One year ago day...

... the world changed forever!



My mom's headstone got installed just in time for her one year anniversary.

I wanted to make sure that her grave was decorated with a ton of flowers.  She loved flowers so much.  Everyone brought some.

The whole family came to honor and remember her.

This is Tante Friedel's brother.  He is buried just a few rows over from mom.  Even in death she is surrounded by friends :).

We went to Dad's new place for brunch afterward and had German wurst from Seigfried's in her memory.

 

This past year has been super hard and Kristin and I decided that the best way to celebrate getting through it, while simultaneously commemorating Granny's life, would be to knock a few things off our bucket lists.  So,we got on a plane and went to Seattle!

 

Neither of us had ever been and it is someplace that we often talked about going to.  We arrived in the evening and didn't have time to do much, so we just went to dinner, then back to the hotel to go to bed.  Pictures of our adventures will start tomorrow.

Our hotel was in an awesome location right off of Pike's Place.  This is the first picture we took in Seattle just a few steps out the door on our way to dinner.

Guess where we ate?

Yummy dinner

Bucket List Counter:
1- Be in Seattle with my favorite person ever!
2- Add another Hard Rock Café to the list I've visited (list previously included Washington DC, Las Vegas, Puerto Rico, Salt Lake City, Taiwan, Honolulu)

Orlando Day 3: Universal Studios

For our last day we said goodbye to Disney and headed for Universal Studios Island of Adventure.

 

 

Now entering Hogsmeade

Me, and a few of my favorite things that I picked up in Seuss Land, all waiting for the Hogwarts Express.

Olivander's Wand Shop

Hogwarts

 

Hagrids garden

Hagrid's Hut

 

Hippogrif

 

 

Me and Catherine at Hogwarts

A charmed tape measure in the shape of cat (that really moved)... Hi Granny!

 

Me and Catherine in front of Honeydukes

Zonkos Joke Shop



Inside the store was amazing!

Lots of fun houses with crooked chimneys and a Butterbeer stand.  The butterbeer was super yummy!

Kristin and Riley, and the rest of the gang played in other parts of the park while me and Catherine explored Hogsmeade (hence the serious lack of pictures of anyone else).  I finally met up with them again in Suessland for more fun.

I pushed Catherine around in a wheelchair all day so she could conserve her energy for the Disney half marathon that she was planning to run that night after spending the whole day playing in the parks.  Crazy girl!

Waiting for the Spiderman Ride

The Comic Book Land

 

This is one of all time favorite ride pictures.

 

Catherine back at the hotel and ready to head out and run 13.1 miles.

Even though I was exhausted and ready for bed, I was inspired by Catherine's energy and headed out for a late night by myself at Downtown Disney so I could get a few necessities from the Mr. Potato Head Store.  I wasn't too tired to have fun shopping, but I was too tired to take many pictures because this is about the only one I came back with.

This is the next morning at the airport.  Our flight left bright and early so we ate breakfast at the airport Burger King after we checked in.  With the hoodie on I think Riley looks like Max from Where the Wild things are.

It was a fun and adventurous 3 days and even though we were SO tired and ready for some R&R back home we wished that we could have stayed longer and seen more.  Disney world has WAY to much to do to cram into only 3 days.  I predict that at some point in the eventual future, you will see another round of travel blogs with destination Orlando :).  It was definitely a vacation to repeat. 

Orlando Day 2: Animal Kingdom and Epcot

Waiting outside the hotel for the bus to take us to Animal Kingdom

 

The Tree of Life

 

Riding the train to Rafiki's Island



Isaac was so excited to see real animals.  He kept calling them "amilos."  So cute!

Each kid got a card with pictures of different bugs and they had to do a scavenger hunt to find them all.

 

Next was the safari.  Here is where we were going to see some BIG amilos :).

 

This is a termite mound.

 

We were lucky to see that not only were the lions out that day (which I guess is somewhat rare by itself), they were having a love fest and were being so cute!

Everyone agreed that the best part of Animal Kingdom was Expedition Everest.  It was an awesome rollercoaster that went forwards and backwards as we tried to get away from the Yeti, a giant monster.

We thought the kids would be scared but before the ride was even over they were asking to go on it again.  Thanks to Catherine and her Guest Assistance Pass, we got to ride it 4 times in a row without waiting in line.

Starting to get tired, but Riley is so happy with the Yeti he bought at the Expedition Everest gift shop.

We went on more rides in the kids area including a little roller coaster that broke down just as we got to the top so we had to walk down (a first for all of us) and a really cool Dinosaur ride.  Isaac's favorite was the ride similar to Dumbo, but with dinosaurs instead.  We saw Santa Goofy and Reindeer Pluto as we were leaving the park.

Eventhough we were exhaused, I really wanted to make it to epcot and see the Germany exhibit in honor of my mom.  See my cute Germany mouse ears in the photo?

Inside the Mexico Pavillion

 

They had a cute Donald Duck boat ride that was similar to It's a Small World.  The loading dock looked too much like Pirates of the Carabian thoug and Isaac was concerned that we were going to show him more pirates.  Apparently, he didn't like that.

  

It was very cute though.

The viking ride in Norway

Hooray! We finally made it to Germany.  I kept expecting to find unique and interesting things that I'd never seen before  that would leave me feeling more connected to my German roots.  That didn't exactly happen. Except for the things that had a Disney twist (like the snow white dresses you can see in the background), the place looked pretty much like my uncle Helmut's store.  Still I bought a chritmas music CD and some cookies that reminded me of Omi and left happy.

Awesome Ginerbread house in Germany

We watched the fireworks...

...took some final night time pictures of Germany that didn't turn out really great...

... and higtailed it to some rides before the park closed.

On our way to Sorin' Over California

A happy crowd at the end of a long day.