Philip Lanny GeLinas was born the 6^th August 1997. You can see that Philip inherited his middle name from his Grandpa Lanny. To welcome the little guy into the world was his mother of course, his father and Grandpa Lanny and I. This was an exciting time for the family because his parents had waited a number of years for his arrival. He must have been too busy in heaven playing games with his cousins and uncles of long past and missed the “All Aboard” call for his travel to earth! But he made it, and in doing so made everyone happy.

As a grandmother, what I remember about Philip's early years is that he was good at Nintendo games at a very early age and loved to watch Winnie the Pooh. Now how cute is that! In his early years he liked to sit on Grandma and Grandpa's lap and be rocked and read to.

He had a very devoted Kindergarten teacher who believed in homework for five year olds. He iked to read, liked math, and to run and climb. As he grew older he participated in T-ball, baseball, soccer, and even tried football in his early school years. He could do push-up at an early age and chin-ups while others seemed to struggle. He didn't fear height and liked the high dive. 

When Philip turned 8 years old he was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was on a Saturday, August 13 and he celebrate his birthday with his cousins, aunts, uncles and friends. After filling our tummies with food, cake and ice-cream, we piled into the vehicles and traveled to the Stake Center for his baptism. Larry, his step-father baptized him.

  This is a picture Philip drew and entered in the Grant County fair of Yosei Fudo.  He placed well.  Yugioh is a favorite card game, actually it's more than a card game, it's a battle of heros and villains with a million rules, but the kids love it.  Now that Philip has been a teenager for three years some of his likes have changed but he still enjoy video games, still  plays the trumpet, loves to make videos, and is a tease. He likes performing, especially card tricks, do ventriloquists acts, video his brothers playing soldiers or shooting at a moving racoon hat. That was a funny one, but the video wouldn't upload, so you missed a good show.

Scouting has been an important activity for the GeLinas boys. Both Philip and Alex have earned their merit badges for an Eagle Scout award, but have their Eagle Scout project to complete. They just got back from a week-long camp which included over 4,000 scouts and leaders. They saw their two cousins, Shogo and Micah there. It sounds like they had good food, and some challenging activities for the boys.

PHILIP: “I started high school and seminary this year! Earning A’s. I was playing trumpet in concert band until my band teacher volunteered me to switch to the French horn. It’s not much different to play, but has a completely different sound. I had my moment in the limelight with solo moments in the recent winter concert. That was fun! (Especially scarfing down cookies afterwards). All the merit badges required for an Eagle Scout award are done and accomplished. Now all I have to do is come up with an Eagle project. I better get to it!”

Grandpa and I have enjoyed having him here with us during the summer days while his mother Richelle worked. He and his brothers have been a delight and joy. We have good memories of our grandsons. Lanny has such special memories of his Grandpa and Grandma Henry and Lorietta Starr, their pond, their geese, their farm and hauling hay; Grandma's chocolate cake, rich cow's milk and cream; Uncle John playing guitar and singing and playing Santa Clause. We hope that one day Philip may think back on his experience at Grandma and Grandpa's, his aunts and uncles and have that same fondness as his Grandpa Lanny has for his grandparents.