxiety by the time swimming lessons start in a couple of weeks!

Max, Orion and Bria.

Max and Bion.

10. Of course, because Grandma and Grandpa are there!!!