June Happenings......

June. The month of graduations and birthdays. Fun stuff. June started off with Logan's graduation from Preschool. He want to the Bravo Arts Academy in Washington Terrace. It was a really great school and it really helped bring Logan out of his shell. 

As part of the curriculum, they learned notes and simple songs on the piano. Logan played Hot Cross Buns. This was a really proud parenting moment for me. Logan got up in front of 30 or 40 parents and played his song. He's so shy I really thought he would be too intimidated but he did it!! Yay!  

This is what he would do whenever he noticed I was taking his picture. 

At the end of the program they all got a little medal, a book showing their progress and a graduation certificate. 

Again with the face. 

A random pic of Izzy. She generally gets food all over. I think it's funny. 

My sis-in-law Kristin, graduated from High School this year. Luke and I started dating when she was like 6 or 7.... it makes me feel old. :)

Kristin, or Kiki as we call her, and her boyfriend Tanner. Logan adores Tanner. He's always willing to play with Logan. It's nice because he has just about as much energy as Logan does so he can keep up with him. :)

The in-laws. 

Next up is Logan's birthday. As I mentioned before, he's shy and he really hates being the center of attention. In the past we've always had his b-day parties with both sides of the family. He generally does well until he gets to the opening presents part. He gets really uncomfortable with everyone's attention on him and then he refuses to open presents and gets all ornery. Oh, he also hates to blow out the candles and have Happy Birthday sung to him. 

Anyway, because of that we decided to do a party with each family separately. It worked out quite a bit better. He didn't get all weird and run away and he seemed to enjoy the parties. Of course, this was quite a bit more work for me. Two separate parties means two separate dinners and two separate cakes. Logan wanted a Mario cake and a Superhero cake but I talked him into Superhero cupcakes instead. It was quite the production making a cake and cupcakes and organizing a BBQ but I think I did a pretty good job!

Celebrating opening Super Mario Galaxy 2. He's obsessed with all things Mario these days. 

Whenever anyone would ask him what he wanted for his birthday all he would say is "a Captain America shield."

The Super Mario cake I made for him. I searched SEVEN stores to find those Mario figures on the top. The things we do for our children! 

Teri and Izzy

The Super Hero cupcakes. I made those Super Hero emblems on the top of them. A few are a little wonky but Logan was super excited about them. For the uninitiated... there are Captain America, the X-men, Spiderman, and the Flash emblems. 

This is the only picture we could manage of all three grandkids together. Awesome isn't it?? :D

Logan and grandma Karen.

On a completely different subject... those of you who know about photography and cameras, my camera seems to be photographing on the dark side... even in fairly bright light. Does anyone know why this is happening and how I can fix it? Is it something I'm doing? 

Paris....

Recently, Luke got sent to Germany for work. Being the lover of travel that I am, I invited myself along! We stopped in Paris the first two days and then made our way via high speed train to Stuttgart, Germany.

We had an amazing time! Paris was surreal. We've all seen everything Paris has to offer in pictures or in the movies so it was crazy and amazing to actually see everything in real life! 

We had quite a few adventures, starting with the lugging of our suitcases through the crowded Paris subway system. Not fun. Parisians don't move aside... even when it's obvious you're lugging around a 

50 lb bag. Eventually we just had to start using the suitcases as weapons. :) Also, it's at least 7000 degrees in the trains. So yeah, not off to a super fun start but I promise it gets better! 

After we get there Luke and I go for a walk looking for an ATM and a place to eat. Oh, here's a little tip if any of you decide to go to Europe. American credit cards don't work everywhere. Europe uses a different type of card with a microchip embedded and you must enter a pin for purchases. Hence some of the automated machines like the train ticket machine and some restaurants and vendors can't read the mag strip on American cards. Anyway, back to the story. We've only been walking around for about 10 minutes and I'm gawking about at all the sights when BAM, I step on dog poop at just the right angle, slip, and seriously almost fall on my butt. I totally would have fallen if Luke hadn't been there. It was hilarious and disgusting. 

We were there for less than two days so here are some of the sights we saw. I hope to go back one day and see the rest!! 

*** Be prepared... I've only posted a fraction of the pictures I took but there's still quite a few! ***

 This is a movie poster for "The Hangover". I thought it was funny.

Notre Dame. Seriously one of the most amazing things I've seen in my life. It was so beautiful and the architecture and carvings are amazing. 

