Ultrasound Pictures - 11 weeks

Here's the baby at just over 11 weeks...he's starting to look human even though he's upside down!

Ultrasound Pictures - 6 weeks

Our first visit to Doctor Hoffman's office proved that the three home pregnancy tests weren't lying! Today we saw the baby's heartbeat for the first time and were given the OK to start telling our friends and family the news. Coincidentally we were visiting our parents this weekend so we were able to tell them in person right away. Everyone was so excited when we handed them a "Welcome, Baby" balloon with this ultrasound picture attached to it!

Introduction

Thank you for visiting our blog! 2006 is going to bring many happy changes to our life, beginning on or around March 28 when our first baby is due. We are very excited for this new addition to our two-person-one-dog family and are eager to share our excitement with all of you!

In October 2005 we found out that we will be having a baby boy during one of our ultrasound visits, so we have since been consumed with preparing for our soon-to-be son. Both of our families have had a lot of fun getting ready for the little guy and very soon we will begin work on the nursery we've been talking about for so many months. We've posted pictures from the ultrasounds that we've had throughout the pregnancy; it's amazing how much they have progressed since our initial one at 6 weeks as our little guy continues to grow (and kick his mom more fiercely everyday!).

We hope that you enjoy reading the latest news about the Martin Family; we will continue to update this site frequently so be sure to check back often.

Group Trip to Ireland

In June 2005 we took another group trip with three couples, this time to Ireland. The impetus for this trip was the fact that U2 was going to be giving a world tour and would be making a stop in Dublin. As a long time U2 fan, what place would be better to see them than in their hometown? So, we decided to just go for it when our friends approached us about coming with them to the concert. So, we purchased our concert tickets and then spent the rest of our time planning for a ten day tour of Ireland.

This proved to really be a task since there are just so many places within Ireland that we wanted to see, but we also knew that we wanted to keep our vacation leisurely and not spend the entire time running from sight to sight. We finally decided to focus on a few key cities - Dublin, Galway, Doolin, Killarney and Kilkenny - and to plan some daytrip activities while in each of these places or en route as we drove from city to city.

First stop: Dublin.

Here are Andrew and I our first night in Dublin, drinking the first Guinness of the trip.

We had a great time hanging out at night in the Temple Bar area of the city, known for its pubs, restaurants, street performers, shops, etc. Basically this in the "in" part of the city and rightfully so since there was just so much to see and do here. We discovered a wonderful restaurant called Gallagher's that served some of the best Irish food we had on our entire trip.

Temple Bar at night:

The whole group at Gallagher's one night. (front to back, by couple): Mark and Heather Ferrence, Andrew and me, Randy and Julie Delp, Ray and Missy Greenley.

While in Dublin, the guys played golf one day while the girls spent the day shopping, eating, and walking around town. We couldn't let the guys spend money on an expensive round of golf without helping the Irish economy out a little ourselves, now could we? Here we are at lunch and below that is a picture from when we decided to stop in "for a pint" (or half pint for some of us!). The guys were so proud of their chicks for stopping in for a beer on our own amidst our day of girly activities!

Finally, U2! We saw U2 on their Vertigo tour in Croke Park in Dublin. What an experience! It was a concert unlike any I have ever been to before. As for our seats - do you see the stage? Well...just about as far away from the stage as you could get was where we were sitting. Ok, bad seats, I know. But, we got to see U2 play in Ireland, didn't we? Who cares if Bono and the boys looked like a bunch of ants from our seats (and they cost us a fortune anyway). Good thing for large screen tv's on either side of the stage!

Our next stop on the trip was western Ireland, starting in Galway and taking a daytrip from Galway to the Aran Irelands for a day. While in Galway, we met up with my cousin Chris and his (then girlfriend, now fiancee) April. They were also traveling in Ireland at the same time we were. We hung out with them our first night in town and then they spent the entire next day with us on the Aran Islands.

Here we are with Chris and April our first night in town at a place called O'Connor's Pub.

