Day 1...Part 2

As we enter the church, we find out that although we are ten minutes late for church-the Mass is only just beginning. Even if we were going to be late though, I was okay with the fact that no one would know us & that (although normally I try to dress "nice" for church, this time...) my "dumpy" looking tank top & jogging capri pants that I had been traveling in would be 'okay' just this one time. Boy, did I stand out like a sore thumb!

As we're walking in, we notice feathery white hats lining the aisle, which can only mean one thing in a Catholic church-the Knights of Columbus knights were there for Mass, which only means one thing-this was an important Mass! The next thing I see are individuals walking down the aisle followed by a priest wearing a tall hat, which means THIS MASS WAS BEING DONE BY A BISHOP & there I stood in my dumpy looking tank top & jogging capris! Hmmm...needless to say, I felt just a little bit conspicuous next to all of the very dressed up people who were there to celebrate CONFIRMATION! So the hope of a "short" Mass flew out the window as we walked out of church 1 1/2 hours later-I was just glad that Luke ended up napping through half of it, which helped to hide my dumpy looking outfit too :)

The bishop did a wonderful job & was interesting to listen to too-& it was interesting to note...that before he got started with things, he apologized for being late-his GPS had led him to the parking lot of the local Kroger's instead of to the church! Guess that answered my question from our trip to the church ;)

The only trouble we really ran into was at the end when we were walking out of church & Luke requested holy water. I took him up to the font, but as any good two year old will do who is in the throws of his "terrible two's", he stalled around & wouldn't dip his hand in the font so with people waiting behind us I just moved on out the door. I did not realize what an ordeal this would lead too! My child proceeds to throw a lovely tantrum while screaming "I WANT HOLY WATER!" as we head to the car. If I let him get it, am I caving into a tantrum? But then again, what parent wouldn't want there kid to have all of the holy water (as well as its blessings) that they could get? Maybe it would cure his terrilbe twoitis! :) We opted not to give in to the tantrum & we heard about it all the way back to the hotel & then again sporadically throughout the rest of the trip-we finally promised him that he could DEFINITELY get some holy water the next week at church.

All in all, it was a good experience & we made it back to the hotel to catch just a little bit of time in the pool before turning in for the night to rest up for Day 2 of driving!

P.S. Since, I have been a horrible slacker of a blogger lately & it now feels a little 'dated' to continue writing about a vacation from well over a month ago :) I'll probably include one more post with the "highlights" (& maybe some pics) & then try to move on from there ;) Maybe I can improve on my average of 2 posts/month over the past few months!

Day 1

We (actually more like me :) decided to split our 12-13 hour drive up into 2 days. We knew that we would be stopping after about 6-7 hours of driving and figured this would probably be the best plan with a 2 (almost 3) year old in tow. The driving went rather smoothly (with no electronic gadgets along for entertainment, I might add!) & we arrived with a few hours to spare before the evening Mass time that was scheduled at the local church that we were planning on attending.

We hung around our hotel room for a little while, but very quickly figured out that the aformentioned child would not do well with this plan for very long, so we decided to go get something to eat & then attempt to find the church. Supper went well & Luke got on fabulously with the older ladies sitting in the booth behind us (I think he even got food offerings from them if memory serves me correctly.) Then it was time to find the church...

We went back to the hotel since this was the point where our directions started...we had about 10 minutes to find the church (it was only supposed to take about 3-5 minutes to get there). We started driving, but being the "navigator," I noticed that none of the street names matched except for the one that was our hotel's driveway...hmmm.

We finally decided to go back & get directions from the hotel staff. They looked up the address & located it on a city map & we were on our way! As we drove, I wondered aloud whether or not a GPS would have been very helpful-probably not if they get their directions from the same major source that Scott looked ours up with. We got to the church about 5-10 minutes late...normally that would be a "tsk, tsk" but God must have been smiling at us on this day (or in my case laughing tremendously) because...

TO BE CONTINUED ;-P