Tyler's 3rd Birthday!

June 13th marked my cousin Tyler's 3rd birthday (and also the 3rd year since my grandfather's death . . . but we won't get into that because then I will cry). Also, let's ignore the fact that this is almost a month later . . . .

Here is my grandma and me. I sure do love her.

Singing to Tyler! He got embarrassed from all the attention!

Awesome cake (from Sam's club I think)!

Yummy cake time! Notice how his face isn't entirely covered with blue icing yet.

Austin (Tyler's big brother) excited about one of Tyler's toys.

They all kept helping Tyler open his presents and their mom said "ok. just remember that Tyler is going to help you open yours at your birthday." (Notice the blue on the face now). It was all over.

So great to spend time with all of them. They are so cute! And growing up so fast!

Mase's Bridal Shower!

One of my BFF's, Mase (Amy, the A, dorkster, Mamy, Jamy, Ace'n Mason, gooshzilla, bridezilla, Sneezy, not my friend, SKANK, Amers) is getting married in a little over a month! Her sister and mother (with help from aunts, friends, and her bridesmaids) put on an amazing bridal shower. The details were awesome and it was so beautiful.

We all put together some baskets for people to win. KT put the titles on the bag, and I specifically enjoyed this one the best.

The theme was English Garden Tea Party (Mase was born in England).

The food was delish! Scones, trifles, croissants, sandwiches, and fruit!

Here is the soon-to-be-bride, KT, KC, and Captain Bill (her daddy-o). He got her a prezzie that consisted of some books and a "Paws Off" pajama set.

The KANK to our SKANKS! Oh how I love these girls.

I mean really though. See what I mean about the details?!

And how cute are these pom poms?!! Home made by Mase and her family!

I was in charge of the ribbon bouquet.

Masers (yes I just created a new nickname because she doesn't have enough), I'm so excited for you and Joshers. I can't wait for the wedding! You will be such a beautiful bride!

p.s. - I am not going out or staying up late though. Just kidding. But seriously. . . . only if we all dance.

Mase's Bachelorette Party!

So, this kinda became a tradition from my bachelorette party, but we pretty much go ALL OUT for our bachelorette parties for the SKANKs. Every party is also a surprise. The bride knows what weekend we are going (except in my case), they just don't know where we are going.

So Mase knew we were headed down to Pittsburgh to pick up KT and Nikkie, and thought we would be going somewhere more South, but we kept saying, "we are going to Niagara Falls again! . . just kidding! We are going to have a sleep over at Ikea . . . just kidding! We are just going to hang out here in Pittsburgh . . . just kidding . . . we are going to go on a plane . . .just kidding!" We all thought it would be funny to walk into the airport, and then walk back out or maybe even drive to Pittsburgh, but fly back to Erie as a joke (but realized it would waste our time and money), so we finally told her that yes. . . we were going to go on a plane. . somewhere.


Everyone saw our shirts and kept saying, "Vegas!??!" To which we replied, "we can't tell you! It's a surprise!" But after making Mase walk back and forth through the airport for a while, we finally let her discover her destination . . . . Orlando, Florida! (Here she is twittering, facebooking, buzzing, etc about it)!

The original plan was to go down for the opening of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, but . . . . Universal lied to us and said they were going to open in the Spring, and never ended up opening until June 18th!! (come on Universal . . that's freaking summer . . . school is out, it's 100 degrees outside)! So needless to say, we were KINDA bummed we wouldn't be able to go since we (Mase, KT, and I) are all big HP fans. So we had to settle for a billboard in the airport instead.


That night we made our way to our suite (we each got our own bed and we had 2 bathrooms), enjoyed the free wine/beer at the manager's reception at the hotel, decorated, went out to dinner, and made Mase sign the Bachelorette Oathe of Secrecy (you know . . what happens at the Bachelorette Party STAYS at the Bachelorette Party . . . and gets told to all of you guys).


So we were going to go to Disney 1 day, Universal 1 day, and the beach 1 day, but since the WWOHP didn't open yet, we went to Disney twice. And thank goodness for Mase's bff, Alicia, who lives in Orlando and works in downtown Disney, because she got us in for FREE for both days (park hopper!)! We could not have done this trip without her!


Here we are at Animal Kingdom on our first day! We rode the main rides (Safari, Everest, Dinosaur), saw some animals, then headed to Epcot.


We went to Mexico for a margarita, China for some Chinese lunch, Germany to walk around, Italy for some gelato, England for some beer, and Canada to relax. We rode in the big ball and headed back to hotel to get ready for the night. We ended up going to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner, but didn't start eating until like 10:30 or 11pm, never finished until after midnight, so we originally were going to go out, but decided to go back to the hotel to go to bed.


Next day was beach day!! Alicia rented a Chrysler Town & Country for us (it was awesome). We ended up going to Anna Maria Island (Manatee Beach). It was absolutely gorgeous.

















White sand. Crystal clear water. Sun. BFFs. (Can you tell which one of us lives in Florida and which ones live in Erie?!)

















At the beach house enjoying some drinks and dessert before we headed back to the hotel to get ready for the night! We needed to go out and celebrate at least one night!


Headed to Universal City Walk (on a Sunday night). Not very busy, but we still had a blast!


Went to the Red Coconut Club and they waived our cover charge (not sure if this was due to the fact it was Sunday or to the fact that we were 6 girls ready to party).