The next day we left early in the morning and caught a ferry to the Aran Islands, where we rented bicycles and biked for the entire day. Our ultimate destination was the Dun Aengus fortress at the far end of the island. At times it was a greuling ride, over rocky terrain and up inclines, but it was always so scenic and this experience was among the most exciting things we have ever done on a vacation. Here are some photos of the island:

With Chris and April offroad:

Dun Aengus fortress from afar and below that are some photos from atop the fortress once we finally arrived.

After we left the Galway area, we headed south towards Doolin and Killarney. En route, we stopped at the Cliffs of Moher. Absolutely beautiful!

We next stopped at Dunguaire Castle as we continued to make our way south to Doolin and Killarney. This was our first official castle of the trip and was among our favorites, even after seeing several others. We toured the castle ourselves in the afternoon, left for Doolin and arrived there a short while later, and then showered and headed back to Dunguaire for their nightly Medieval Feast. What a fabulous experience - great food in a real castle with real Irish singing and dancing.

Here are Andrew and me in one of the windows of the castle.

Killarney was our next big stop and this was our favorite city of all. We absolutely loved it here and would consider going back to Ireland just to visit the Killarney area alone for an entire vacation! In the below photo, Andrew and I were at dinner by ourselves one night. Andrew had developed a liking for the lamb stew early on in our trip and tried this dish many times across cities. The best he had was at a restaurant called The Laurels in Killarney. Here we are at dinner at The Laurels, followed by two photos showing just how much Andrew enjoyed his stew.

Before...

And after!

While in Killarney, Julie and I did a tour on our own to the Gap of Dunloe and it was fabulous. Basically you take a horse and carriage ride through this beautifully picturesque valley. We were seated with a lovely older french couple with whom I was able to converse using my high school french. The ride itself was green, calm and peaceful for miles on end. You literally feel as if you have been superimposed into a painting or something. Seriously. I really can't even describe how beautiful it is and my photos don't do it justice, but here are some of the best.

Our destination on our Gap of Dunloe tour was Ross Castle. Once you are taken halfway via horse and carriage, you finish the tour in boat so that you are able to see the scenery from the water. Here is Ross Castle as we approach it from the water. One of the nicest people we met on our entire trip was the lady selling the souvenir photos of everyone in their carriage once the tour concluded at Ross Castle. Julie and I didn't know we would have to pay cash for our carriage ride so we had used up all of our cash and only had our credit cards left at the end of the tour. So, we couldn't afford the souvenir photo and though I usually think they are a ripoff, this one turned out really nice and would have been worth the splurge. We told the lady selling the photos that we couldn't buy one today because we had spent all of our cash and she GAVE us the photo for free "because I know ya's woulda bought it if yer had the money." What a blessing! We had a fabulous trip and that instance made it that much more memorable!

After a wonderful time in Killareny, we (wistfully!) left for Kilkenny. En route we stopped at Blarney Castle to kiss the stone and gain a bit of the 'ole "gift of the gab" Supposely, whoever kisses the Blarney Stone will become an eloquent speaker. We all wanted to see Blarney Castle and we knew we couldn't come to Ireland and not see the biggest tourist attraction in the country. Here's a photo of the castle followed by Andrew and me kissing the stone. You had to lie on your back and bend your head backwards to kiss it. I'm so glad I decided to wear a skirt this day (a long one at least!!) :).


Finally, one last photo of Kilkenny Castle in the city of Kilkenny. We had a lovely time here and the quiet atmosphere of the city was a great way to wind down from our trip!

Grand Lido Braco - Jamaica

We traveled to the Superclubs Grand Lido Braco all-inclusive resort in Jamaica in January 2005 and it was our first (and not our last, hopefully!) introduction to the all-inclusive resort. This beautiful place included all food from various restaurants, room service, and buffets on the premises, all drinks, watersports, a gorgeous pool, a beach and many other amenities. We had a fabulous time and know that we will be going back to Grand Lido when we need another relaxing vacation.

