Family Pictures

On Dominic's birthday we also took family pictures and they turned out well I think.  I did not get a great one of the two boys together, they were done with pictures by that point.  We did get some good family shots and individual ones though.

My favorite of all of us

Wiggles!  Dominic kept trying to escape.

Again, wiggles  :)

 Just the two of us

 Yes, Vince is laughing that his brother fell down

Such a good picture taker

 We had to tickle his feet to get him to smile at this point

Smiles

 This is the best one I got of the two of them.  Oh well, next time

 So much love

 Tickle tickle

Happy Birthday Dominic!

One year old!  It is really hard to believe that Dominic is one year old already.  This past year went so fast!  There are so many wonderful things about Dominic, just to name a few: he is funny, loving, silly, feisty, he knows what he wants, he loves his brother and follows him around everywhere, he is wiggly, he dances when music comes on (I will try to get a video of this to post), he is smart, he loves the Michigan fight song, he gives great baby kisses and hugs, and so many more things.  We could not be more blessed to have the two boys we have, they are wonderful!  Because we were up north last weekend and did little birthday party's for Dominic we just had a little one at home with the four of us.  It was a great day.  Dominic is working on getting some more teeth (he has 7 so far) so that was a little bit of a bummer for his birthday, but it was not too bad.  We had his 1 year old well child visit today as well and he weighed in at 21 pounds 9 ounces and 30 inches long.  Vince also had his 4 year old visit and his stats are 29 pounds 5 ounces and 37 inches.  As you can see Dominic is going to catch Vince before too long :)

 Presents

 He found one of his presents and figured out what is was pretty fast.

 Birthday Boy!

 We got him an ice cream cake instead of regular cake and that was big hit

 He really wanted the candle, he even tried to blow it out.

 Vince was able to blow it out.  Vince was a big helper with Dominic's birthday

 Yummy

 It was pretty cold to touch so this was a much better solution.  He is a smart little boy

 He did not want to be wiped off

 "Vince, let me get your hat"

 Vince helped open all of Dominic's presents

 "All of these presents are for me, I am shocked"

The boys then got to play with the water table and kiddy pool.  It was a beautiful hot day, so the water fun was great.  

Part two of our 4th of July weekend

So the second part of the weekend was spent in Rogers City.  We had a great time there too.  The big event was Tiffany and Jake's wedding.  Nick is actually related to both the Bride and Groom, which sounds awful, but Tiffany is on his mom's side and Jake is on his dad's side.  So Tiffany and Jake are not related to each other :).  Their wedding was on Saturday and they had a beautiful day for it.  It was pretty warm, but I think that is to be expected in July.  The boys again were excited to dance at a wedding and had a great time.  It was nice to have so much family together, it does not happen often enough.  On Sunday we celebrated Dominic's birthday with the Santini side.  Dominic got a huge, but delicious cake.  The drive home was the longest one we have had, but the boys did ok.  It took us 6 1/2 hours when it should take us only 4!  The traffic was crazy, which other than the inconvenience to us, is good because that means people are traveling in Michigan again. :)

 Nice smiles for everyone

 Uncle Chris must have gotten the memo about the blue shirt

 Just checking everything out

 This is the best one I got of the boys together.  Oh well.

 Grandma and Grandpa Santini and the boys

 Cousin David and Great Grandma Yuldine

 Dominic stole a hat from another kid.  He really did not want to give it back either

 Dancing with Aunt Mary - Mother of the Bride

 Dancing with Tiffany - The Bride

 Huge cake, but really good.

If you look close at Dominic, it looks like he is holding one finger up for his first birthday :)

Part one of our 4th of July Vacation

We went up north for the 4th of July weekend this year.  We went west for the first part and then east for the second part because Nick's cousin got married.  For the first part of our trip we went to Torch Lake again and had an amazing time.  The weather was perfect and we got to really enjoy it.  Vince caught a huge :) fish the first night we were there.  He caught it on his Lightning McQueen fishing poll, so that makes it even cooler.  It actually was a keeper most likely, but we really did not think we would be catching anything worth keeping.  From the picture my dad said it was a small mouth bass.  I think it was the highlight of the trip and when we ask Vince what his favorite part, that is what it was.  The next day, the 4th, we went into Traverse City to check out Cherry Festival.  When I lived in Traverse I always tried to avoid it, but now that I don't live there it is fun to go back for a day.  First we went to my parents house to do a little birthday party for Dominic and then we headed down town.  We then walked around and Vince got to ride the carousel and we ended the trip with the Jr. Royal Cherry Fest parade.  We told Vince that if he stayed up on the way back to the cottage we would take him to fireworks.  To our surprise he was still awake, so we went and saw some very nice fireworks.  Dominic slept through the whole show.  Friday was another amazing day that we took advantage of on the boat.  We went over to the North sandbar and we got to swim and have fun.  It was a really great trip.

 Dominic's first birthday party

 Dominic loves bread, but does not really seem to like cake.  He does love ice cream though!

 Vince loved the carousel 

 Dominic had had enough of his stroller

 Pizza is so good

 Jesi and Dominic

 Bell Tire.  It was really exciting to see him at the parade.

 Beautiful day

 I cant think of a better place to take a nap

          Nick was the first one to jump in the water :)  He thinks he is pretty tough.

The big Fish!