It was super dim inside and tripods were not allowed so I couldn't really get good pics but you get the idea. This is looking from the back of the cathedral towards the alter (?). I'm not sure it's called the alter... it's where the priest stands for services. It's still a functioning cathedral, they hold mass, there are priests for confessions, and there are candles you can light. The giant poster you see at the end there is of Pope John Paul II. 

I can't say enough about how much I loved this place. I was blown away.... it was so beautiful.

Gorgeous stained glass throughout. 

One of the famous rose windows.

This is one of the portals on the west side (in the picture of the outside above, it's the middle one.) It depicts the Last Judgement. Right above the doors in the rectangular area are the dead coming out of their tombs for judgement. Above that in the middle are the archangel Michael and Satan. Michael is weighing the souls and the worthy go to the left to heaven and the unworthy go to the right with the devil. 

Above that in the triangular area is Christ sitting on his throne with angels at his sides and the carvings all around are of the Heavenly Court. 

The larger statues at the bottom are of the twelve apostles. 

A close up of the Heavenly Court. 

We also went to the Louvre. It's a massive museum so we didn't go in to see the exhibits since we only had two days in Paris.... it would have taken far to long. Every building you can see in the picture above is part of the museum and that's not even all of it. It's giant.

The famous glass pyramid that is the Main Entrance to the museum. We went inside and let me tell you.... it's pretty to look at but it acts as a giant greenhouse trapping in heat. I started sweating the instant I walked in there. 

Later in the evening we went down to the Arc de Triomphe. I was a little iffy about why we were going to see a giant arch in the middle of a round-about but when we got there it was pretty cool. It's so huge! Also, the traffic around it is captivating. Paris drivers are crazy and fearless. You couldn't pay me enough to drive anywhere in Paris. Around the Arc is this giant, multiple lane round-about that Luke and I studied for several minutes and could not make any sense of. People were darting in and out and at one point a man with a child on a bicycle drove right through the middle of it all. Crazy.

The Arc is at the top of the Champs-Elysees. So we took a gander down that street. At one point we stopped to watch some street performers. As we were turning to leave, we saw Sam Donaldson... the news anchor. It was super weird! 

Our hotel was right by the Eiffel Tower so the last night we were there we went for a walk around it. Oh, and got the most delicious crepe I have ever eaten. Seriously, if we had bought one at the start of the trip instead of at the end I would have been eating one hourly. It was that good. 

**Pardon the blurriness. I didn't have my tripod**

These next pictures somehow made it to the bottom of my post. These are from the first day were were there. We went up to the top of the Eiffel Tower that day.

Arc de Triomphe from the top of the Eiffel.

The windows in our hotel room opened up WIDE! 

And, of course, the bidet. Which I never did use.... I think it would feel weird. 

Stuttgart.....

Schwip-Schwap- an odd orange/cola drink. I prefer Coke. ;)

OK- I can't get my words to go above the first pic so here will have to do. On to Germany. I LOVED Germany. It surprised me how much I liked it. When I pictured Germany I pictured it all gray and industrial looking. Not so. It was very green and foresty. It was also very clean. And the German people were much, much friendlier than the French.

Stiftskirche (the Collegiate Church). This was an old church right in the middle of the modern main shopping area in Stuttgart. 

I have this weird interest. I love old cemeteries.  I like to walk around and look at the interesting grave stones and wonder about the lives of the people buried there. I find them to be very peaceful. So one day I ventured out on my own to find this cemetery called Pragfriedhof. Above is the crematorium. 

I thought this one was super interesting. It has a door with a lock on it. It really made me wonder what was inside. 

See how peaceful?? 

Near the end of our trip we went to Heidelberg. One of the men Luke was working with lives there and said there was a great old castle we should see. His co-worker (Joe) and his wife took us up to the castle and then we went to dinner with them afterward. Which I must say was much easier because we had someone who spoke German to help us decipher the menu! :)

Heidelberg Castle. I hauled my butt up 314 stairs to reach this baby and it was totally worth it! 

Looking down the street of the Altstadt (Old Town). Charming isn't it?? 

Looking down on Heidelberg form the castle.

Heidelberg Bridge. It's the original bridge used by the castle inhabitants. It was erected in 1786-88. I think part of it was damaged in the war and rebuilt. 

Part of the turret (is that the correct term?) collapsed leaving a view inside. 

The castle all lit up at night.