Czech students and Creation Fest 2010

Students from the Czech Republic came to PA, hung out with our youthgroup and stayed in our houses. We had Katka and Iveta in our house, Katka spoke pretty good english and we had a lot of fun hanging out. They all went to Creation Fest and thought it was absolutely burning hot there (since the Czech Republic is pretty far north in Europe and doesn't get quite this hot). I took them up to the lookout on top off the 'mountain' and I showed them how to jump around at the concerts, they weren't exactly sure what to do hehe.



From the lookout, that's only one section of the camp sites, we were in a totally different part which was just as large. There are usually about 60,000 people there and sometimes pikes to 100,000 for the saturday night show

The main stage with Mr. Sullivan off to the left heheh



Elysa gave me a tatoo of a cross and rose which says "mi jardinero"

They spray painted everyone's hair, even their beards

heheh roarr

We had a praise service for them and they shared a big presentation about their country and town, this is with my step sister Elysa who is one of the youth leaders and my mom and stepdad

Katka and Iveta at Christina Loscalzos' and we spontaneously created a dance routine because some of the girls are on really good dance teams back in their country

Adela and Katka, these girls are sooo funny

Aunt Carol's surprise 60th birthday party

Dad and I drove out to Ohio to surprise Carol for her 60th birthday party, she sorta caught on that people were going to have a special event for her birthday but she had no clue that Dad and I would be there. The drive went by really fast as we conversed and laughed the whole way (a good 6-7 hours)and then suddenly we were there. It was nice to see my extended family after a while of not seeing them.


Aunt Carol with Lizzy and Rae Rae laughing at the ridiculous card Aunt Marcia bought her


Jen with Grandma


Lizzy, Rae rae me and Gwenny, Gwen is always attached to my leg hehe


A and Matt

Carrie and Gwenny, hehe I love her smile

Dad giving Carrie a back massage

hehehe

We were all acting silly

Rae rae

Baseball with the Astronauts

All of the staff at the Goddard Space Center that worked on the Hubble Service Mission were invited to an Oriols game with the astronauts so Ken invited me and I invited my dear old buddy Timmy to come. Ken showed Tim around the space center and we toured the Goddard facilities and saw the clean rooms. We met Mike Massimino first in the center and Michael Good (nicknamed Bueno) came shortly after. The others didn't make it until way later because of a flight delay from Dallas and missed most of the game. If I had met them about 10 years ago, I probably would have considered pursuing being an astronaut further because at one point in time I really wanted to be an astronaut. I was really struck by how physically fit they were and how bright and friendly as well. I was honestly impressed at how they were not cocky or "too cool" to be meeting us. I got all of them to sign a baseball that I have in a case on my shelf :)


Timmy as an astronaut


This is a picture of them taken in space, notice Megan's hair floating hehe

Ken showed us the Goddard Space Center and this is a huge amplifier in a room which tests the instruments and equipment to see if they can endure the sound of the takeoff

This is Mike Massimino, he was super friendly and one of my favorites

Although.. Megan was baisedly my favorite, being the only woman on the team. She was the one to capture the Hubble with a mechanical arm, I told her that it takes the finess of a woman to be able to do so.

This is John Grunsfeld, captain of the team, he considers the Hubble his baby.

Sailing the Annapolis Harbor, May 30 09

Ken's boss at the Goddard Space Center, Joe, has a nice sailboat on the Annapolis Harbor and he invited us to come with him for the weekend. I was able to invite my longtime buddy Matt since sailing is just about his favorite thing to do. It was the first time that I had actually gone sailing before, we slept on the boat and ate on it, we didn't raelly go swimming though (the water looked a little iffy). It was a very peaceful trip and Matt and I did a lot of catching up.


The weather was basically perfect.. the one day there was basically no wind however


Beautiful sunset just after dinner


"helping," I'm really not very strong anymore and Joe had to intervene hehe


Matt enjoying the sea

Mom and Ken

The wind was strong so Joe angled the boat to catch the most wind, the boat was heavily tilted

