If you look real close you can see Mexico behind us.

Karl and Mark being Karl and Mark… GOOFS.

Me being smiley, and Karl Jumping of things again.

That Random sign was in the middle of the barren desert, with postings to places all over the world.

Fairly cool….Amazingly random.

Yep….That’s the Grand Canyon.  Oh how b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l.

We like to play pranks on our boys…  the cookies have toothpaste, and there are gummy worms( but the thing is they are not all real).

Hello all! So some of you might have been wondering….but yes, we are alive. And, contrary to popular belief, our sanity is mostly intact. Since we’ve been back from Christmas break we’ve had quite a few adventures. (as is evident by the pictures above….which don’t even begin to scratch the surface) So grab some snacks and settle in, cause this one’s gonna be a long one…..

We started off our road trip with a lovely drive down through Cali to Palm Springs, and then over to Grants NM. Grants was pretty much awesome, including our host home and the youth.  We had elementary retreats for a week, Kids our such a blessing they have so much faith.  Even though they are so small.  YOPu wanna know whats funny?  I will tell you… It’s funny how when you ask kids a question they go off non tantrums,  (My mom has two pink shoes… My grandma died… I had a fish his name was poccomo… While we were there however, our suburban broke down, stranding 2 of our number in Albuquerque. But our host parents stepped right into action and helped get them back home. The ‘burben however, needed a new engine. So we were looking at being stuck for a week without a way to get to our next destination. (quite a cliffie huh? whatever shall the Reach team do next?) Luckily Deacon Tim got the diocese of Gallup to loan us two vehicles  until we could get the Green Machine fixed. We are forever grateful for that.  God never stops providing.

With those cars we drove to Roswell for our next retreat. Again, we had host homes that were so amazing that they’re beyond description. The Shuberts overheard us girls talking about pranking the boys, and when we came back from our retreat they had made cookies and had put super hot pepper flakes in some for our boys. Ten year old Gracie proceded to offer them very enthusiastically to the guys. Troy began begging for milk. =P

Our retreat at the camp near Roswell was great, and very memorable. Toni’s small group took out some canoes on the “river”…..and then 4 of them had to be pulled out of the freezing cold water. But it made for a great story Sunday morning at Mass. While we were in Roswell we decided to visit Carlsbad Caverns, and the parish lent us their bus (which was actually a giant yellow airtport shuttle) so we would only have to take one vehicle. We all got our own row of seats. It was awesome.

After Roswell we went to Albuquerque to stay with Ciera’s family and the youth minister of her parish….and to pick up El caca de Verde, which had a new engine. That night as us girls drove to our host home the Burb stalled for the first time, but it started pretty soon after we pulled off the road and we got back without anymore problems.   My brain is fried now, so to be continued…

God bless,

Happiness is a choice you make every day when you wake in the morning.  So in all you do say praise God.  That is what I challenge you to do this week.  If your Car gets stolen say Praise the Lord!  Give thanks to God!

We had an amazing Thanksgiving with Kelly’s family. We stayed he night at her house the day before and had fun playing a million different Games… Taboo, Scene it, I believe we played balderdash, and then tons of different card games. Our team is the card playing team. We can play cards forever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever… You get the point . We went to mass on Thanks giving, which was a miracle! Watched the Parade, had a ton of food, and an amazing game of Confusion Rummy (a card game a lot like Phase Ten). We watched what I believe is a Gresham tradition, the Thanks giving episode of Gilmore Girls, Which by the way I believe Kelly and her sister can quote the entire Gilmore girls episodes by memory synchronized very entertaining to hear and watch.

All in all Thanks giving was very wonderful .

All of your prayers are much thanked, you all are very wonderful to us.  We can’t wait for the rest of the year.  It’s going to be a blessed year full of growing in faith, knowledge, and fun imes.

We traveled to the far land of Stayton, OR.  Near my home town Salem .   While we, the Francis team, were wondering the streets of Stayton…What do ya know?  We met Toni’s Dad!   We stayed at his house for a couple days.  Our retreat was near by Salem and Stayton at a camp in the woods.  It was actually not just for Silverton, but also for all of the Salem churches too.  It was so amazingly beautiful there.  You never know how much of a difference you can make in just one weekend (wonderful).  The night after the retreat we stayed with the Bentz’s…another amazing family.   One of the best things is that we get to meet so many different families while on Reach.  People that truly care are friendly, and just amazingly loving.

We have been back in Yakima aka yak town for a little while now.  The weekend of the 7^th we did have a retreat in Camas, Washington.  It was a small one, still great.  They were loud at times; hey that’s middle schoolers for ya.  Loud at times, but a ton of fun!  Our host home gave us a great dinner Saturday night after the retreat was over.  (Yum! Got to love amazing cooks)!
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Chapter one: California

Once upon a time long ago about two and a half weeks ago to be exact, the saint Francis team was off to California… Redding California.  My team and I arrived met our contact person, and then had some fun.  Some of the amazing people we met while in Redding took us to pizza and then to see the sundial bridge.  Which is an amazing place for visitors to go.  It has a sundial on it (hence the name).  Then we headed to our host homes for the weekend.

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So We have done three retreats so far. Were not dead yet, So that means we survived. We were blessed with support and love from all. Our first two retreats were in Hillsboro OR. Us girls had an amazing host home who loved to cook for us. So we get home one night and she has the most amazing pot of Spaghetti and meat balls on the stove!! (“your spaghetti is looking a little dry you need more meat balls more rice pudding”). We ate so much (Here comes the Reach belly). I am sure the boys host was amazing too. Our third was in Portland. And we want to thank them so much for everything. They hosed us in a hotel and gave us a gift out to dinner. Soon we head off to Red Bluff California. But before that we will make a stop in Grants Pass to do a youth group night. Please keep us in your prayers as we will keep all of you in our prayers.

God Bless,

St Francis team

And remember…The
good Lord didn’t create anything without a purpose,
But mosquitoes come
close.