50th Anniversary Celebration

Last weekend, we trekked out to Alabama to celebrate my husband's parents' Golden Wedding Anniversary. Their anniversary was actually in July but this was when most of the family could be there all together. Family traveled from California, Wisconsin, Ohio and Texas to be there. We were only missing 5 grandsons who couldn't be there for various reasons.

The Bride and Groom...

...on the big day…

…and after 50 years together.

Aren't they a cute couple?

The celebration started with a lovely Mass at the chapel at the Casa Maria Convent and Retreat Center where one of my husband's sisters lives as a fully professed Sister Servant of the Eternal Word with the most delightful, joyful sisters you have ever met! A priest friend said the Mass and gave an inspiring homily all about the highs and lows of marriage and how true commitment to the vocation of marriage means riding out the ups and downs together while keeping your focus on Christ. 

Afterwards, we visited with the Sisters for a little bit before heading over to my in-laws' house for a luncheon. Miss Cupcake was a hit amongst the sister crowd. She called them her "Aunt Sisters" all the way home. If you are ever in need of a spiritual retreat, please consider the Casa Maria Retreat Center! You can find a list of their upcoming retreats here.  If you can't make it out for a retreat, you can  also purchase the talks on CD or MP3. (These are not affiliate links, I don't get compensated to advertise for them. We love these sisters and care about supporting them because they are family!)

Back at the house, after the luncheon, when we were waiting for some of the sisters to come over for cake and punch, my mother in-law pulled out her wedding gown to show everyone. It's gorgeous! Real Irish linen. So far, no one in the family has been tiny enough to wear it. The one sister who could have possibly worn it was too tall by a few inches. Maybe one day a granddaughter will get the privilege of wearing it. 

Her headpiece was also made of linen with tulle added.

Imported Belgian lace sleeves. 

Linen covered buttons… no zipper here, ladies! They just don't make them like this anymore. 

The sisters arrived for cake and punch and some entertainment, but Miss Cupcake was complaining of a tummy ache and threatening to lose her lunch, so we left before we got to hear their lovely singing. 

On Monday, before we started making our way back to Texas, everyone gathered for brunch and a friendly game of catch. I love it when Sean gets to spend some "guy time" with his brothers. I wish we could make it happen more often. 

And in this case, catch included the sister who served as the fourth before the fourth brother actually came along. Yes, my husband taught his little sister (before she became a Sister) how to throw a football so that they could play football all together… two on two. The youngest brother, who is 20 years younger than my husband, stepped up to take over her position since, you know… the convent doesn't really have pick-up football games. 

He's so proud of his little sister. She still knows how to throw making sure to protect those rosary beads at the same time! ;)

What a handsome group of men! I just happen to think I got the cutest one of the bunch. By the way, the two bearded ones are still single… I'm still sayin'!

It was such a nice trip. I remember celebrating my grandparent's Golden Anniversary. I'm so glad that my children got a chance to celebrate with their grandparents!

Branson, MO

{I am going to be time-traveling a little bit here on my blog. I never posted about two majorly fun things we did last year and since this blog is first and foremost a record for my family, that just can't be allowed to go on. I might even change the date on this post after it's been up awhile so that it fits in to the timeline better.}

Realizing that our oldest will soon (in like a year and a half, sniff sniff) be living on college time, not free-wheeling homeschool time, we decided to make a family dream come true… a real family vacation that did not involve visiting family. You know what I mean… 

All of our family vacations up to this point have always included or revolved around visiting extended family. A wedding in Atlanta (which allowed us to visit some dear friends who drove down from SC to see us), a profession in Alabama (that allowed for a stop-over at the battlefields in Vicksburg), Thanksgiving in San Antonio (that included a multi-day visit to Sea World)… all of them enjoyable in their own way. But just once, we wanted to take a vacation for the sole purpose of going on vacation and so we did.

