Divine Mercy in La Crosse

Last Saturday night we called up some family friends at 11pm at night (Mike was sure they were still awake!) and asked them if they wanted to accompany us to the Our Lady of Guadalupe Shrine in La Crosse, Wisconsin. They, in fact, did want to join us so we all piled in to our mini van at 7:30am the next morning for the 2 hour drive. 4 adults and 4 carseats! Saint Maria Faustina (whom we named our little girl after)received revelations into God's divine mercy and Pope John Paul II made the Sunday after Easter - Divine Mercy Sunday - a special day to renew ourselves in God's goodness and his mercy.

We had an excellent brunch at the Shrine, walked the mile up to the Church and went to mass, confession, and then said the Divine Mercy Chaplet. Last time we were here it was the summer of '09 while I was pregnant with Jude and my Mom was sick. We were headed out to Michigan and visited the shrine for the first time. Life is certainly very different a few short years later. It was fun to visit it again - perhaps we will make it a tradition on Divine Mercy Sunday.

The monks make delicious food at their cafe. Everything is made from fresh ingredients and full of flavor. It really is very good.


The priest at mass sounded like he just got off a plane from Russia. Thick accent, almost hard to understand.He gave a stellar homily.


Here is our Faustina by the picture of Saint Faustina and a first class relic of Saint Faustina. The art work in the Church is breath taking.





Faustina and Belle in front of a bronze statue of Our Lady appearing to Juan Diego.




They have a beautiful 'rosary walk'. They have pictures of each mystery in blue and white tile on a wall.

Up north - in North Dakota

On Friday we headed up to North Dakota to visit my 91 year old Grandmother. First, we went to the Saunders' farm in Cayuga, ND. This is the farm that my Grandpa Chic bought and built a house on and then my Mom's brother Mark and his wife, Mary, bought it from them. It is the house that my Mom grew up in and I have many many memories of going there for family gatherings and spending lots of time with all my girl cousins when I was growing up.

As you can see - Jude was in tractor heaven. He really was obsessed. He couldn't stop talking about them, wanting to play on them, and giving us 'thumbs-up' while being around them.

I think, maybe, Jude was suppose to be born on a farm.

Mark took him on a motorcycle ride which Jude thoroughly enjoyed. He looks like a natural.

Mark told us that this calf was only 3 hours old. He has about 20 cows on the farm now. Many of them are currently pregnant.

Faustina quickly became very attached to Aunt Mary. Aunt Mary knows how to talk to little girls and she knows what they like! When Mary asked Faustina if she wanted to walk up to the playground, Faustina informed me that she was going alone with Mary and I could not come along. She wanted to talk to Mary alone.

When the sun went down, Uncle Mark made a huge bonfire for everyone to watch. The kids were a little freaked out when it blazed up, but they soon got over it.


Jude was so tired. It was pretty funny to watch the expressions on his face as he sat there alone. He kept getting up and moving his chair away from everyone. It looked like he should have had a 6 pack sitting next to him.

Jude was up early and Mary told me the only thing that would come out of his mouth as she fed him cereal was 'tractor and truck' probably hundreds of times. So Mark and Mary took him out in his pajamas to check things out again.



Faustina would not be left behind.


We had a great time with Great Grandma Saunders. She is as spunky as ever and was excited to see Mike and I, but especially her 'greats' (great grandchildren) as she calls them. She was quite proud to show them off to all the people she lived with. I don't think our three kids have ever received as must attention as when we went to Riverview this weekend! We had a lovely time chatting with Grandma, going swimming in her pool, eating meals with her, seeing her apartment, going to the St. Patty's day dance, and going to Mass in the morning with her. We had brunch with her friend 'Big Al' who is just about the nicest guy you'll ever meet. He has 13 children; Grandma calls him her 'prayer buddy'. Big Al has 2 sons who are priests and his oldest daughter is a Sister. Grandma seems to know just about everyone who lives in Riverview and she seems very happy.

I was mad at myself because I forgot the camera recharger. We didn't realize this until the battery was on empty, so we only were able to capture a few pictures with Grandma Saunders.
Here we are in Grandma's apartment filled with pictures and memories.

Here Grandma, Debbie, Cecelia Flood (my cousin's daughter) and Faustina are dancing up a storm. Debbie stopped by to say 'hi'; since Dorothy just had a little boy (Simon!) last week, Debbie was helping out by taking Cecelia for a bit. Grandma has still got her groove on. She was on the dance floor almost the whole time! She has always loved dancing so much.

Overall, it was a very fun weekend. One highlight for me was simply being with my Mom's family - people she looks like and sometimes could sound like, people who knew her well and appreciate talking about her, remembering her and honoring her. Seeing the farm, and spending time with relatives certainly gives a bigger picture of the family tree - where people came from and who people are now. We visited the Saunders about a year ago in February and I was shocked at all the memories I had of Cayuga, Grandma and Grandpa, the farm and all the relatives - all the memories flooded back. It is strange how that seems to be happening more and more as the years go on. I kind of like that.

Back to the mountains

As fall time seems upon us and school is starting up, it is fun to look back on our trip pictures. I am fully confident there will be a season in our lives when Faustina and Jude will embrace hiking (as I speak he is roaring like a lion and watching David & Goliath, certainly a boy's boy!), but now is not that time for going on mile and mile long hikes like the good ol' days. We walked maybe half a mile around Jenny Lake in the Tetons and then sat down to enjoying throw rocks and wade in the water - quite a bit more relaxing than a hike.



Here we are at Glacier National Park. It is GORGEOUS.




