We arrived!

This is within the first 1/2 hr of arriving. 

 Working it out.

 The first day they had a battle, but now Hannah knows

 if she wants to use it she has to work it out with Louis.

(He cant ride any of the big bikes)

Grandpa had finished L's bath and combed his hair so we could share his mollasses cookies out back. 

Do I claim to know this man?!

 Or this kid? 

A stop at Uncle Ben's

A bathroom break at Ben's hanger before the last hour and a half of our trip.

A climbing rope!

This is more up our alley Louis. 

 Drew (his hands barely fit around the rope) made it pretty high, till Louis started yanking from below.

Road Trip

What would I do without your help Mom? 

Here she flew to MI just to drive 1,780 some miles back to Montana 

where she will share her home with 6 xtras for a month,

waiting till we can return and move into 5164 Sullivan Rd! 

A stop in Rapid City, South Dakota to view Mount Rushmore and stretch our legs. 

Sharing some cherries.

Racing.

Louis took it quite seriously.

Drew needed more competition.

The "Heads" and the State flags.

Ready to get back on the road.

Packing complete

What I can do is done. Pat nobly finished with all the big stuff (and little stuff!). By the time Saturday was over the garage was packed full. Mom flew in Friday and we left Saturday AM.

Just another day

Eating a Carrot

Louis calls this Theresa's "boat". It is supposed to hold her ...but of course since she's outgrown it she just climbs in and out.

 Not sure what happened to Louis' clothes!

Siblings

I love how you two play together Hannah and Louis. You have your bad times for sure, but really the good outweigh them. I hope you always remember these good times. 

 Their job was to bring the chairs back to the patio where they belonged. 

 Don't worry girls, I got it!

 Nothing like putting the young man to work.

 Well, sorry this is as far as I can get it.

Moving

Aaah, ever since we moved in this house, we knew we would not live here forever and anticipated the day when we would have a bit more land to call our own for the kids to enjoy and explore.
Now 10 yrs later and five kids in....I am not sure I want the change.
I have had a multitude of feelings. "This is what we've been looking for", "just trust." "But I love this house, it has become home, its close to school."
It does not help that it is summer, beautiful outside and enjoying the work that we have put into this house:
the deck, the kitchen, the garden, Mary's garden, the swing set (that is hopefully coming with us), the basement.
On the "trust" note, my inner heart says accept,yet motions and attachments are holding on not wanting change.
So, on to packing I have most the upper floor done, a good start on the basement and actually its kind of fun and the more I pack the more my attachment to this house is numbed.

Good St. Anne pray for us!

Grammie asked if she could take the kids on a pilgrimage to St. Anne De Beaupre's in Canada. 

I said I would like to go too and since Pat had a GM vehicle to use the week of June 5th 

we decided to just go....despite planning for our new move.

What a grace: as we arrived in the Church thinking we were just going to make a visit and look around a lady came up to us and volunteered to find us a priest for confession. 

Then, what started with a few questions of inquiry turned into a 2 1/2 hrs + tour.  I did not focus on the camera getting all the detail, but the Church is just amazingly beautiful and rich with it. 

This is the original church, which was moved to this new spot.

Here "Marie" (whose husband has the keys to the Church) took us right by St, Annes relic of her arm.

 The statue of St. Anne, similar to the famous, original one outside on top of Church, that is wood (now plated with gold) but the only thing that survived the 1920 fire. 

Marie said we had to feel the stained glass.

At the end she took us through the "secret passageway" up to back 

behind the altar and then into the sacristy.

St. Joseph's Oratory ~ Montreal

It has the third largest dome (for Christianity) close to the dome of St. Peter's in Rome.

Long Steps

The museum had numerous different creches from different nationalities and life size walk through of St. Joseph's/The Holy Families life

Babysitters

I love how the kids entertain Theresa. Whenever she keeps getting into something in the kitchen area they take her over to the "barnyard" area (corner by the piano) to remove her sometimes blocking her in with rocking chairs,  this was even better...maybe the corral would hold her.

Ascension Sunday

I love this simple tradition and so do the kids as we watched the "pop" (as Louis called it) 

ascend into heaven as the apostles watched Christ.