We planned with a few specifics in mind. Not wanting to spend too many hours in the road, we wanted to go someplace that we could drive to in a day, had something for everyone and since this was November (time traveling, remember) some place that would allow us to see some beautiful fall colors. After looking at a few places, we settled on Branson, MO. I felt so cheesy telling people we were going to Branson because it's such a touristy place to go, but heck… we wanted to be tourists. And so we were. 

Totally tourists!

Way cool water demonstration every hour in the main square.

It was close to Veteran's Day so Branson had the red, white and blue colors flying high. They were also pulling out all the Christmas decorations and most of the shows had switched over to their Christmas themes. 

That week, it seemed like there were lots of elderly people bussed in, mostly veterans and their spouses, I think. Maybe it's like that most of the time though. We didn't see too many other families but we knew this was the off-season for families. Plus we went in the middle of the week when most kiddos are in school. As homeschoolers, we took our school with us! Not all of it, just the online classes my older two take. 

Water… and FIRE!!!

We let everyone choose one thing they wanted to do. The Professor chose the Titanic Museum which was UH-mazing! If that's what a "for profit" museum looks like then we need some more of them! They don't let you take pictures inside though, so this is the only shot I got. There was one whole gallery dedicated to the pictures of Fr. Frank Browne, and a room dedicated to the musicians with a docent in it who told their story over and over. There was also a piano in the middle of the room similar to one that would have been on the Titanic, where people were encouraged to play if they wanted to. We got to see quite a performance put on by an elderly gentleman with some serious music chops! The girls in turn played a song for him when he was done. 

BigBoy chose a ride on the Branson Scenic Railway. It was a big hit with everyone (except for Rain who is prone to a little motion sickness).

Joe Cool

 She was having a blast writing in her journal and enjoying the train ride until the motion sickness kicked in. We moved her downstairs into a regular compartment, not a double decker, and she felt better. 

 

Each of the cars was from the 1930's-1950's and they were all decorated with a different winter/Christmas theme.

The girls wanted to see a show so we chose the Dublin Irish Tenors and Celtic Ladies Christmas Show. It was a blast! They also didn't allow photography during the show so we waited until after to take pictures of the cast. So friendly and agreeable to chat and sign anything you wanted them to sign! We had a blast.

That tiny, little lady smiling at the camera all the way on the right could belt out some opera like nobody's business!

While we were there, we rented a two story condo for less than what a hotel rooms would have cost us. Everyone had their own bed to sleep in (1 king and 5 twins) and two bathrooms to share plus a full kitchen and washer and dryer. I'm telling you… that's the way for a big family to go. The day we planned to go to the museum was rainy so we spent the morning having paper airplane dogfights.

Oh… and Cupcake's one thing… ice cream cones! And Bigboy sat on a gorilla's lap just for fun…

Oh… and those beautiful fall colors? Yeah. We found some.

{p,h,f,r} October 10

~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~ with the lovely ladies at Like Mother, Like Daughter

{pretty}

 You are never too old to get your face painted!

My beautiful big girls! I spied them from the kitchen window sitting on the porch swing talking like sisters tend to do.

{happy}

 The previous pictures were taken while we were back at our Alma Mater for their Family Day kick off to Charity Week. Sean had an errand to run with a friend's son who is a freshman there this year so the kids and I hung out and enjoyed the fun. The big girls got their faces painted just for fun (and charity!) but the littlest one was having none of it. We did buy her a couple of balloons which she was delighted with and she LOVED the Braniff water fountain. It was one of my favorite places too, Cupcake!

{funny}

 This little girl was so silly when she wanted to count (not eat) the chocolate roses and tried to keep her Daddy from stealing some!

And she loves to put on everyone else's shoes. These would be her big brother's giant tennis shoes. The two books {affiliate links} that are lying off to the side are also her big brother's but I think he's cleaned them up by now. Or at least relocated them. It's rare to see them alone like this because they are usually attached to him in some way or another.

{real}

Um...anyone know what this is? It's growing from a vine (?) or branch that is coming over our back fence. I don't think the people behind us have a garden or anything so I'm not quite sure what this is or how it got there. Thoughts, ideas? Just curious.