Gates Family Reunion

Every summer the children of Rose Gates travel to Turtle Creek, PA for a family reunion. They come from Alabama, Kansas, California, Florida, Michigan and several other states. Alfred and Rose Gates had 18 children together. Can you imagine? I struggle to be in one piece taking care of just one child some days! Grandma Gates is a remarkable woman. I love listening to her reflect on the past and seeing the joy and pride in her eyes when she is with all her children (and their children and their children's children!).

This year we celebrated Grandma Gates' 90th birthday. The cake displayed a beautiful photo of Rose when she was a young woman. I overheard one of her kids say that it was the photo her husband loved and carried around in his wallet. Grandma was quite touched and speechless when she saw the cake. It was a precious moment to behold.

An annual tradition of the Gates Family Reunion is the egg toss. The first time I played the egg broke in my hands and splattered all over my shirt and even in my hair. So you can imagine how thrilled I was to be holding a sleeping baby when they announced the egg toss this year! ;)

Great Grandma

This is Micah not napping in his pack n' play.

Micah Meets the Ocean

Micah Meets the Ocean from Tim Gates on Vimeo.

Father's Day Fun

Our dear friends, Mimi and Greg, were so gracious and kind to invite us down to their beach house in OC, New Jersey for 2 days the weekend of Father's Day. It was such a blessing to be able to get away as a family, spend time with friends, and experience the beach through the eyes of a child all over again. I exclaimed "I love the beach!!!" over and over again, mostly because I knew I would get a reaction out of Mimi. hehe.

We had a beautiful breezy beach day on Friday- perfect for a little one's first experience! Micah was wide-eyed and kicking his legs from the moment he spotted the sand and ocean. We couldn't get him to sit still; there was so much to explore! The pictures and video tell it all so I won't bother saying much other than he loved it and would have crawled right into the ocean if we had let him! I could not have dreamed of a better reaction from him. It was priceless.

Tim and I decided to spend another night at the beach to celebrate Father's Day and although the weather wasn't ideal, we still had a wonderful time together. We took walks on the beach and boardwalk (when it wasn't raining), took a sunset drive along the coast, and enjoyed an ocean view Father's Day breakfast at Ove's, a favorite of mine that I was excited to share with Tim.

On our way home from the beach, we spontaneously stopped by the zoo and ended up spending three hours there. The sun had come out and it turned out to be a beautiful day. We visited the bird sanctuary for the first time, which was amazing by the way. We then stopped off at Laurel Hill Cemetery where Tim enjoyed taking photos and Micah enjoyed crawling around. We ended the evening with my first taste of California Pizza Kitchen-- yum.

surfer dude

bonding at the beach

dropping sand on his head. over and over again.

investigating the waves

liking the waves

immersed in the waves

ferris wheel

way past micah's bedtime

beach stud

enjoying the zoo

Laurel Hill Cemetery

Monkey See, Monkey Do

Spider Monkeys from Tim Gates on Vimeo.

Full House

Tim and I got a glimpse of our future when we watched our two nephews for 5 days in June. My brother and sister-in-law traveled to Turkey for their 5 year anniversary, so we and the grandparents each got some time with the boys while they were away. Tim and I went from having one child to three-- and it was CRAZY!

BUT while it was chaotic at times and absolutely exhausting, it was also a lot of fun to have them with us. There was a lot of laughter and entertainment with two more kids in the mix! Aidan and Liam were very well-behaved and amazingly flexible with all the shuffling between homes, and Micah definitely enjoyed having them around. He seemed so much older after being around the big boys for a few days; he wanted to do everything they were doing! Our days were packed with memorable trips to the zoo and playground. The zoo was especially fun because the whole Riley clan went together- my parents, Dave, and Caitlin. The monkeys were the biggest hit of the day as you will see from the video clip in my next post.

Nanny, Poppy, and Aidan

Poppy and his buddy, Liam

Uncle Dave & Aunt Caitlin are the coolest

one of the many entertaining monkeys

souvenir

got milk?

cheap thrills- throwing rocks in the river

Liam exploring at the playground

so sweet

Micah's favorite activity

all tuckered out from the playground

Back to Blogging

I have been meaning to make a post for 2 months now, and I don't have any good excuses as to why I haven't... so now where do I begin when so much has happened since May??? I guess I should start with the events of May...

We kicked off the month of May with the annual Dogwood Festival in Phoenixville. Our church has a booth each year and does different activities to get the community involved and learn about us. This year, GVF made quite a scene with a tug-o-war game between members of the community. Sounds so simple but it was a big hit!

For Memorial Day, we took a trip to Jamesville, NY where we celebrated the baptism of Tim's cousin Jered's little girl, Marin. She is 4 months younger than Micah and is so sweet and cuddly! Micah was very interested in her but unfortunately didn't understand that hitting is not a good way to show affection. We didn't let him get too close after making Marin cry. Our first evening there was spent on the lake where Micah had his first boat ride and his first experience with sand, which he thoroughly enjoyed eating over and over again to our dismay. Micah enjoyed watching and interacting with all the older second cousins, especially playing in the sand with Justin. It was a wonderful weekend with the Apgar family.

Another highlight was getting to be with the Riley family to welcome home my cousin, Mike, from his year abroad in Spain. We had an impromptu family photo shoot which brought a lot of laughter. I will include two of my favorites from that day: Micah with his cousins and my dad with his siblings.

Just Do It.

hanging with Uncle Jeremy

sweetie pie

Dogwood Festival

Marin

right before tears erupted

chilling by the lake

Justin showing Micah how it's done

boat ride

hanging out with Great Grandma

cousins

siblings

Micah Loves Murphy, and Ozzy

Micah and the Murph from Tim Gates on Vimeo.