We danced and danced and some great quotes were said during this part of the trip. Here's a few for you.
"It's so bright in here, . . . yet I can't see a thing." - Bride-to-be
"I feel like somebody else. Am I somebody else?!" - Bride-to-be

"Stace. Take a picture of me between these two guys" - Nikkie
"Umm . . . . Nikkie. That one is a girl." - Me


"I'm sorry for making you go out and stay up late. Are you mad at me?" - Bride-to-be to me
"I hate you right now." - Me (not a fan of going out and staying up late . . I just love my sleep and routine, but I will admit. I had a lot of fun.)


Proof that we made it out to last call and to 2AM! I don't know if I have ever done that before? I know. I'm lame.


We were a little slow to wake up and get ready the next day, but headed to Hollywood Studios first, where we rode the Tower of Terror. Aerosmith rollarcoaster was broke. Kristen was in the Indiana Jones stunt show, and then Alicia had to go to work. (KT had to unfortunately go home earlier than expected for a funeral). We then headed to Magic Kingdom where we spent the rest of the day.


We got Mase & Nikkie to ride Thunder Mountain (and they loved it . . . they hate rollar coasters). Went on the haunted mansion ride, It's A Small World, Pirates of Caribbean, train ride, tea cups, and Buzz Lightyear. Watched tinker bell float down from the castle (my dream job), and the fireworks display, then headed home.

It was a great Bachelorette weekend! Can't wait for the wedding!

Germany : Day 11 : Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig!

Dan & Marissa dropped us off at the Frankfurt airport Monday morning, and after being delayed a bit, we finally boarded the plane to Newark.

Sad to have to go back to work soon . . . but we were excited to wear our new Germany jackets.

So fun story. . . our flight got in late to Newark and we had like 45 minutes to go back through customs, re-check our bags, go through security, and make it to the gate . . . . so we are all literally RUNNING to get there . . . . as the people at the airline say "you need to hurry!" . . . . so we FINALLY get to our gate and guess what?!!? The flippin flight was delayed!!!! Ugh!! Why didn't they tell us that when we were running through the entire airport?!?! (This was the customer service line for continental b/c apparently a lot of other people were having issues too).

So at first it was only delayed another hour, then another hour, then another hour, then they kept switching gates on us.

See how happy we were?!

Then we switched gates again, without them even having a departure time (I think this was the Continental customer service line . . . grew a LITTLE).

What?! The gate they told us to go to says Ithaca on it!

But alas, we finally boarded our plane to Pittsburgh (4 hours after we were supposed to leave). We were kinda excited to get back by 8pm Monday so we would have some time to relax before going to work the next day, but we didn't get back until after midnight.

At least we got home safe, right?! (That's what I'm supposed to say when the flights were delayed and crappy.)

But really, I do want to say how blessed we truly were with this trip. If you remember this and this and this, our flight was delayed because of a volcano erupting ash. We could only reschedule for the next week (out of the rest of the year), and wouldn't you know, the ash stopped! So then when we got back. That day when we landed in Newark, there were reports of more ash spewing, and flights started getting canceled again. We just made it. God was definitely watching out for us and wanted us to get over there to see Dan & Marissa!

It really was a great trip overall. It was so nice of Dan & Marissa to let us crash at their place for 11 days! And it was so awesome to experience so much with the entire family. Can't wait until our next trip! (Australia? Hawaii?)

Germany : Day 10 : Limburg

Today marked the last day in Germany before our flight home the next day. We were all getting pretty touristed out (although I'd like to blame this on the weather because besides the one day in Munich, it didn't rain at all. . . . but by the weekend the weather got cold and it got rainy), but we decided on heading to Limburg, Germany. This was a very cute Medieval town! Lots of half-timbered houses.

Thought these were so fun! Bakeries are very big over there (bread, streusel, scones, pastries).

Here is the Limburg Cathedral (Dom St George) which was originally built in the early 13th century. But more importantly, can you see what that dog is glaring at?!

Kitty!!! It was sticking it's tongue out at me! It was very friendly and let us all pet it.

And as we walked around the cathedral grounds, it followed us all around! It was so fun!

Then we ran into this other beauty! Boy do I love kitties (and all animals).

Then we headed to a local restaurant for some icecream! Here is Shane and I's spaghetti icecream! Yum!

So I was laughing and pointing in this picture because as Rita was taking the picture, the stroller was rolling down the hill!

Umm . . oh. my. gosh. We found another creperie! Not expecting this at all (Dan & Marissa said they are only at festivals). We were soooooooooo excited!

Annnnd even more excited that they had banana and nutella crepes!! One of the yummiest things ever.

So we were all standing around eating our crepes and I look over at Bry and just busted out laughing. I mean. . . no one else finds this funny?! Ah. . the things you do when you have kids.

After Limburg, we headed back to Wiesbaden and decided to check out a local park. We saw some ducks, some fishies, a casino, and a big pond with a water fountain, and then it started raining, so we ran back to the car.

For our last night there we went to dinner at the Beer Garden behind Dan & Marissa's apartment. We would've eaten outside (in fact, I think we started out there), but it was pouring and cold.

After dinner we went back to celebrate our last night with some strawberries and chocolate!

Only one day left of our Germany trip. . . . the loooooooong journey home.