Dylan - TEN Years in our Family!!!

CONGRATULATIONS on your Ten Year Gotcha Day Anniversary!!

Good evening, Dad here again.

I'm making this post to this blog at the same time as I am posting a short Note on our Family Facebook page.  Regardless of platform, this day is one to remember.

The Post we made on that day 10 years ago is HERE.

But tonight I'm visiting here to say how truly happy we are that we have our Dylan.  After all, "Every Family Needs a Dylan."  Our Family would not be complete with out you!

We Love You Very Much and can't wait to watch you grow up more each day.

And I'm also here to deposit a few more short notes and pictures of Dylan from over the past several months.

We've had a good (yet wet) Spring and start to Summer.  Dylan wrapped up YEAR #1 of Middle School and will be starting 7th Grade in the Fall.  He's making very good progress in his studies, and he's hanging in there with his violin.

It's gratifying watching him continue to mature into a young man.  He's been an attentive and helpful big brother for his new little brother Zachary.  He is very helpful around the house with chores and other projects, as well.

More recently, we've had some additional family adventures, most notably vacationing in Mexico at the Hard Rock Hotel.

Here are a few more...

Last Day of 6th Grade - so fast...

Summer Field Trip to Julius Sturgis Pretzel Bakery (Lititz, PA)

Celebrating with Ben at his Bar Mitzvah

Move-Out Day for Grandmom and PopPop
as they say "Goodbye" to Disston Street
and Hello to New Smyrna Beach, FL

Hard Rock Hotel, Riveria Maya, here we come!

And Dylan is NOT known for having a sweet tooth!
I count (4), not including the two he just finished!

Ahhh, the Selfie with Dad.  There is NO ESCAPE!

Enjoying a Spring Day at Tyler Arboretum

Phipps Conservatory, near Mom & Dad's Alma Mater, CMU.

At the Chinese Lantern Festival in Philadelphia.

Dylan amongst the many Panda Lanterns.

Happy 13th Birthday, Dylan

It's been too long since we've revisited here, but today is a major deal.  Today is Dylan's 13th Birthday.



A Teenager - not sure where the time went, but it's been a great pleasure watching Dylan grow into the young man he's becoming.

He's now the older brother to THREE younger Brothers and also to Ashley.  The ranks of his little brother has grown by ONE since our last post, with the addition of Zachary!  Zach is 4 years old and Dylan has shown how he can be patient and kind by showing Zach how the Family operates.

Dylan had a great trip to China to bring Zachary home.  He enjoyed going back and experiencing his native country again.  Our days were full of activities and Dinners were always adventures.  If you want to see more about this trip you can visit Zachary's Travel Blog.

Not long after we arrived home, we again packed up and headed for Grand Rapids for our annual Christmas Trip to visit Grandma and Poppa in Michigan.  We got a chance to visit with our cousins and with Uncle Mark again.  We were lucky to also visit them in the Summer at 4th of July.  AND we even spent some time with them during our Spring Vacation in Mexico, at the Hard Rock Hotel in Riveria Maya.

We even were lucky enough to visit Hawaii (Maui), too in the summer!

Dylan has successfully made the transition to Middle School joining Kyle at Indian Valley, in the 6th grade. He enjoys Science, Math, and Social Studies, but ELA (English Language Arts) not so much...  Grades for first marking period were solid though and he continues to make progress, and be an eager learner.  He's found a good group of friends and keeps in touch with them on his new iPhone.  And Dylan's still hanging in there with his Violin, trying his best to keep up with his practicing to prepare for the spring Concert.

It's one of our Family rituals to enjoy Dinner Out on each person's birthday, at their place of choosing.  This year Dylan chose Bahama Breeze in King of Prussia.  As our family has grown, we've become accustomed to the challenges of seating a party of EIGHT.  But for Dylan's dinner we hit a home run.  We got to sit at a huge (a little too big maybe) circular fire-pit table.  We could still converse and enjoy our meals even though it was a little large!  The table was set up on one of the indoor/outdoor porches.  So as a result, it was a little cool on our backs, but toasty on our fronts.  All in all a great way to celebrate 13 for Dylan.

Here is the whole crew tonight as we gathered around the Ice Cream (D's not that much of a Birthday Cake kind of guy).

From the Auto Museum in Hershey...

Braving the Cold and deep snow in March of last year...

On one of our Morning Walks around the Hotel in Maui, Hawaii... 

Looking all growed-up in Mexico...

I could post pictures ALL NIGHT!

But, I'll just run along now.  I just wanted to drop a post today since it's such an important occasion!

Happy Birthday, Dylan,

We Love you Very Much!!