Summer Summary (Part Three: Catfish, College, Countless Blessings!)

Here at last, the final installment of our summer photos!  Despite the Covid 19 pandemic going on during the summer of 2020, our family still managed to have a whole lot of fun.  This group of pictures shows the final month of our summer vacation and our final days with Joseph before he headed off to college in Ohio.  

Literally 2 days after Joseph and Michael ended their baseball season, we packed up the car to head to Aberdeen, South Dakota.  Packing the car was no small feat considering we had to pack everything needed for a 2 week vacation for a family of 7... PLUS everything Joseph needed for college!  

Every summer our kids love going to grandma and grandpa's house in South Dakota.  They love playing cards with grandma, fishing with grandpa, rediscovering Storybook Land, and having fun at the lake where Uncle Mike and Aunt Shawna live...  I'll let the photos tell the rest of the story :)

Michael reeled in a whopper of a catfish at Richmond Lake!

Not sure which is more wild, Michael's hair or this giant catfish :) 

A view from Uncle Mike's deck.

This is actually the house I grew up in and the neighbors are mostly the same,

so it's always neat to catch up with them every summer when we come home.

Joseph reeling in a big one that got eventually got away.

Michael having fun on the jet ski.

Joseph enjoying some peaceful moments fishing before the chaos of college begins.

Uncle Mike taking Nathanael for a ride.

Nathanael loves the water!

I love that sweet smile! :)

Grandma and Grandpa love watching all the action!

Isaiah so happy and proud to get a ride from his big brother "Joe-Joe" :)

Joseph is such a great big brother, and I bet he's going to miss these little guys while he's away at college.

Joseph and Michael enjoyed playing some indoor and outdoor games at Uncle Mike's 

(that is, in the rare moments when they weren't fishing).

The two of them have been practically inseparable for the past 17 years,

so it will be strange for them to be apart this year.

Many, many hours were spent fishing together...

Even Grandpa and Paul enjoyed some leisure time fishing on the dock 

(although I think Paul is actually texting instead of fishing) :)

While Grandpa took some of the boys fishing, 

Grandma and I took Dominic and Isaiah to Storybook Land.  

Kids are never too old for Storybook Land! :)

Dominic and Isaiah riding the roller coaster at Storybook Land.

It's only like a 10 second, herky-jerky ride, but kids still love it! :)

I love Isaiah's face...pure joy written all over it!

Dominic gets this ride spinning so fast it even makes spectators on the ground queasy.  

Best of buds at Storybook Land!

A llama taking a siesta at the Storybook Land zoo :)

Isaiah is not scared of the "talking trees" anymore!

He sure is growing up fast!

Joseph and Nathanael showing off some walleye that they caught with Grandpa.

After an amazing few days fishing and bonding with Grandma and Grandpa, Joseph packed up again and we started the LONG road trip to Franciscan University in Ohio--28 hours total one way.  We traveled through 9 states in the process:  MT, ND, SD, MN, WI, IL, IN, WV, and OH!!!  It was a very special road trip though---it was just Paul and I and Joseph, so we really got to talk and bond with our oldest son before sending him on his college adventure.  With Covid regulations, we weren't able to take the whole family---plus, the other boys definitely wanted to keep having fun with Grandma and Grandpa instead of spending 5 extra days in the car!

This is a special picture to me.

Joseph confidently venturing on his own into the great unknown,

with a bag of clothes, a backpack of school supplies, and his guitar :)

His dorm is called Trinity Hall and it's located on the very edge of campus,

sort of tucked away in the trees off the beaten path.

It has become his home away from home.

I am so very grateful that he loves it so far at Franciscan!

He has a great roommate and has made great friends with the guys in his dorm.

There's a chapel in his dorm with Jesus in the tabernacle, which really consoles my heart. :)

Even Joseph's RA is a huge consolation to me---he is the assistant baseball coach, a theology teacher, and even discerned the priesthood for a year.  I love knowing he is surrounded by good, holy people.