The houses bordering the bay

Me and Matt after docking

Beth's Wedding May 23 2009

My really close friend Beth asked me if I would be her maid of honor in her wedding and naturally I said YESSS without hesitation. I planned her bachelorette party that ended up just being me and her. The game was to pull an envelope out of a stack of envelopes that said what her or her friends would have to do. We had a good timerunning about in the mall, as you'll see in the pictures. That night, however, while setting up the tables we discovered that the yellow table clothes that the wedding planner ordered turned out to be safety yellow, the kind that construction workers wear... needless to say, Beth was pissed. She went out with her fiance Scott to cool off and when she got back we had prepared a spontaneous spa session for her in the cabin we were staying in. We soaked her feet in hot water and Kat (her musically talented friend) played quiet guitar music in the background. I gave her a foot massage and back massage and then we went to bed. The next day we went to get our hair done (paid for by the wedding planner that messed up on the tables clothes) and afterward we got everything else ready. The wedding was absolutely gorgeous and after the reception, Kat and I went to Pittsburgh to the incline and the Cheesecake Factory, it was a beautiful day all around :)





Beth having fun at her bachelorette party




More fun memories from the mall that night



Beth looked so gorgeous for her wedding

She let me pick out whatever dress I wanted

Beth with Scott looking over her dad's shoulder. Her dad was crying through the whole ceremony..he made me cry even

They had these girls sign during the ceremony, it was really adorable

Walking for the first time as husband and wife

Cake! She didn't hit him in the face

The wedding started at 11 and they left by 2:30 or 3... I think they wanted to be on their honeymoon already

Kat sang at her wedding, then we took some extra pictures afterward

Visiting Grandpa

Since I was in the area and didn't know when I would be able to see grandpa again, I decided to stay in Florida a few extra days and head over to Naples to grandpa's house. Despite a bit of resistance on Peggy's part, I arrived at grandpa's on tuesday. On the bus I met a young chap from England who worked as an architect in Valencia, Spain and had just traveled litearlly all over the world, spending time in Asia, Africa, South America and finishing out his trip in Florida heading north to New York. He had been traveling for over 6 months and only ran into trouble with theft in anywhere but Lima, Peru of course.. everyone get's stuff stolen from them in Lima.. Unfortunately I lost his name and he never friended me on facebook, it would've been cool to meet up with him in Europe sometimes.

Grandpa and his assistant, Debbie, picked me up and we headed to Spanky's restaurant for lunch. I think that Grandpa was really happy to see me because he was acting really silly, he had lamb chops for lunch and as he was eating he said he felt bad for the little baby lambs that he was eating and then began baaaing in the middle of the restaurant. It cut me off guard because I had never really heard him say something so spontaneous and silly before and I laughed hysterically. Peggy put up with me visiting but it clearly was not what she would've preferred. Either way, Grandpa and I spent the next several days eating out and lounging about on the lanai, we both took plenty of naps. My favorite part of the trip was a chess game we played with his fancy chess set, he was pretty sharp for the most part but forgot what some of the pieces did, trying to have pawns move in all directions like a queen and so forth. Eventually I moved into a position so that he would be able to 'beat me' but he didn't win for real of course. We called Lauren in Germany for her birthday and since we couldn't get a hold of her, we sent her a video saying happy birthday that we recorded with my webcam.

This would be the last time I would see him and I would be the last one in the family to see him while he was still doing well.

God bless you Grandpa, may you rest in peace

Shuttle Launch, May 11 09

My stepfather, Ken, has been working on the service mission to the Hubble Space Telescope in Washington DC for the past three years and so those of us who were home and available to go got to see it launch in person. My Spanish professor, however, did not want to allow this to occure. I asked her over and over and over again if she would reconsider allowing me to take the Spanish final the day earlier so that I would be able to go to Florida. She told me that vice president Ken Carson always sends out an email telling teachers not to let students change the times of the finals and so, naturally, I was having dinner at Ken Carson's house that very night and as he was doing the dishes I took the opportunity to ask his opinion on the situation. He told me that he had no problem letting me go, if my professor did she could just send him an email hehehe. So I told her and she was slightly taken back but allowed me to take it early. Mom, Ken, Kate and Elysa all were able to go and we watched the launch, spent time on the beach and did a little shopping at the surf shops. It was a nice, relaxing way to finish off my semester :)


Waiting for the launch we watched for wildlife


and we were not disappointed with what we saw. This dolphin was playing around right in front of us


These manatee were lounging around and spinning in circles. Elysa and Kate found it particularly amusing hehe

Just waiting a little longer for the launch.

There it goes! It was sooo bright and the sound took a long time to get to us, it was really cool

It was quite a sight

At the beginning of that tiny trail of smoke are 7 astronauts, all of which I met later on in the summer