Those were the days...and so are these!

                                      

Wine Tasting at the Montrose Homestead!

     It's pretty amazing to me that the "one year ago todays" that google photos generates for me are now pictures of our summer adventures and the beginnings of school in Europe! I can't quite believe it's been a year already and, although we recently sent Rosie back off into the great beyond, for the rest of us life seems to have settled back down to "normal." Although "back to normal" aren't quite the words I'm looking for, since there's nothing to say that living here and now is any less of an adventure than travelling around Europe was, and God is always doing something new!

"Normal? What does anybody
in this family know about normal?"

     Joseph, Madeleine, Rosie and Rachel went for a road trip up to Oregon to see the total solar eclipse, and I heard it was a wonderful experience. We got to see it through a cereal box/pinhole/tin foil contraption that Elizabeth made, but I would have loved to see it in it's entirety. As it is, I was able to have a nice go-to register conversation topic for a few days at Trader Joe's, about how my siblings went to Oregon to see the sun set in all directions while I stayed at home and stared into a cheerio box. Now Rosie is in Austria, Madeleine is here in Montrose again, Rachel is in Washington and Joseph is visiting Margaret in South Carolina (but now in DC becaause they were evacuated).
   

Watching the eclipse!

As I mentioned, Rosie left a few weeks ago to fly all by herself back to Austria, and this last week she started school. As far as I've heard so far, she has one Theology class and five (?) Philosophy classes... One of which is a block course that Dad will be teaching in November! I find myself a bit jealous, since it's only been a summer but I would love to see our friends there and visit again. It sounds like quite a load, but I hear she's already fit in some dancing and Vienna visits and late night stargazing in shorts... So whatever she's reading sounds like a good philosophy to me. Love you Rosie!

Everybody pitched in!

     We did a family wine tasting night for Elizabeth's birthday in August, (also the idea being to help me get at least some idea of something about some kinds of wine somewhere in case I'm cornered by customers and questioned at Trader Joe's... I'm afraid I'm a slow learner though, so I'm just gonna avoid those corners.) It was a really lovely evening, we had a three course meal with three different wines, and had wine tasting sheets to help us identify what we were smelling and tasting. The conversation was usually something like: Thomas reading: "Ruby or garnet?" Dan: "What even IS Garnet?" Gemma: "I think it's like ruby but more garnetish..." Rebecca: "I'm getting some Grapefruit... or maybe melon flavor..." Elizabeth: "Me too! Definitely grapefruit." Rebecca: "Guys I think I'm just making stuff up." Gemma: "Tastes like wine for sure." Dan: "Would you say this falls more in the category of a cigar box or Horse Manure?"

Getting started early

Success!

     We took a break before dessert to dance some Tango on the patio, Thomas and Becca, Dan and Leyla, and Elizabeth and I. Elizabeth and I certainly did NOT feel out of place and had as much fun as everybody else ramming into them dramatically and pretending we had roses between our teeth. And I think Elizabeth made a very good gentleman.
     School has begun, and Elizabeth is teaching a sixth grade science class at St. Monica's and also teaching an art class on Fridays to two boys from the school. I have the impression, although she's been rather worried about her classes at times and has been working valiantly to overcome the struggles involved with this new and challenging task, that she is doing and is going to do a wonderful job and spread her excitement and interest in the material to the kids. I must admit however that the only direct involvement I've had with her in her new teaching position was while sitting backwards (and upside down) on a chair with a broom over my head in order that Jackson and Owen might be able to draw me, and so I don't have a particularly reliable idea. But all the same, I know Elizabeth and I've seen the work she's put into it this summer, and I have nothing but confidence in how she'll do.

     Thomas and Rebecca are as hardworking, cheerful and dedicated to their various duties as ever! Thomas is teaching Chemistry, AP Chemistry and Algebra 2 while training for a triathlon with Dan and me (although I decided to do the half version so that I can be sure and finish before them), managing Dean of Student's duties and taking up some private tutoring on the side. Rebecca has been juggling house management and care, Gianna and Mo, and also fitting in time for work and babysitting our friend's boys who are about the same age as Gianna and Mo. (Don't worry, we made sure she was super confident before we let her juggle the girls.)  Liam and Gianna get along for the most part, and Mo just loves to smile at everybody, but somehow with the four of them in the living room at once you'd think we were trying to run a preschool--the craziness seems more than just doubled from the usual. (Maybe it's because little boys count as three people each...)

