Today's Adventure

Hello Family and Friends, Another exciting day in Rome. We walk tons
here which is a plus since we are eAting a ton of pasta and gelato. I
can't believe how many gelaterias there are around here. As you saw in
an earlier post, we visited the Colliseum. After lunch we visited
Palantino Hill which had an incredible amount of ancient ruins. Only
in Europe can you walk on stairs and sit on chunks of marble that are
thousands of years old, amazing. Unfortunately, part of the ruins were
were on bog condition due to the recent rain. Our shoes were covered
in mud, but the walk home helped take care of some of that. When we
got back to Father Avram's, my bag was there!!! Hooray! I now have
clean clothes to wear. The last adventure tonight was getting stuck in
an elevator! It was pretty funny, luckily it wasn't for top long. We
eventually saved ourselves, after waking up all the other priests at
Father's. Anyway, we are off tomorrow to see Assisi. I'll catch up
with you there. It's late and I've had enough excitent for one day.
Continue to pray for us! God bless.

Sent from my iPhone

Roman Catholics Roaming Rome

Yeah, That's the Collisuem. Enjoying Rome! Seen tons of great stuff.
The weather has improved with sunshine and just a beautiful day to
walk around Rome. Still waiting for my bag, it was suppose to arrive
today. Keep praying, the graces are flowing! God Bless.

Breakfast in Rome

Happy Epiphany! Typical Roman breakfast...pasteries and coffee. We
are on our way to Holy Mass with Pope Benedict.

By the way, for my friends that knew my situation for what to wear to
mass, I'm wearing it! I actually wore it on the plane. God is amazing
how he plans things! ...no, I haven't gotten my bag yet. Keep us in
your prayers. God Bless.

The Beagle Has Landed

Here we are having dinner in Rome with our good friend and personal
guide, Fr Avram. We had a pleasant journey with the exception of one
lost bag (mom's) and nobody to pick us up. Actually, our faithful tour
guide finally showed up after wandering around a different terminal.
After a white knuckled taxi ride, we arrived at our little "pensione"
and took a short walking tour to Father's favorite eatery. We'll be
back tomorrow. Pray for us! God bless.

The Pilgrimage Brgins

Here we are on the second piece of transportation. We left Rescue at
7:30 am and drove to Walnut Creek to my parent's house. My Dad dropped
us off at BART and we are on our way to SFO. We'll be in touch again
soon. Please keep us in your prayers. God Bless.

T-17 hours

Stay tuned, the blog will be updated frequently for the next two weeks. Tomorrow, Mon, Jan 4th, Mike, the kids and myself, will begin our pilgrimage to Italy. We've been talking about this for about 2 years now and the time has finally come. Please pray for us while we visit many of Holy sites in Italy and know that you are in our prayers too.

St Anthony of Padua, Pray for us.
St Francis of Assisi, Pray for us.
St Charles Borremeo, Pray for us.
St Christopher, Pray for us.
Our Lady of Guadalupe, Pray for us.
Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity, Pray for us.
All the Holy Angels and Saints, Pray for us.

And We're Off...again and again and again...

December is always a busy month for us. With three birthdays, company parties and Our Lord's birthday, we have very little down time. This year the kids performed in a play the weekend after Christmas. They did such a great job with all their friends. We were all quite impressed with their performances and with the stage set!

With much help from the other moms, our production of "Christmas at Greccio" was a success! Charles played Mariano, a highway man turns good and Savanna was St Clare of Assisi. They both learned their lines on their own and did a fantastic job! Savann loved it! Charles declared that he would prefer to pass on the next production.

Right after the play, we whisked the kids into the truck and headed to S. Lake Tahoe to catch up with the rest of the family. We spent 3 nights playing in the ice skating, sledding and playing in the snow.

Ice skating with the cousins at North Star, eating deep fried, breadlike sticks covered in sugar (otherwise known as churros.) What kid wouldn't enjoy that!

Savanna and Charles had a great time skating for hours with their cousins.

Saucer rides at Granlibakken in Tahoe City. What a fun place to go. Uncle Anthony actually rode the hill in his saucer too. They would make trains of 10+ people! They looked like a snake sliding down the hill.

The ski hill at Granlibakken in the background (their one and only ski hill)

Though Granlibakken was a small ski and sled hill, they did accommodate the frost bitten visitors with a nice warm lodge.

Yes, Charles is standing on an ice berg. No, I am not a negletful parent allowing my child to play on the ice, the water was no more than knee high. I was fully prepared for wet feet, pants etc. if he had landed in the water. The water's edge was so close to our condo. The kids had fun playing in the snow and on the ice right on the beach.

We needed the much appreciated family time and down time. What fun! We spent one night in our cozy beds to head off again, this time to Grass Valley to ring in the new year with our wonderful friends. One night there was enough for the kids. I think we overextended their ability to late nights. So our weekend stay was cut short. That really is okay, because we have much larger trip looming in the future.