Anyone who has been to Glacier is familiar with the Going-to-the-sun road. It is the main road that goes right over the mountains. At first Mike and I were wondering what kind of name that was, but we soon figured it out and it really really does feel like you are 'going to the sun'! You keep driving up up up up up and up. You end up being even with the mountain peaks at about 10,000 feet. It is truly magnificent. With this drive, I didn't need miss the back country hiking as much.





Here we are at Logan's Pass. There is a visitor's center at the peaks of the Going-to-the-Sun-Road. We got out and it was very cold, windy and full of snow! The scenery was breathtaking; the pictures, of course, do not do justice. We saw three goats and a big horned sheep which was really cool.

Faustina was not so much a fan of the wind!




Mike is in the middle of this picture!

Here we are on the other side of the Going-to-the-Sun-Road. It takes a few hours to drive on (!) and afterwards, I was ready to do it again - it was that beautiful. :)

All American road trip

We're back! Yes, we were on the road for the past 2 weeks and here we are back at our abode. We had an excellent time camping, seeing the sights, and hanging out with the Lee family. We hit up the Black Hills, Tetons National Park and Glacier National Park. The weather was good, a bit hot at times, but nothing to complain about.

Every day proved to be a fun little adventure as we decided where we wanted to go, what we wanted to do, and what/how we wanted to eat. We were free to do whatever we wanted and have fun without much care! Faustina is still only three, but she, actually, to me seems like quite the little grown up and it is fun to see her experiencing all the new sights. At the beginning of the trip, Jude was only saying a few words, now he is starting to break out into sentences (although the following video mainly debuts his favorites words!).

At this point we were in Jamestown, ND. Actually, my uncle lives here, but we didn't want to barge in on them and I thought I remembered he said he would be out of town when we saw him at the reunion. We stopped at the St. James Cathedral in Jamestown which was beautiful and then ate across at the Knights of Columbus Bar which was awesome. This place was the classic hangout that every small town needs.

Here are a few videos of our giddy long trek back on Monday. And yes, we were at a point of silliness when you laugh at anything and everything; we starting taking videos to entertain ourselves. We probably heard Jude say the word 'truck' and 'ball' 4,523,423,457,345 times on the trip. Those are his favorite things right now. In this video, you hear 'another one' 100 times referring to trucks on the road.

New (used) Vehicle!

Here it is. At last! Yesterday we purchased a 2007 Honda Odyssey. You must admit it is appropriate that we own an 'Odyssey' since we are both classicists.

Mike did his homework and his research showed that the Odysseys are terrific minivans. Over the past month, We have looked at a lot of different vans and made several offers. We found this grey one on Craig's List and jumped on it. We went to see it the next day and the owners said they had already had 12 responses to their ad; I'm telling you, these vans are hot commodities.

I must admit, I am still a bit attached to our truck that we sold - but this Honda rides just as nice and is equally as comfortable. It has lots of room - I think it is time to go for a roadtrip! :) I'm excited that it has a remote control starter - what more could you ask for with cold MN winters? Click a button from inside your house and then run out to a warm car.

Last year at this time, we sold and bought a car within a few days of Faustina's birth. The same pattern is happening around this baby....but this little person needs to stay in me for a few more weeks! We're not planning on doing car deals every time we have a baby - we anticipate having this one for a loooonnnnng time.

Churches around the midwest

During out roadtrip through Michigan, we took to stopping and checking out the churches in the small towns. It is fascinating to see all the different architecture and art. Whenever we were in a small town we had eagle eyes out for a cross or Catholic churches. I'm confident this hobby will continue as we go on more roadtrips. I told Mike he could write a book about churches throughout the U.S. (and he is a talented writer so he really could if he wanted to)! We also stopped at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Guadelupe in La Crosse WI. This Shrine was quite impressive and we would be excited to go there again. They have a mini little pilgrimage/walk up to the main church with smaller statues and dedications along the way. We also stopped in Indian River, MI where the world's largest crucifix is. And it WAS quite big; the cross for the wood came from a redwood trees in California. There is much history, culture, beauty to be discovered in these churches and shrines.

Michigan Trip

It is hard to believe our trip has already come and gone and the first week of July is gone! We had a terrific 8 day road trip out to Michigan - I wouldn't change anything about it. We came back a bit early since the weather was not cooperating 100%. I, however, must be in a 'nesting mode' since I was perfectly fine with coming home a few days earlier. Our first adventure with Faustina proved to be both relaxing and fun. Faustina was wonderful and she seems to already have a great love of the outdoors! ;) Here are a few of our highlights:


Seeing Grandma Mary. We stayed 3 nights at her home in Allen Park. She made her famous mostacolli and meatballs, had many stories to share, and Faustina met her great grandmother for the first time!


Spending a day at the Serge household. We were able to spend time with Uncle Bob, Aunt Loretta and Molly. Molly showed us her college campus and we had a relaxing day hanging out with family.

Visiting cute small towns and walking around. We spent time in Charlevoix, Traverse City, Petoskey, Mackinaw City and other places. Seeing these cities was especially fun since Mike and I did the Michigander Bike trip in 2006 and saw these towns for the first time on our 350 mile tour. We kept remembering our previous trip and all the things we had done and seen.

Here in Frankenmuth we had an authentic German 8 course dinner. Num!


Charlevoix



Here in Mackinaw City we actually stayed in a nice hotel for the night since all our camping gear was soaked from the previous nights' downpour. We discovered fudge is a main attraction here and we did not hold back!





And of course all the camping fun of sleeping in tents, campfires, camp food and enjoying the outdoors.