Computers are a central theme for the family.

It doesn't take long to figure out computers are a major part of the Martin family. Kids and mom are all Apple users and sometimes we head to a local coffee shop with computers in hand for some family computing time.  The pic was at the Corporate Research Center but our favorite is Lucy Monroe's.

The kids have been meeting weekly with their computer teacher Kevin, who is a senior computer science major at VT and will start a job at Google after graduation!

The kids frequently have lengthy conversations about programming in their computer room (which doubles as my workout room!)

Summer adventures (a little late)

I've not done a great job keeping up the family blog so I am going to try to catch up from the backlog!! These are pictures from some of our local family outings to the New River, kayaking on the Little River, and doing a zipline/aerial course at Mountain Lake!

Florida Trip

I just realized I never did a post about our trip to Portofino Island Resort!!  I mentioned it on the Cort the Sport blog, but did not include it here. The photos tell the story -- Here's a link to the photo album on Facebook!!

Kitties

On August 6, we lost our kitty, Goo, who had been with us for about 2-1/2 years and was about 15 years old. We got her when her prior family moved to Europe. She had a neurological issue, likely from a tumor, and her condition deteriorated to the point that it was affecting her quality of life so we made the difficult decision that was the kindest for her and she went peacefully to sleep at our home in the care of our great vet Becky Young.

We will definitely miss Goo.

Recently we decided it was time to open our home to a new kitty, who we've named "Saki". She had been at the Humane Society for two months and although they say she is two, she seems smaller and younger.

Trixie has been terrified and Hannah is MAD, but just a few days in and they are already making peace. Saki is a very sweet and quiet cat who likes to follow us and is very inquisitive. We are happy to have her in the family!!

Meeting her at the Humane Society. We 'tried out' lots of cats and knew she was the one! (Her name was listed as 'Andrea')

She slept on the floor of the van on the way to the house!

The very first night she was on my lap.

 She's a good napper!!

A few more Deer Valley pics

William and Grant swam in a cold spring and here are the pics! (I found them here - http://www.flickr.com/photos/clayton_chris/sets/72157634417506416/)

New Ride!

After 12 great years of service, the 2000 Grand Voyager was retired (traded in) for a 2011 Dodge Grand Caravan Crew edition. The decision was made when we were faced with some new repairs. We moved quickly, searched the local barely used van inventory, and narrowed it down to a handful of models that had less than 35,000 miles. This one had just 20,000.

This car has SO many more "bells and whistles" than the old one. I wasn't looking for those, but I'm thinking some of them may be fun! It has an in-dash DVD player, satellite radio, a jack for my iPod (yay), and even a 115 V AC plug! There's a backup camera and automatic sliding doors too. I like the "stow and go" seats that allow for a lot of configurations. And yes, my bike fits in there, same place, same way :-)

Unlike the old car, the hatchback handle doesn't jiggle, I don't have separate keys for the doors and ignition, and I can actually SEE at night with the headlights. Wow.

We were a little sad to part with the old one. But not for very long!!! I hope we have as many great adventures in the new van as we had in the old one.

And Lord help the first child who spills or throws up in this vehicle.

Limo Ride to School and New (used) bike for Spencer!

Here are a few other photos I should have put up. I arranged for a limo to pick the Middle School kids up for their last day of school. They've had to go to the neighboring town for the past two years since our high school took over the middle school here when the high school roof collapsed. There are also a few pics of Spencer on his new bike!