Till We Meet Again

We had a very nice funeral for my Grandma. It's still hard to believe that she is really gone. I always thought she would be a permanent fixture in my life...she still is, but in a different way I guess.

It was a very emotional couple of days, but also really good too.
There was a formal viewing Sunday night at the mortuary. All of the granddaughters and great-granddaughters were given a chance to choose one of grandma's many handkerchiefs to keep. She had so many of them, I'm glad that Grace, Anna and I each get to have one.

It was nice to see so many cousins and family members that I haven't seen in a while. There was a huge turnout, which doesn't surprise me at all...my Grandma touched so many lives for good!

Monday morning was the funeral in Marriott. I was really nervous because I'd been asked to sing. I had practiced the song on my own, but hadn't had an accompanist until this morning and then that wasn't going so well and I was really worried...but then Carol Thomas became my hero and stepped in and played for me. She is simply amazing that she could do that. I wouldn't have been able to get through it without her. But, I did get through it and my prayers were answered and I didn't even lose control of my emotions. I just had to make sure and not look at my mom and dad, or any of my aunts and uncles, or my siblings for that matter. I'm so thankful that I had that opportunity to sing. I love my grandma so much and I'm glad that I could pay special tribute to her through song.

Anyway, after the services we had a luncheon and took a bunch of pictures. Sadly, I don't know if we will have that many family members together ever again. The guy from the mortuary mentioned that we set a record at the funeral for the number of rows they had to rope off for family.

We got some group shots of each of the different families, all of my grandma's children are still living, except one who passed away as a baby.
Our family group shot, I think we are only missing Shell's kids and Jan's husband, Dale.

My family. I love these people so much!

Yep...we are crazy, I think my grandma would smile, she loved our silliness!

That evening we spent some time at the hotel together.

Unfortunately Jan had several seizures, and that was really emotional for all of us. I hate that she has to go through so much! Mike and I went and had treats at The Cheesecake Factory with most of my siblings.

We had a great time and shared some much needed laughter. On the way back to the hotel, I got pulled over for having expired plates...ha ha! Oh boy, that was great since I was driving all my siblings in the Suburban. One more thing we have to take care of.

Anyway, the next day I went and got massages with my mom, my Aunt Georgia, Marcy and Shannon and Shell and Jan. I'm not usually one for massages, but I liked this one. I think we all needed them, especially Jan and my mom. Then we headed to the cemetery for the graveside service. It was short and very sweet. Had last chance to talk to family and take some more pictures and say a last farewell to grandma.

So, like I said, it was an emotional couple of days, but also a celebration of family, love and of one of the most amazing women I'll ever know. I'm so thankful for my knowledge of the gospel and that I know that families are forever.

I love this picture of my grandma with my kids.

She wasn't afraid to participate in a silly face picture :)

9-11 Ceremony

I attended the 9-11 memorial ceremony at the Elementary school.

I wasn't expecting to get as emotional as I did as they spoke and raised the flag.

Glad I wore my sunglasses.

Baltimore Grand Prix

On Friday August 31st we took a family outing to the Baltimore Grand Prix.

It was fun and loud too!

On our way back to our car we walked by this 9/11 memorial.

I didn't even know it was here. In my defense it has only been here since 2011 and I don't go to Baltimore very often.

I looked it up and according to Wikipedia, the memorial structure includes three 22-foot long steel beams from the New York World Trade Center, which were part of the 94th to 96th floors of the north tower. Twisted and fused together, the steel beams and damaged limestone pieces from the Pentagon’s west wall rest atop marble blocks bearing the names and birthdays of the 68 Marylanders who died in the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

NYC - Day 4

Day 4

Started off our day by heading back to FAO Schwarz.

Why?

Because Shell decided that her souvenir/thank you gift

to Dad would be a Muppet :)

(Dad watched Shell's kids so she could go on the trip,

and so that Mom could come too. My Dad is awesome!)

We did our best to get the Muppet to look like Dad,

and I think we did a pretty good job, the only problem

is that they were out of the right hair color.

 Now Dad can sing "Am I a man, or am I a Muppet?"

I think it would be fun to make one of these for Mike and I and the kids :)

Then we stopped by St. Patrick's Cathedral

then we dropped "Dad" off at the hotel.
We saw this car with eyelashes as we were walking :)

Then we headed to Little Italy.

We stopped for some delicious gelato.
I had mango...super yummy!

 Onto Chinatown

don't think I had seen dragon fruit before...
fruit ninja doesn't count :) 

I know I hadn't seen this fruit before, but Shell had.

It is rambutan, she bought a few and showed us how to open it.

I thought it was really good. Yay for trying new things!

 Next stop The Financial District
We took a little break from our walking in front of the New York Stock Exchange.

Me doing wall squats on wall street :)

Next we made our way to the September 11th Memorial

It was reverent and emotional there

 Someone had left this rose by a name,
heartbreaking to me...so many people died.

The Survivor Tree

This pear tree survived the attacks of that day

Shell's friend Jan took this picture from her hotel room,
I thought it was a great look at the entire memorial.

Two of the new buildings that are being constructed.

I'm pretty sure that the tallest one on the left was called the Freedom Tower, but is now called One World Trade Center.
I think I remember reading that there will be a total of 5 new buildings.

We were so glad that we were able to go into the memorial.
I would have hated to miss it!

After we left there, we headed over to dinner at Les Halles.

Shell's friend Jan met us there.
She stood in for our sister Jan who couldn't come on the trip.

me, Mom, Shell, Jan, Constance, Shannon and Marcy
*My thoughts on Las Halles*
very good food
reasonably priced
great service, though our waiter did try to lick the table at one point, ha ha!
...my only complaint was that it was too cold in there.