Ritz Family Happenings: May - Mother's Day, End of School + 2 Graduations

May started out with Mother's day, which was a nice relaxing day. I went for a run, had some sauna time(they had some yummy treats), and relaxed for the rest of the day.

We've also had a lot of rain in May...not my favorite.

School is out for summer. We had amazing parents and class this year. It was so hard to say goodbye to everyone. The parents were so kind and generous. As part of our end of the year gift they made a little video of our sweet little friends saying thank you. It was the cutest, sweetest little video, and I'll treasure it forever💗

I missed our last day of preschool, because we flew out to attend Cody's medical school graduation in Philadelphia Pennsylvania. Cody did an extra year at Drexel to obtain a Masters in Public Health. During his 5 years in medical school he's had many volunteer and service opportunities. He's traveled to Africa and India for Health/Medical exchange programs, and graduated with honors. We are so proud of his hard work and well deserved title of Dr. Ritz🥳

Poor Kaitlyn was still jet legged from her trip to Japan(they got back 3 days earlier), and she was sick with a head cold.

Also, I know I'm late to the party of packing cubes, but I'm in love with them. They make packing(and unpacking) so much easier.

The first night we got there Cody took us to a really good Jewish deli for dinner. I didn't get any pictures other than this one after we left, because I was so tired and hungry from the long day of travel😅

The next morning was graduation. It was only a 5 min. walk from our hotel, so we walked over and found some seats where we could get some good pictures.

I found Cody....

We got a few photos after the ceremony, but then it started to rain. It was a thunderstorm that wasn't supposed to last long, so we thought we'd wait it out. We had two umbrellas and Casey had a hood on his jacket(that he didn't deploy) when we thought we'd make a run for it. Needless to say, we all got wet, Casey being the wettest of us all😅 We quickly changed into dry clothes and went to lunch.

The next morning we decided we were going to go out and get some more graduation photos. Apparently there are some $$$ shots that everyone gets, so we were on a mission😄📸

Some of his clothes were still a bit damp😅

People on the street would say congratulations and cars would honk/wave as we were taking the pictures. That's how they communicate in Philly...by honking. Good or bad they just honk😅

We spent the rest of the day sightseeing around the city. Cody took us to the city market where we got Philly cheesesteaks, donuts, and pretzels. There are so many food booths, it's hard to focus on all the things. It was crowded, noisy and smelled amazing😍

On the way over to the market we walked through the city hall area that had a camera viewing portal set up where we could see people in different countries/areas of the world and they could see us. It showed a picture of the flag of the country we were viewing. While we were there it went to France, Spain, and Belgium. People were waving back and forth. It was really cool.

We walked through LOVE park where if you stay too long you end up being the official photographer for everyone(Kaitlyn took 5 photos for people)😂

There are a lot of painted murals in Philly. So beautiful!

We headed over to the Art Museum/Rocky steps. I grew up watching the Rocky movies and waited in line for an hour to get into Rocky 3, so running up the steps has always been a bucket list item for me. It took 3 tries to get the video. It's cheesy, but that's ok. I did it!

Kaitlyn was in her realm(art history graduate). She loved it. It's nice to walk through with someone who knows a lot about what you are seeing. Philadelphia is a reputable art museum. She was impressed with all of their art. They also had a lot of architectural art as well as tapestries.

Casey said he could be an artist after seeing these two pieces(below). Kaitlyn just rolled her eyes.

We walked around the museum for about two hours, and by that time had walked 4 miles all over the city. Casey and I were tired. We ended the day with a nice Italian dinner at this cute Italian restaurant Cody had been to. Honestly, all the food in Philly was amazing😋

It was a busy and fun few days in Philly celebrating our graduate! Casey and I were exhausted. Kaitlyn and Cody were equally exhausted(both were sick and jet lagged), but it was fun spending time together where Cody spent the last 5 years going to school and enjoying the city💗

We ended the month with Seth's high school graduation. Casey and I went up Friday for the graduation ceremony. We went to dinner and then headed to the stadium around 5:30 to get a seat before it started at 7:00. Good thing we did, because it filled up fast!

Yay Seth!! Congratulations!! So excited for you!! It's the beginning of a great new adventure!!

Saturday was the Graduation Party for Seth. Kaitlyn, Alex and Ryan came up for the day. The party was on private property that Janelle's dad helps do work on. Seth has also been helping do work there as well. It is a beautiful area overlooking the blue ridge mountains.

Seth and Josh caught a fish...