The Beautiful Little Church at San Juan Capistrano

You've Probably Already Guessed...

That the little girl in the previous picture is Kristen's sweet little Gianna. We spent a lovely afternoon at Mission San Juan Capistrano with the Laurences. Although this is the first time I've met Kristen "in real life" (IRL, as they say, though it took me awhile to discover what IRL means - I'm a little slow on the uptake sometimes!!!), it felt like visiting with an old friend. She's a fellow TAC alum, I was friends with her brother when we were at TAC and we have many other friends in common. Kristen and I chatted about homeschooling and family life (I love talking about such things!) and she served us all a delicious dinner afterwards.

The children enjoyed exploring the ruined church. I like this shot in which Madeleine appears to beg levitating... :)

The main church was destroyed in an earthquake on December 8, 1812. My first thought after considering the sadness and horror of the church collapse in itself (another earthquake later that month destroyed the churches at Mission Santa Barbara and Mission La Purissima), was how strange it was that it collapsed on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. But I just realized that this predates the formal declaration of this title.

It was an amazingly beautiful time of year to visit the mission. The gardens were in full bloom and the weather was very mild (at least to Wisconsinites!)

I love this shot of Ria and Madeleine, who formed an immediate friendship...

My two oldest are planning a post on San Juan Capistrano over on Architecture for Kids. In the meantime, you can view more pictures from San Juan Capistrano here.

San Juan Capistrano

Friends, originally uploaded by Chez VH.

The next leg of our trip took us down to the San Diego area where we stayed with my brother and his family (and my kids couldn't get enough of his three month old sweetheart, Leah) and met with a number of friends, including two from the local blogosphere.

After the hustle and bustle of graduation and family reunions, I had begun to wonder if we were crazy to plan so much into our trip and if it wouldn't have been better to go home earlier. This relaxing San Diego leg proved my worries wrong and recharged us for the rest of the trip.

So, do you recognize the little girl that Kate is tearing around the Mission grounds with? :)