We arrived a day early to walk around the campus, and I honestly have to say that it felt so peaceful and holy.  I loved the small size of the campus.  I knew Joseph would feel at home here and be surrounded with such faith-filled people that it made it easier to leave him there, even though it is so far from home.

I am so happy that Joseph loves Franciscan so far.  He especially loves playing baseball with the team every day (except Wednesdays and Sundays).  He is a pitcher for the team, which was always his favorite position and his dream to pitch in college.  My heart just overflows with joy to know that my son is happy and thriving in college.  May God continue to bless him and guide him closer to the Sacred Heart of Jesus!

Paul and I both shed some tears as we said our goodbyes to Joseph...

Knowing that you're leaving your child 28 hours away from home is HAAARRRD!

He can't just pop in and visit for the weekend...it would take an airplane or a 3 day road trip to get him home!  But we truly felt intense peace and joy that overshadowed our sadness at leaving him.

We were able to go to Mass with the President of Franciscan University (Father David Pavonka), 

and you could clearly tell he was on fire with the Holy Spirit and had tremendous love for the students at FUS.  We didn't get to celebrate Mass in this beautiful church pictured above (Christ the King Chapel).  Due to Covid, we had to have Mass in the huge auditorium with everyone sitting 6 feet apart wearing masks, but it was still a beautiful experience.  Joseph is able to go to this chapel or a number of other chapels on campus to visit Jesus anytime---what a gift!  I love the large San Damiano Cross, which is now a symbol for FUS, because it is the cross that St. Francis was praying in front of when Jesus spoke to him and gave him his commission to "go and rebuild My Church" way back in 1205.

My favorite chapel at Franciscan is the Portiuncula, 

which is designed to look like the small chapel that St. Francis rebuilt

when he received the call from God to "rebuild My Church."

There is a tabernacle with the Blessed Sacrament exposed for people to do perpetual adoration inside.

I sure hope Joseph goes here often to pray and find peace when life gets stressful.

Before leaving the college, I was blessed to be able to pray and entrust our son to the Blessed Virgin Mary...  What great peace to know that my son is being taken care of by such a loving mother when his own mother is too far away to take care of him anymore :)

May Our Lady, the Queen of Peace, pray for Joseph and for all of us!

We could all use an little extra peace during these crazy times :)

Totus Tuus,

~Maria

Summer Summary (Part 2): Birthdays, Beaches, & Music Camp with Masks

My last post was all about baseball, but lots more went on this summer than just baseball... 

(hence, part 2 of the summer summary)

(stay tuned for part 3!)

We celebrated 3 birthdays this summer:  Mine in May, Paul's in June, and Dominic's in July.  Sorry, no pictures of Paul's birthday or mine (I honestly don't even remember how we celebrated!), but here are some sweet ones of Dominic :)  Due to Covid, we didn't invite any friends out, but he had a great time celebrating with our family.  He got some new Minecraft books, a new (used) cello, we took him out to eat, and kept things simple.  He is growing into such an amazing young man!  He might be the smartest kid I've ever met and also the most musically inclined.  He is also very spiritual...he loves to pray and to altar serve at Mass.  I wonder what path the Lord will lead him on for a career?  My guess would be either an engineer, a professional cellist, or a very holy priest :)  He is growing not only in wisdom, but also in stature...  He grew out of at least 4 shoe sizes this summer and probably 4 inches in height. At the beginning of the summer I was still taller than he was, he surpassed me by the end of the summer! :)

Happy Birthday Dominic!

We love you so much and are so proud of you!

May you continue to grow in wisdom as you grow in stature,

may you keep that burning love of learning ablaze all your life,

and may your love for the Lord always be burning the brightest!

Love, Mom and Dad

We tried to enjoy some beach time throughout the summer.  To be honest, I think we only made it to the beach 3 or 4 times.  In Montana, there aren't very many "perfect" beachy days, and even on the perfect days, the water is still quite cold because these are high mountain lakes and the temperature gets chilly at night.  But is sure was fun when we made it out to our favorite local beach (Canyon Ferry) and also we were able to go on one camping trip to a lake near Butte, MT called Delmoe Lake...