     Madeleine is Nurse! And Madeleine turned 25!

Happy Birthday, Madeleine!

And Madeleine is an officer in the Navy! She passed her nursing test a while ago, received her official little card that she can thrust in our faces, and just a few days ago she went into LA to be commissioned as an officer. Now Gianna calls her "Ensign Quackenbush" And Madeleine and Margaret are going to live together in San Diego a few minutes from the Naval hospital that Madeleine will be working at and from the Carrier that Margaret will be on!

Felicity Seeley, Elizabeth and I went with her to San Diego on Saturday to look at apartments, and she's leaving on Saturday to Rhode Island for her Officer training camp. We are all very excited for her, but not looking forward to not having her happy, slightly wacky presence about the house. We had a lot of fun in San Diego, we visited seven different apartments and were pretty exhausted by the end (to the point where Madeleine started saying slightly convoluted things extremely confidently, and once we untangled them she would realize she was stating exactly the opposite of what she meant...). My favorite line of the day: while looking out across the water at some huge ships that we assumed were carriers Madeleine said convictedly, "The amount that I don't know about whether or not those are carriers is exceptional." We had a nice dinner and walk along the water before heading home, and although she hasn't chosen which apartment she'll get, we found several good options to keep an eye on.

Not really sure where this
picture came from...

     We went to the Santa Barbara zoo for Dan and Madeleine's birthdays last week, and I randomly had a Sunday off so I could come along! Traffic was really bad on the way there, but we made it in time to spend about two hours and show Gianna the animals we'd hoped she'd see. There'd been a terrible fire really close to Montrose that weekend (which may have contributed to the traffic?), but it rained that day (although it didn't cool down much, so it really felt like we were in a jungle), and by then it was basically out. I heard it had gone from half an acre to 500 in a few hours, and we could see the flames from our house. Walking back from work at night made me think of the Hobbits walking toward the Mountain of Doom, and the flames came right up to both sides of the freeway (a coworker showed me a video of that!) So they closed it down and there were major traffic issues, weirdly lit and smokey air, and lots of hardworking firefighters.

     Our zoo visit was lots of fun, and it was interesting to note how much it had shrunk since the last time I'd been there. The little bridge at the opening used to be a huge water crossing, and the flamingo area had been like a gigantic field you could hardly see across. I felt like I could remember the way Gianna must have been experiencing it right then. We took a picture by the plaque of the famous crooked neck giraffe named Gemina who died a few years ago, and had fun playing in giant egg shells and attempting to slide down the little green hill in the children's play area.

It didn't work very well, but it was fun nontheless! After a delicious Mexican dinner we walked down State street and Dan bought us all pastries for his birthday, (still trying to figure that one out), and then we made it home safe and sound. Gianna was beginning to get a cold, so she was sniffling and coughing and making slightly alarming "can you actually breathe" sounds on the way home, but they seemed to amuse and interest her more than anything else, and she'd make some odd gurgling sound and then laugh and try to do it again.

