ONE!

We're still not sure where the time went, but Sam turned one on July 5th! We had a wonderful time with family- siblings (and nephew!) and cousins and their kids...lots of kids! And we are looking forward to celebrating soon with the Aho/Palmberg side of the family as well. Sam "survived" his first birthday...note in some of the pictures the marks on his face- he reacts to bug bites and had several on his face including one right by his eye. Poor guy looked pretty rough- and was on Benedryl for swelling, so he was a bit intoxicated as well. He also had a few tumbles on his Birthday including a fall (fell about three inches) from the hammock, a croquet ball up the side of the head (courtesy of little cousin Erik), and a bump on his noggen from a lawn chair. There was one point at Aunt Mary's house that we put him in the play pen outside with the mosquito netting and he looked relieved- "finally somewhere I'm safe!" Oh, and he went swimming for the first time and LOVED it!!! He splashed and giggled and drank half the lake!
A big thank you to everyone who celebrated with us and gave Sam all sorts of fun toys- and a potty seat- for his First Birthday!! We got to spend some quality time with first cousin Thomas- boy is he ever changing and growing!!! And I'm going to be an Auntie again- my sister Mara is due in February!!!!!!! We are SO thrilled for her and can't wait to compare notes!


**Narrowing down the pictures was tough- there were a lot of precious moments! Will add captions later when there's more energy/time!