Dominic and daddy having a snack break in the sun.

Nathanael having fun with our new tube!

I love those freckles!!! :)

Sweet, shy, and silly Isaiah!

I love those dimples and those smiling Irish eyes! :)

The 3 youngest boys searching for frogs at Delmoe Lake

Daddy taking a nap while the little boys make waterfalls and dams in the distance.

Nathanael making sure the base of the waterfall is secure

Yay!  It worked! This project kept the boys entertained for HOURS...

and HOURS! :)

Now that baseball season was over, the big boys were happy to be able to get some fishing in before Joseph headed off to college.

They basically had the whole lake to themselves!

They had lots of fun, but only caught a few little trout.

There were tons of frogs to be caught though!

Isaiah thought it would be fun to make a castle for the Frog King :)

I really had no desire to swim in the cold mountain lake, but it sure was fun to paddle around in a boat!

Joseph soaking in some sun and some relaxation before packing up for college.

We literally drove away for Franciscan two days after this picture was taken!

Despite Covid 19, Dominic was still able to participate in one summer music camp.

The kids had to wear masks, but they were so happy to be able to grow in their musical skills!

I'm so glad we didn't let the pandemic steal our fun this summer!

Totus Tuus,

~Maria

Summer Summary (finally!!!) Part 1: Baseball

Wowzers!  It's been awhile since I blogged, but now that summer is over and our family is back into our school routine, I finally have time to get my blog updated.  So I guess I'll start with the activity that took up the largest chunk of our summer...BASEBALL!  :)

This was definitely the strangest baseball season we've ever experienced for a variety of reasons.  The main reason is probably easy to guess...that cantankerous Covid19 virus.  At first it seemed likely that there would be no baseball season at all this year.  Schools were shut down in March and most other Spring sports were cancelled, but somehow baseball managed to pass all the requirements set forth by the health department and a condensed season was allowed.  Montana baseball players and fans were thrilled.  We didn't care if we had to wear masks and use hand sanitizer every inning...we were just thrilled to "play ball!"  

But unfortunately, no matter how badly Joseph wanted to play ball, he was unable to for the majority of the season.  In mid-March, the weekend before Covid19 shut down our schools, Joseph and some friends wanted to take one more trip to our local ski hill before all the snow melted.  The snow was not great and sadly, Joseph hit a rocky/dry spot that resulted in a torn MCL.  It seemed devastating for this to happen his senior year, but we know God works everything for the good of those who love Him.  Joseph spent eight weeks on crutches and a knee brace with instructions not to put any weight whatsoever on that leg, followed by 12 weeks of intense physical therapy.  He went to every single baseball practice and game.  He diligently did all of his PT exercises.  He hoped with all of his heart that he would be able to play for the Helena Senators for the second half of the season.  By June, the orthopedic surgeon and the physical therapist gave him the green-light-go-ahead to play ball, but sadly the coach did not give him much playing time at all.  That was a very tough life lesson for Joseph, his parents, and his grandparents...but we won't go into that :}  Through it all, I was epicly proud of how Joseph handled the situation with such profound virtue.  He kept a positive attitude on and off the field.  He did not grumble or blame.  He was a true gentleman like his grandpa Hollis and simply played the crummy hand that he was dealt with grace and humility.  The few times that he did get to play in a game, he did amazing!  He ended up with the best pitching ERA on the team---absolute zero!!!--which means he did not allow any earned runs while he was pitching all season long!  Even though baseball during his senior year did not go as he had hoped, I think he really grew in character and in his baseball skills, and thankfully he has the exciting adventure of playing college baseball at Franciscan University to look forward to in his near future.

Here are a few pictures of his last season of Legion baseball with the Helena Senators.  All of these amazing pictures were taken by the talented Jason Brent (a dad of one of the Reps players who started his own photography business called "Action Photography."  He is a great guy and a talented photographer!):

Our family on "Senior" night for the Helena Senators.

Joseph got to be the starting pitcher!

"We love you #4 and are so proud of the man and baseball player that you have become.

