Gates is One!

This is me. I'm one. I woke up on my birthday to find my family in my bedroom singing Happy Birthday and taking my picture - luckily I had on cool moose pajamas. As a first-timer with birthdays, I don't have a lot of experience to pull from, but I can definitely say that anything involving cake, parties, and presents is a good thing.

The doctor says I'm 24 pounds and 31 inches tall with a 19" head. That means I'm 85% weight, 65% height, and 95% head! Lots of people say Bodie and I look alike. Personally, I think his head looked kinda like a bowling ball when he was one, but if I'm lucky enough to turn out like my big brother, that would be cool.Here's the post from when he turned one  http://piantanidafamily.blogspot.com/2010/11/1-year-4x-size.html.

Having a big brother is a bonus on birthdays because he helped me open my gifts, show me how they work, explained the importance of cake in our diet, demonstrated how to blow out a candle, made me a card with my name on it, and was pretty much awesome. While I was in Heaven, Bodie prayed a lot for me. He would ask God every night for a baby until finally, God agreed to send me. I think he was a key reason I got to come o Earth and have a birthday. I thought I'd celebrate him on my birthday. Here's the card and gift I gave him for getting me to Earth.

And here he is showing me how to use some of my awesome new toys.

And now for the party. My mom made a 2 1/2 foot long alligator cake - because a lot of people call me Gater. My dad lit the candle, everyone sang, and then I attempted to put out the fire with my hand. This is not the preferred method at birthday parties, so Bodie came to my rescue and blew the fire out.

 
We also had a "toss the rings on the gator" game. My dad was victorious with three of six of his rings landing on the gator's nose or tail. I stunk at the game so I decided it was more fun to chew of the rings and tackle the gator. I was the winner at that game.

Lastly, here's a picture of my buddy Gus and me. Not the prettiest photo of us, but we sure look like we're having fun (and where did my pants go!?!?!)

 

Celebrating!

July has been a month full of celebrating - the Fourth of July, my dad's high school reunion, outdoors and summer, and the biggest celebration - Gates' first birthday!

Our neighborhood had it's annual crazy fourth of July parade. We had about 40 friends join in the fun, one of our best crowds to date. We decorated the Dori and Karl's truck for our "float" and called it, "President's on the Pike." (We live off Columbia Pike, so that's a phrase we all use.) My mom and dad made giant head's of some of the presidents and hooked them on sticks so we could hold them up in the air - it looked pretty funny. We're pleased to report that our float took first prize in the Most Patriotic category.
Next we headed to New York for my dad's high school reunion. He went to a small Catholic high school, so he knew everyone attending and was excited for the events. We took my cousin Francesca with us so she could babysit in the evenings while my parents went to some of the events.

They had a boat cruise, a basketball game, a family picnic, dinner at a restaurant, and Sunday mass. Our favorite was the family picnic because it was on a beach and we got to play soccer and volleyball in the sand with a bunch of kids. By the time we left, my mom said we could have a small beach of our own because of all of the sand we took home with us in our clothes!

When we're in town, you can find us at the pool celebrating summer. All of this pool time is really paying off. I've been perfecting my swimming skills and have recently attempted diving! My face and belly have learned the importance of my hands entering the water first - unintentional belly flops are not fun. Here's a video of one of my dives.

And last, but most important, is our celebration of Gates' first birthday. This is so important that it will get it's own blog post. So stay tuned....

Lybberty Days 2014

What do you get when you put 37 of your favorite people in one place...FUN! For 41 years this group has been getting together. My great grandparents started the tradition as a Thanksgiving family reunion in St. George, Utah. After they passed away, my grandpa and his two siblings and spouses moved it to summertime. Since then, every one of my mom's cousins got married and now there are a bunch of grandkids; 6 "grandparents," 14 "parents," and 17 of us!

I'm third youngest and Gates is second youngest. Lucky for us our cousins are super great and include us in everything. This year they took me mountain bike riding. Yes, I only learned to ride a bike a few months ago, and yes, my bike and I were shorter than most of the bushes we were passing. But thanks to my cousins encouragement, I had a blast and went two days in a row. Check out the video.

We hiked, biked, swam, played tennis and ping pong, participated in tons of games, and I even caught my first fish!

 

 

My fish was a 4.5 pound tiger trout. It's a catch and release pond so this lady helps you scoop the fish up in a net, pulls the hook out, then lets it go back into the water. The adults thought she was really funny because she held the fish like a baby and then softly massaged the fish in the water before it swam away. They called her the fish whisperer. I'm not sure what that means, but my guess is she whispered, "you're lucky I'm here because Bodie had plans to eat you."

 We're so lucky to have such an awesome family! 

Utah

Ten days of non-stop play. This pretty much sums up our latest trip to Utah. We got into town and headed to my Uncle Rick's waterski lakes (www.lastchancelakes.com) for four days, then up to the mountains for four days, and then back to the lake one more time before we flew home. We're breaking this post into two -- one about the overall trip, and one specifically about Lybberty Days (our family reunion in the mountains).

My grandparents and aunt and uncle now have a house built on the lake which is so great because you can wake up and go water skiing at the beginning of the day and fall asleep right after you eat s'mores - all without driving! We waterskied, (yes, this we includes ME!), wakeboarded, paddle borded, swam, rode in the ATVs, jumped of the dock, drove the boat, jumped on the trampoline, played on the playground, and relaxed.

 

 

 
The St.Jeors and some of my aunts and uncles came out to the lake as well. We all piled on a paddle board, Tate held the rope, and the boat took off. Our job was to stay on the board. Poor Tate, his job was to keep our board, with all of us on it, connected to the boat! Needless to say, he spent the most time in the lake. Thanks Tate! My parents and I skied a bunch - my dad figured out he skied about 54 miles, whew, that's a lot of miles. Check out my video.

There really is no shortage of pictures to share from this trip, but here is one more of our favorites - check out Gates watching our grandpa tear it up on the waterski. Not too many kids can say their grandparents shred it at waterskiing - so stinking awesome. Seriously, does anyone else have a 70 year old grandma who slalom skis!?!?!

We also headed over to Tate and Brenna's dad's work, a firehouse at one of the ski resorts. Troy is so cool and he not only let us get in the fire trucks, he took us out for a RIDE in the fire truck AND the ATV. I got to put on the radio headset during the drive and he even shot water out of the mega-pump on top of the truck!

A few hours before we left town, we met up with the Cook/McQueen family for fun at a local spray park. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for a great visit! Really, I don't think we could have packed in any more fun if we tried! (Check back for our next post about Lybberty Days)

Graduations & Vermont

Apparently finishing school is a REALLY big deal when you get bigger and not such a big deal when you're little. My brother completed his first year of preschool, had a class party, and got a high five. My older cousins finished 8th grade and 12th grade and holly cow...Par-tay! My Nana and PopPop came into town or my cousin Francesca's 8th grade graduation, so we also scored a bonus visit from them - thanks Francesca for finishing 8th grade! LOTS of play time that included baseball, naps, walks, and painting.

 

Then we hopped in the car and headed north to Vermont for my cousin Luke's high school graduation. Luke is a rock star and got tons of awards including athlete of the year. He's headed to UMass for college where I'm sure he'll  continue being awesome. (I do own other collared shirts, but apparently my mom decided I should wear this green one to all of the graduations this year!)

Bodie and I got tons of cousin time there too. Climbing in the playhouse, riding the rope swing, soccer, basketball, visiting a car museum, oh, and I also did some napping!