Having fun at the zoo

   I've been working a lot at Trader Joe's and training for the triathlon (if we ever actually sign up...) and trying to stay caught up on sleep. Trader Joe's is fun to work at, the people are really nice and I've had several odd and memorable interactions, made a few friends and fewer enemies. It's a pretty strikingly different atmosphere and work than I experienced at TAC or the ITI (obviously), and although it's sometimes a little jarring or stressful because I'm working my brain in a very different way for most of my day than I'm used to, I think it is a healthy change for now! I have fun wowing an average of 5 people per day when the topic of number of siblings comes up, and people enjoy talking about my last name and making jokes with it that I've never heard before... People also often tell me either that my name is beautiful, or their dog/niece/relative has the same name, or that the only other place they've heard it is from some movie with a "badass" mass-murderer named Gemma. So I smile and resist the temptation to tell them she was named after me. For the most part things go smoothly and I only make a few stupid mistakes in a day, and I enjoy getting free food every so often when there's a crew tasting. I'm supposed to be conversational at the register which us usually not too hard, but sometimes I run a blank and all I can think of saying is stuff like, "Do you like strawberries" but then I think, "No, Gemma, they're buying four containers full, duh they like strawberries..." So then I see a Papaya and want to ask what sort of Veggie Tale character a papaya would be, but a papaya is a fruit and they probably haven't seen Veggie Tales anyway.  Then I could talk about whether the Pineapple is upset to be having such a terrible hair day, or, as I scan the bouquet of roses, "Do you think there are more types of flowers or fish? They both look like aliens..." So in the end I settle with "Hello!" and "Have a nice day!" and that's that. (Although I did ask about the fish, and we decided that there are probably more types of fish because the ocean is huge.)

Elizabeth and I went
to "Lindy Groove"
in Pasadena and danced
the night away! (sort of)

     Once, while I was kneeling on the floor and loading the lettuce, an elderly lady approached me and told me that when I'm her age I will regret not using a knee pad. Then without much warning she asked curiously, "Are you a nerd?" "Me? A what? It depends what you mean by nerd..." Then decidedly, "Yes, I think you're a nerd. You know, smart and knows all sorts of technical things." And from there she launched into the important task of relating to me two Jeopardy questions that she had answered correctly when she heard them so that I could ask "your Dad" if he knew the answers. She had me repeat them back to her to be sure I would relate them to Dad correctly (I don't really know why he got involved here...) Me: "Ok, so the question was 'what man from South America who got his law degree by correspondence in 1980'--"  but she stopped me, pointing her finger and shaking her head as though she were saying "Now now you naughty little child, I've caught you!"  "No! You weren't listening, pay attention! I said South Africa not South America!" I apologized and tried again. Eventually I had them memorized, and then she slowly and carefully explained to me a riddle so that I could also see if Dad could guess: "If a cantaloupe can't elope, what can?" "Uh...." "Do you know what to elope means? It's means to get married without a fancy wedding. " "Right, so..." "It's two people!" "Ok, two people." "No! Another word for two people!" "Um, a couple?" "It's fruit!" "??" "IT'S A PEAR!  But, you see, (very excitedly, like she was letting me in on a fabulous secret) it matters if you spell it p-e-A-r, or p-a-I-r! Maybe you could go into the back and write these down so you don't forget?" I must admit that after neglecting my lettuce loading for at least ten minutes as I spoke with her, I did not go write them down, but they were sufficiently drilled into me that I remembered them and did ask Dad, (in case I was found and questioned again about my task), and he of course knew the answers except for the cantaloupe. So there's an example of the random interactions I get to have each day, and a little record of one of the many different people I've gotten to meet. So many different faces, it's sometimes hard to believe God is just one guy!

  

"The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;

                                                his mercies never come to an end;

                                       they are new every morning;

                                                          great is your faithfulness."

                                                                       -Lam. 3:22

Reunions!

     We had some great reunion time here in California once we all made it back to the states. We came in shifts, and the Iceland bunch were the last to arrive at the Montrose homestead. We obviously had had a long and exhausting travel day and were ready to plop when we arrived--luckily Thomas and Becca had turned their entire living room into one huge mattress so that for one night we could all fit here, so when Margaret surprised us in said living room by her presence that night no one was hurt as knees gave out and people (aka me) did in fact, plop.

We had thought our reunion would be grand and glorious but not quite complete, since she was in South Carolina and had recently visited when Mo was born. But somehow she had about 10 days of leave and Madeleine bought her a ticket and surprised us all! The whole family together once again.

A visit to the Griffith
Observatory with old friends!

      We split up between Mr. Bessett's house and Montrose, and spent a lot of time playing with and getting to know the nieces, swimming in the pool, playing board games, cooking and enjoying each other.