You handled this tough season with heroic virtue

and we hope college baseball is an awesome experience.

May you continue to do everything for the glory of God

and strive to grow closer to Him every day!"

~Mom and Dad

Michael also had a season with some unexpected challenges...  I think he was hoping to get selected for the Senators' Team (which is the highest level team consisting of seniors and some juniors), but he was chosen again for the Reps Team (juniors, sophomores, and some freshmen).  However, in hindsight that may have been a gift from God because he ended up getting tons more playing time and probably having a lot more fun on the Reps than he would have had on the Senators.  But his season, too, was fraught with unexpected injuries.  Early in the season he ended up dislocating his shoulder during a head-first steal attempt at 3rd base.  I don't think he fully recovered from that injury until long after the season was over, even though he kept playing through the pain.  Later in the season, he injured his back from some ribs getting dislocated and had to miss quite a few games while his body recovered.  Despite all of his injuries, he had a successful season.  He had a "golden glove" as short stop and also was the team's starting pitcher.  Here are some highlight photos of his season---again, a huge thanks to Jason Brent at Action Photography for taking these amazing shots!

"Mikey---you are intense and passionate about the things you love--especially sports.

We love you and pray you always use your passions to glorify God."

~Mom and Dad

Even Nathanael and Isaiah were blessed to be able to have baseball seasons this year--despite the whole Covid crisis.  Their seasons were postponed until later in the summer and very much condensed, but they loved it and had a blast!  But even little baseball players get injuries, and Nathanael ended up having to miss a couple of practices due to a sprained foot!  He jumped down from a fence to get a foul ball at one of the Helena Reps games and sprained his foot so badly that he needed to wear one of those big leg boots for about a week.  At that time during the baseball season 3 out of our 4 baseball boys were on the injured list---Joseph, Michael, and Nathanael.  We were thankful that at least Isaiah never suffered an injury this year! :)  Nathanael and Isaiah were so fun to watch!  Both of them had such eager, positive attitudes at all times.  Isaiah, especially, was so eager in the outfield that he would run to try to get every single ball no matter where it was hit on the field! :)  We had to have some chalk-talks about proper field positioning :)  It's so fun and refreshing to watch the younger boys play ball because there isn't the level of stress or intensity like high school ball.  It sure looks like these two boys have the same passion for the game as their 2 oldest brothers, so I better enjoy these stress-free little league games while they last! :)

I didn't get very many pictures of the little boys since I don't have a great telephoto lens, but here are a few to make you smile :)

Nathanael's team went undefeated in the regular season! 

Quite the accomplishment!

He had the same coach (Coach Ryan) for the 3rd year in a row,

and we loved how positive and encouraging he was.

Grandpa Pat and Michael had fun watching Nathanael's games together and critiquing every play!

Grandma Theresa, Dominic, Isaiah, and I enjoyed watching the games from the comfort of our lawn chairs in the shade :)

"Nathanael, our sweet little slugger,

You aren't so little anymore, 

but you sure are sweet and you sure are a slugger!

What a great season pitching and hitting and being a positive team player!

We are so proud of you and we love watching you play!"

~Mom and Dad

"Isaiah---what an awesome athlete you are!

You are skilled, joyful, and eager to make every play.

We had so much fun watching every game

and we look forward to watching many more.

Keep up the positive, eager attitude always!"

~Mom and Dad

Totus Tuus,

~Maria

A Message of Peace during these Peaceless Times

During these crazy times of Covid and riots and chaos, here is a hope-filled message from Our Lady of Medjugorje that was given to the visionary Marija on July 25th:

July 25, 2020

 

"Dear children! In this peaceless time in which the devil is harvesting souls to draw them to himself, I am calling you to persevering prayer, so that in prayer you discover the God of love and hope. Little children, take the Cross in your hands. May it be your encouragement for love to always win, in a special way now when the Cross and faith are rejected. You be a reflection and an example with your lives that faith and hope are still alive and a new world of peace is possible. I am with you and intercede for you before my Son, Jesus. Thank you for having responded to my call."

Totus Tuus,

~Maria