The resort is in pristine condition and is modeled after a quaint Jamaican town. We spent a good part of our week by the main pool (and the swim-up bar!) lounging, reading, getting misted with water when it was too humid (seriously!), and sipping some Hummingbirds and Dirty Banana drinks.




We had an oceanview room that looked out onto the beach and was conveniently located right near the 24 hour bar/restaurant so we spent some late nights there with some other couples we met. We had a lovely balcony out back that became our favorite retreat before dinner every night when we would order some wine and a fruit and cheese platter to munch on (complimentary, of course!). Here are two photos taken from our balcony:

Finally, here's a photo we had taken as we hung out with a bunch of people we had met at the 24 hour bar, long after the organized resort-wide activities had ended for the evening. This truly was a perfect trip and our lack of photos shows how relaxing it really was - even too relaxing to sightsee and take out the camera!

Las Vegas Vacation

When deciding to go on our next vacation Andrew and I thought about places we had visited already and came to the conclusion that we had been to many destinations outside of the United States but not too many within. So, we decided that a fun getaway would be to good 'ole Las Vegas, since it is someplace we had both always wanted to go. Boy, we had a great time, even better than we had thought we would have, and we didn't even gamble very much (okay, the Roulette table and the Price Is Right slot machines did take some of our money but nothing unreasonable!). What made the trip fun for us were all of the amazing hotels that we could tour with all of their myriad attractions, the fine dining, some great shows and even a trip out into the desert to visit the Red Rock Canyon and Hoover Dam.

We opted to "cheap it" for this trip by redeeming our airline miles for free flights and our Marriott Rewards for free accommodations just off The Strip. We were within walking distance to everything and the free rooms were great, but we had the best time our last night, when we splurged on a room in the Bellagio. We decided that the next time we go we will definitely cough up the big bucks for another room on The Strip since it really makes for a memorable Las Vegas experience.

Here are two photos of the Bellagio with its famous "dancing" fountains:

Andrew in our room at The Bellagio and then some of us by the Bellagio pool area, which consists of four separate pools and a hot tub area. The mixed drinks that Andrew is carrying set us back close to $20 a piece so needless to say we each only had one of those!

One of the highlights of the trip for me was when we went to see Celine Dion's A New Day concert in the Caesar's Palace Colesseum. Yes, I'm a closet Celine Dion fan and Andrew agreed to go along with me! The arena holds approximately 4,000 people and Celine rocked the entire place.

We went to visit the Red Rock Canyon and Hoover Dam one day and had a sampling of the desert. Now that we have seen that part of our country, we know that it is someplace we would love to come back and visit one day with the family.

Our Visit to Germany and Austria

Andrew and I have been married for over five years and during this time we have been fortunate enough to be able to travel a great deal to many different countries. The trip that we both rank as probably our favorite getaway was when we went to the Bavarian region of Germany and then to Austria in June 2004. Andrew loves the mountains, we both love castles, eating and beer, and I must confess that I had always wanted to visit the filming location of my all-time favorite movie, The Sounds of Music, so this seemed like a trip we just HAD to do together.

We started out in Munich, Germany and spent some time in the city and also outside the city in the Alps region. We would have liked to have been able to ski while we were there, but skiing stops in May and resumes in September, so we happened to plan our trip during the summer hiatus. Oh well! Andrew would have had no problems, but I'm not sure my "beginner to intermediate skill level in the Poconos" would have been quite advanced enough for such a feat since the Alps are just a little bigger than Jack Frost and Big Boulder!

We did, however, make it up the Alps via ski lift (sans skis of course) and what an experience! Unfortunately we did not have the clearest day when we went so our visability could have been better, but the views were spectacular nonetheless. Supposedly, on a clear day you can see Italy, Switzerland, Germany and Austria all from one peak on the Zugspitze, one peak that we ascended.

Feeling on top of the world!

That's one heck of a ski lift!

