So now onto the pictures:
JULY FOURTH CELEBRATIONS:
The Schultz's came for a week visit at the end of June beginning of July. On the night before our big July 3rd party Grandad and G came and we all went to Old Country Buffet for dinner. Cecilia and Annie:
The whole group:
Then that night our local park was showing "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" on an outdoor giant screen followed by fireworks.
Then on July 3rd we had our big McDonnell family party. The cake:
Joey was passed around pretty much all day. G and Joe:
Cheryl and Joe:
The cupcakes:
As you can see, Ben enjoyed his cupcake very much!
Kimmie and Joey:
Grammy and Grandad with all seven of their children:
On July 4th we had a small party with the Anthony's followed by York's spectacular fireworks show. (I put the pictures of the fireworks with the other firework pictures that you already saw.) All and all it was a wonderful way to start July!CATHOLIC FAMILY LAND:
At Catholic Family Land they had this huge jungle gym which all the kids had a blast at:
Claire, Rose, and Julia and a lot of fun together:
The jungle gym even had a very cool ball pit:
Catholic Family Land had gorgeous views:
And the sky was just spectacular each day:
We prayed a group rosary every night and each time there was something cool, like this night at each decade they had a group come up and lead it. The dads: (see Uncle Dave, Uncle Mark and my Dad?)
The moms: (Aunt Mary Ann, Aunt Eileen, and my Mom)
The 8-12 year olds: (Cecilia, John Paul, and Julia are in this picture)
And the teens: (Teresa, Kevin, Sarah, Christine, James, and me.)
Plus the sunsets were very pretty:
Truthfully the whole place is beautiful. A bunch of the kids walking to the jungle gym:
Eating in our tiny cabin:
Then one night was family dance night which was a lot of fun!
They had horseback riding each afternoon and so we signed up and got to go horse back riding on Wednesday afternoon. You had to be at least 10 years old so only Cecilia, my Mom and I went. However Teresa and Aunt Mary Ann came too. Cecilia's dream has been to ride a horse for years. To say that she was excited is an understatement - she was beyond excitement, declaring it "the BEST day of my ENTIRE LIFE!!!". Plus they put her on a horse named Cecilia, (C.C.), and to Cecilia's utter joy the horse C.C., turned out to be a white horse which is Cecilia's absolute favorite kind of horse.
On the trail:
CFL did however have pony rides for children 9 and under, so Benny, Rose, and Max went on pony rides.
Max and Rose:
Benny:
While those three were having pony rides, John Paul, Cecilia, and I were participating in a chess tournament. John Paul won 3rd place out of the 18 people that played. Pretty impressive.
Our family in front of our little cabin. (When I say little I mean little! It was smaller then our living room!!!)
The Lorhmann's, Mattingly's and Anthony's:
Catholic Family Land was a lot of fun and we definitely want to go back next year!
On the way home from CFL we drove through Stuebenville which is where my Dad lived while he was in high school and then both my parents went to Franciscan University. This is the house my Dad's family lived in while in Stuebenville:
We took this picture on Sunday right before we gave away the kittens. We are keeping the orange kitten and the one black kitten can't be picked up until next week, but we gave away two kittens Sunday. Oh and we have officially named the orange kitten, Sergeant Jim. (If anybody has read Trixie Belden then you know why my mom insisted on naming him Jim.)
The last pictures are from last night's sunset taken from our own backyard. It was simply beautiful and I had to take some pictures. :D
3 comments:
Beautiful pictures! Looks like you had a great time at CFL....I had no idea a place like that existed. How long did you go for, and what kinds of things were there to do? Were there workshops, or was it more family group activities?
Thanks! CFL was a week long, and is more of a retreat then a vacation, (however it is a lot of fun!), every morning started with Mass and all the boys could be alter servers, then they have age groups for the kids, (4-5 year olds, 6-7 year olds, ect.), and the groups go off after Mass and do different activities, while the parents have talks and stuff. The afternoon is more of a free time, there is a pool, horse back riding, disc golfing, and various sports. Then each night there is a family rosary followed by a fun family activity, (like a bonfire one night, dancing, stuff like that. OH and they offer confession every afternoon. And at 3:00 everything is stopped for a Divine Mercy Chaplet. It was a great week!
Beautiful pictures, Mary Kate! Wow, you have had a busy summer. Catholic Family Land looks like it was a lot of fun. What a amazing experience to have as a family.
Love you!
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