It’s another photo mash-up today as I link up with Like Mother, Like Daughter for {pretty, happy, funny, real} and with Cari for Theme Thursday: Shadow . (Check out {real} for that one. :-))

The fog finally stayed out over  the ocean and we were rewarded with a gorgeous, sunny day. The kids were enjoying the simple pleasure of bubble blowing. 🙂

{pretty}

I love snapping photos as the bubbles are being blown. This one with Bella is my FAVORITE! (No filters used.)

One bubble blew away and the second popped.

I think the background greenery is pretty too. 🙂

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Happy smiles.

Matthew is John-Paul’s shadow. JP’s goofiness is rewarded with endless giggles.

Bella’s happy “me time” is riding on her scooter with some tunes.

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Brian is trying to show Matthew how to blow a bubble.

The only thing Matthew manages to blow are raspberries.

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A shadow of Andrew catching a bubble on his bubble wand.

Shadows of Andrew with John-Paul swinging his bubble wand like a tennis racket trying to pop the bubbles.

It was a fun day. 🙂 Thanks to Cari and LMLD for hosting!

PS – You can follow RoL on Bloglovin, Feedly or another news feed. If you are a social media fan like me, we can stay in touch through Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, GoodReads or Instagram. 😉

It’s another photo mash-up today as I link up with Like Mother, Like Daughter with {pretty, happy, funny, real} and with Cari for Theme Thursday: Faith . (Check out {pretty} for that one. :-))

{pretty}

On November 24, 2013, it will be the 300th anniversary of Junipero Serra’s birth. That’s why lately I have been thinking about the incredible faith of Fr. Serra. When he started his daunting task to found the missions in California, he was older and in poor health. He had a bad leg, and other ailments, yet he managed to walk hundreds of miles at a time and traveled over 24,000 miles in his lifetime. He established 9 of the 21 missions and worked tirelessly to fulfill his vocation and calling in life. I am sure there were moments when he was ready to give up or collapse but his motto was to never look back and always move forward. I need more of that kind of faith in my life!

The altar of the Carmel Mission. In the bottom left hand corner you can see his icon and where Fr. Serra is buried.

The Junipero Serra Prayer Garden outside the Mission.

An interesting fact from the Cornerstone Newsletter I just received in the mail today: “This Basilica is one of the only three mission churches built of stone. The others are build with adobe brick. When restoring the Basilica walls, small sections were not plastered over in order to provide ‘windows’ to display the Basilica’s previously hidden and wonderful stone work. Each wall tells a different story of over two centuries of construction and repair.” See, you learn something new every day. 🙂

Close-up of the mosaic of the Holy Family in the garden.

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Today I was soooo happy that we had a few hours of blue skies and temps in the high 60’s because over the weekend the fog was getting oppressive.

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The boys pulled out their old Halloween costumes and were having a super hero weekend. (I like how Spidey is making sure Thor doesn’t run away. ;-))

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This weekend is the Concours d’Elegance at Pebble Beach, which means there are some amazing cars driving around the Peninsula. There was a charity fundraiser at the Mission and a Blessing of the Automobiles that “combined the passion of fine automobiles with the faith.” We didn’t attend but when we went to evening Mass for the feast of the Assumption I snapped these photos before Brian started yelling at me to get into the church. (Well, he doesn’t really yell. His look and head shake speaks volumes though. But he knows me well enough to know you can’t stop the mamarazzi in me. ;-))

Thanks to LMLD and Cari for hosting. 🙂

PS – You can follow RoL on Bloglovin, Feedly or another news feed. If you are a social media fan like me, we can stay in touch through Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, GoodReads or Instagram. 😉

It’s another photo mash-up today as I link up with Like Mother, Like Daughter with {pretty, happy, funny, real} and with Cari for Theme Thursday: Statues . (Check out {pretty} for that one. :-))

{pretty}

The altar at the Carmel Mission has numerous statues, all which have been recently cleaned and restored.

A sweet friend gave me this statue when I was pregnant with John-Paul. Since then I have kept it on our home altar as a reminder to keep in prayer all the pregnant mamas out there (and for the spiritual mamas who nurture God’s children.)

{happy}

I love how kids can find the simplest things to keep them amused. Here Andrew is proudly sporting his mustache.

John-Paul started off happy but then he got upset that his ‘stache wouldn’t stay on his face. 😉

{funny}

John-Paul is definitely a chip of the old block. Like his father, he always has a book in his hands. The other day I told him he had to go outside and get some fresh air. I thought he’d ride bikes with his brothers but instead he sat on the floor and read his book. I guess, technically, he did do as he was told. 😉

{real}

I was getting tired of all my boys sporting messy 70’s hair so I gave them all haircuts. Remember my little guy from last week?

Well, he got his first short big boy haircut.

He was very proud of his “After” look. 🙂

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This is a last minute add-on photo.

My statue from the {pretty} photo was the victim of boyhood exuberance. sigh. Having kids definitely teaches you how to have a healthy detachment from material possessions. Luckily some crazy glue repaired our ladies, even though they still have a few war wounds. Oh well. (And if you think I sound a little too calm it’s because I already blew my top and cooled off before typing this. ;-))

PS – You can follow RoL on Bloglovin, Feedly or another news feed. If you are a social media fan like me, we can stay in touch through Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, GoodReads or Instagram. 😉

It’s another photo  mash-up today as I link up with Like Mother, Like Daughter with {pretty, happy, funny, real} and with Cari for Theme Thursday: Knots. (Scroll down to {real} for that one. :-))

This weekend we planned an impromptu  trip to Santa Cruz and realized it was the same weekend that Thomas the Train was going to be in town. We were able to get tickets and headed to Felton near the Santa Cruz mountains.

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The Roaring Camp Station was celebrating their 50th Anniversary so it was extra festive. 🙂

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 Thankfully the sun finally came out and we had blue skies.

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The train passed this walking trail in the forest.

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The view from crossing over a bridge.

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I love redwood trees. They fill me with happy memories of family camping trips. 🙂

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Thomas’ smiling face. (Thankfully the kids didn’t mind not taking a photo with Thomas since the line was ridiculously long.)

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My sweeties.

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My train buddies.

 {funny}

The last time we were at The Roaring Camp was eight years ago when Bella was four and our only child. (We were losing hope of ever having another baby. Little did we know that eventually three more bambinos were on the way! ;-))

{real}

The next two photos are linked up with Theme Thursday: Knots.

The first thing I thought of (after knots in the kids’ shoes) was my knot rosary.

But as I was taking my photo, my little buddy came to see what I was doing…

He was sticky with pink yogurt Popsicle all over his face and mouth but I couldn’t help but smile when he leaned over to give Mother Mary a kiss…

and planted a big, sticky one on her head.

By changing the photo to black and white I was able to camouflage the pink stains on his shirt, on his face and on his ear so the photo has a nice classic appeal. It reminds me of what a priest once said about taking our prayers to Mother Mary. She takes our messy deeds and offerings and gives them a Mother’s touch so they become something even more beautiful and then places them at the feet of Jesus. I’m glad she is there to clean me up. 😉

Have a great weekend!

PS – You can follow RoL on Bloglovin, Feedly or another news feed. If you are a social media fan like me, we can stay in touch through Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, GoodReads or Instagram (bobbi_rol). 😉