Lovely ladies

We had chances to go to Ojai and visit with old friends, and get to know some of our new neighborhood--Thomas gave us a tour of St. Monicas, and although still living out of huge suitcases and so not quite settled in, it was a good, relaxing "summer" time without too much business or logistics.

We had a great fourth of July; Thomas, Mr. Bessett, Margaret and I ran a 5k in the morning, we swam a lot and had some friends over in the evening. Madeleine was still working at Gio's, and kept bringing home boxes and boxes of pastries that weren't sold that day, so we were well supplied with sugar and joy. ;)

Finished our 5K!

     After Margaret left several of us stayed mostly at Thomas and Becca's, and we had some more relaxing weeks of free time. I started learning the banjo and looking for jobs. I had a first interview with Trader Joe's before our reunion in Oregon, and after that went well and we scheduled another, we got to go on a family vacation/reunion up to Oregon, a little break from trying to settle in and think about jobs and such.

Smelling the vanilla pine at a rest stop...

We split into two cars, Mom and Dad and the younger girls packing all their stuff up to continue up to Washington to stay after the reunion. We had a lovely, two day drive up, Gianna and Mo behaved very well and kept us entertained. PACEEDUCKY! Was a common outcry from Gianna, who wanted her pacifier and duck stuffed animal so she could take her nap. (Or more like so she could look mischievously at everybody in the car and say their names sneakily so that we would laugh. We were all trying valiantly to completely ignore her so she would fall asleep. It was a struggle.)

Mass on the way up to Oregon! 

      We arrived safely in Oregon in the afternoon and met up with Grandma and Grandpa Cassidy, Aunt Ruth, Uncle Tom and our cousin Sam, and Martin and Lael (who we'd last seen in Vienna!). It was a beautiful and spacious cabin in Bend, Oregon, with a big game room, and plenty of large animals or their horns stuck to the walls in various places (tastefully).

Arrived safe and sound!

The kitchen was big and well stocked, but it still was quite the trick to maneuver during meal time. Everybody cooperated and helped and we had delicious meals every night: Grandpa's magical microwave corn on the cob, to Lael's black bean soup and Elizabeth's--with key input from Grandma-- linguine and clam sauce. We played plenty of ping-pong and pool and board game's, Rebecca made some alarmingly quick progress on a huge puzzle, and we had several lovely guitar/banjo/ukelele/singing sessions on the front porch.

Cassidy jam session

Madeleine and I went for a few runs through the woods and houses, enjoying the deer and beautiful, fresh smells and not so much enjoying the hills. A small group of us went for a hike one evening to a mountain (near?) Mt. Bachelor, and got to the top just in time for a beautiful sunset. It was about four miles over all I think, rather steep and worth it. Their were lupines and old, slightly burnt sometimes and interesting looking trees, and miles and miles of forest to look out over from the top.

Our sunset hike.

There was still some snow on the top, and the weather was perfect. The next day the whole clan came for another hike to Smith Rocks--long, steep and magnificent.

The first part was really steep and so we all took it at our own pace, some going part way and then coming back down again to enjoy the river and day without feeling like the whole world was attempting to grind them into the dust, while others decided to continue to the top before heading down the other side. It was a beautiful hike, and it was fun meeting up with random people throughout. There were a couple guys who we kept passing, being passed by, losing and finding again, and it was pretty funny to note their interactions and conversations as we did. "Come on you old geezer! (shouted the clearly much older man who was further up than his compatriot, breathing very hard and beaming like a happy six year old) You're the one with the water and you're way down there! How's a man supposed to drink? You old man!" His friend looked like he didn't quite appreciate the joke as much as his buddy, reminding me of what a wearied babysitter might look like who'd come to the end of a long day with an energetic child who shows no signs of winding down.

Ready to hike!

