What a lucky kid!

This is a short post to say how thankful I am that Gavin has such an awesome family to grow up with. We just spent some time with both of our families and Gavin knows them all by name. It's so fun to get up in the morning and see his reaction when we say, "Do you want to go see Poppi and Nonni (Benjy's parents) today?" or "We are gonna see Grandpa and Grandma (my parents)" or look out if we even mention his cousins! I know what a richness my family was to me and my childhood growing up. Going and seeing my grandparents, aunts and uncles and cousins was the highlight of my year (literally) because we always had so much fun and I felt so loved!

I'm thankful that Gavin is going to have wonderful influences in his life from the adults and great friends in his cousins. So I included a picture of Gavin with his Cousin Nicolas who is only one month younger, just because it was what got me thinking about all of this in the first place. Although they don't really appreciate each other now (they just sort of coexist in the same room together but don't really play together quite yet) it will be so fun to grow up together and I'm so thankful God gave him that gift.

Some family he has yet to meet and get to know and I'm so excited for that because his life will be all the richer for it.

On that note: Jonny (Benjy's little bro) and Sara-can't wait to spend time with you in a couple of weeks!

Jesse (Benjy's big bro) and Shawna-Gavin will love getting to spend time with his four cousins from Oregon! Hopefully this Christmas????

And to my AZ family-we can't wait to see you all in November and I know Gavin will love his second cousin Michael who's also close in age.

This is probably my most rambling post so far so thanks for bearing with me. Check out the next post about our summer (below)!

Summertime means...Keeping up with Gavin...

Well I have to say between blogspot, myspace and facebook I've been horrible about updating pictures and keeping in touch. Let's blame it on the fact that it is summer and we have way too much free time on our hands...Benjy, Gavin and I are having a great time. We kicked off the summer with a little vacation in San Diego. We stayed with Joe and Emily and Gavin had an absolute blast following around his cousins. We used our Sea World and Zoo passes which was nice b/c we could go at our own leisure around Gavin's nap. Benjy got some surfing in and we actually got a night with Joe and Emily without kids (all were in bed) which is so rare and was very fun! We also went to Bakersfield for the week of the Fourth of July so that we could light our own fireworks in my parents front yard (a long time tradition in my family). That week was awesome because Benjy and I were able to go on a two day rafting trip on the Kern River. We rafted all day, slept under the stars at night and then rafted the whole second day. It was beautiful and fun and only an hour from Bakersfield.

Besides that our summer days have consisted of Gavin's swim lesson in the morning and then some adventure in the afternoon. We either take off for the beach, Wild animal park, the pool, a hike, or the park. It's got to be something active. Gavin's got a lot of energy and we soon found that errands to Target and the grocery store were just so much easier to do if one of us goes while he is napping.

At the Wild Animal park he literally never stopped running! He ran from place to place, barely noticing the animals but loving every little tiny rock and bug he found on the ground. Gavin is famous for his announcements which he shouts for all to hear so he ran around the park shouting and pointing "WOW" and "OH!" (and lots of other long phrases which we are sure are several sentences long but are still very difficult to decifer) everytime he saw something that amazed him. We found out that the tram ride through "Africa" was only 25 min and free with our membership so we thought it might be a nice chance for us all to get off our feet and relax. It turned out to be a wresting match for both of us as we tried our best to keep Gavin from falling out of the tram. He was all over the place and by the end Benjy and I were sweating and I think the giraffes were happy the little "tasmanian devil" (yes, he was literally turning circles in Benjy's arms at one point) that went by on the tram was getting off! We just had to turn on the video camera and laugh!

So, summer is fun. We still have four weeks left and everyday is a new adventure. We eat lots of watermelon, spend as much time in the water as possible and try to keep up with our little ball of energy! He's an absolute blast though and we couldn't have asked for a more entertaining addition to our lives! By the way, in August we will have been married 9 years!