What a view! It makes you feel like...oh, I don't know....yodeling! :)

One of our favorite places to spend time at night in Munich was the Hof Brauhaus, a famous beer hall with song, dance and ample flow of supersized beers and pretzels. What a fun atmosphere and it's pretty safe to assume that one drink here will last you all night!! Of course Andrew needed to take home a souvenir mug for himself...

Our last night in town we arrived at the Hof Brauhaus late and weren't able to snag a cozy table for two so we sat down on one of the long tables for, oh maybe 20 or so. After a few moments a group of American businessmen sat with us and being the friendly folk that we are we struck up conversation with them. Now this is where our usual overseas coincidence occurs (as you may have read about in some of our former trips). One of the men was an alumnus of our alma mater, Lehigh University, and had had many of our same profs. Being that Lehigh has 3,000 undergrads and is a small private college that is most well-known in the northeastern US, we found this to be quite a coincidence since we ran into a fellow Engineer in Munich! Here's a photo of the three of us.

My birthday fell during our time in Germany so I decided that for my birthday I wanted to go to a nearby city called Rothenburg ob der Tauber. It is a quaint, "gingerbread"-esque village that got rave reviews from the travel experts so we decided to make the trek. What a pleasant surprise! Rothenburg had fabulous food and shops and such an old-fashioned Bavarian feeling to it. It was a perfect birthday!

A view of the gingerbread town:

Here I am in front of the Kathe Wohlfahrt store in which we purchased two wooden German boy and girl Christmas ornaments. We have a tradition of buying a Christmas ornament in every ciy in which we travel, so we couldn't resist!

After our time in Munich, we headed out for Salzburg, Austria and decided to stop at the famous Neuschwanstein Castle en route in Bavaria. In case it isn't obvious, Cinderella's Castle in Walt Disney World is directly modeled after this famous German palace. It was absolutely amazing and we took photos that looked like postcards.

Here is a bridge that we crossed in order to take picturesque photos of the castle. The bridge was very high off of the ground and quite scary to cross, and I don't even usually have a fear of heights! It was actually built specifically so that vain King Ludwig could go out there to admire the castle that he had built by embezzling Bavaria's public funds.

Here we are approaching the castle, which, as you can see if you look closely, is nestled amongst the mountains.

A bridge with a view.

The view! I swear that this is not a postcard and is actually a photo!!

Our next stop was Salzburg and what a wonderful, intimate city! We decided to splurge during our time here and to spring for (the low end) hotel room in the beautiful Hotel Sacher Salzburg, home of the decadent chocolate sacher torte. This hotel was beautiful and made our stay unforgettable. We had a lovely room, dined in the hotel restuarant twice and spent every night after we got back from our nightly activity in the hotel piano lounge. One night, I even requested "anything from My Fair Lady", my favorite show music, and the pianist proceeded to play a 30 minute medley of the entire score just for me!

Salzburg at night:

A view of the entire city from the top of the Hohensalzburg Fortress.

Here we are in the lobby of the Hotel Sacher dressed up for a night on the town, starting off with a Mozart dinner concert.

Some photos from around the town. We bicycled all through Salzburg one day and also took a Sound of Music tour another day to see some of the filming locations for the movie.

So Austrian!

The Sound of Music commemorative cow. Talk about commercialization!

Some Von Trapp sights...

"I am sixteen going on seventeen..."

The front and back of the Von Trapp's villa. They used two different houses to film the famous Rodgers and Hammerstein home.

"Do-Re-Mi..." We visited the famous Mirabell Gardens where the Von Trapp kids pranced around with Fraulein Maria leaning to sing. Here's a beautiful photo of the gardens followed by one of myself posing as Fraulein Maria at the garden entrance.

Our final stop on our vacation was in Vienna. This is certainly a much larger city than Salzburg so it had an entirely different feel to it, but the history and musical presence here made for some great sightseeing. We took a carriage ride around the city and then ate dinner at the Hotel Sacher Wien on our last night in town since we had enjoyed our stay at the Sacher in Salzburg so much and wanted to give its Viennese counterpart a try. What a wonderful way to say Auf Wiedersehen to our trip!