We all stopped for a rest, and our energetic friend began talking to another woman who was sitting down on a rock. "That's great, I've been there! But actually we're on a visit here too from my home in.... my town uh....It's called--Hell I forgot the name! *shouts down to his friend* HEY JIM! Where do I live?" Apparently he just moved there, which makes sense. We've moved around so much lately that I often forget where I'm going home to when I'm out somewhere. Gianna mostly let herself be carried, but near the end she insisted on slowly walking in the sand and saying over and over, "I love dirt!". So now we often say, "Gianna, what do you love?" "DIRT!"

We were all grateful to see Thomas and Becca get
some fresh air in lovely Oregon...LA had done
strange things to them

   

One great and one regular Grandma. ;)

 Our last day at the cabin Grandpa treated us to the High Desert Museum which was really neat. We got to learn all about what that area was like during gold rush and covered wagon times, seeing a special exhibit about life there during WWll, the war training operations, and the development of the nuclear bomb, and then we watched some happy otters and spent a while at the at the reenactment homestead, seeing how they lived there in the 1860's and playing a cool catch game with wooden loops and sticks. After a happy time together in Oregon (although Margaret and Joseph couldn't be there with us), we said a tearful, grateful goodbye to the younger half of the family and Mom and Dad, and they went north and we went south. Till next time!

Snapshots of Summer

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and I certainly don't have time for a thousand words, so here are some random pictures of our summer!

It's been a summer of wild parties.

Gianna loves Mr. Ducky and her Bison. (Pictures from our road trip to Bend, OR for a family reunion).

And dressing up like Mommy on her wedding day!

Momo is getting huge, but not too big to take a bath in the sink!

And here I am getting a first priestly blessing from my old study-buddy [Fr.] Jeff on the day of his Ordination!

Also here is Joseph leaving a present for me on my phone.

Iceland

Our band the "VikinQuacks"
(Camara woman included)

     It's been about a month since our sibling Iceland week, and a lot has happened since then! There's always a dilemma: write about bygone times before I forget them completely, or start with the most recent? Today I'm settling with the former, but I hope it won't be too long before I can catch up and talk a bit about our wonderful July full of reunions with family and friends.

     Rosie, Rachel and I had quite a sleepless time getting to Iceland, though mostly just because of time change and travel, not as much stress or logistic failure. The girls stayed up all night with friends at the ITI the night before we drove to Budapest to catch our flight to Reykjavik, and so we arrived at the Reykjavik airport in the evening and stayed up till midnight waiting for Madeleine and Joseph to arrive from the Netherlands where they'd been for the past few days. I'm not sure exactly where they went, but they'd been traveling about Europe for a few weeks before our final Icelandic hurrah.

Five hours to kill at the Rekyavik airport...Awake for 24
hours already, somehow they managed
to stay cheerful. ;)

     We hadn't seen Joseph since last summer, and Madeleine since Christmas, so it was a welcome and happy reunion when they finally showed up. The five of us were picked up from the airport after a short mix up with the rental company, and soon were happily crammed into our rental car and setting out under the 2am sun into the Icelandic wilderness.

Exploring Reykjavik!

     Our first day we explored Reykjavik. It was interesting and fun to look about, though the city was surprisingly boring and quiet for it's fame and expense.

Rosie: "$9 for a SMOOTHIE?"
Rachel: "Yup. We're doomed."

We looked into some interesting crafty shops and some not so interesting souvenir shops, saw the famous Lutheran Church and spent a fortune in a tiny, charming coffee shop after not eating a solid meal since lunch the day before. We had fun with various photo shoots and some grocery shopping, and then we relaxed and made food at our airbnb.

The next day was our first big driving day, and Joseph and Rachel provided us with hours of "pumping tunes" for the way. We did what's called the Golden Circle, a route that, besides giving us hours of beautiful scenery to look at, took us to a national park, a geyser and a crater. We were very grateful that we had our own car and didn't have to try to manage tour bus schedules and such (but mostly we were glad because we had a handy dandy "free coffee"card for whenever we bought gas...), and our our only stress and time constraint was that we didn't want to drive after the sun went down. This, of course, wasn't too much of a burden because the sun wouldn't go down for a few months yet. (Aren't we clever...)

A colorful crater on the Golden Circle

Our rainy hike near Reykjavik

     Next day we went for a hike just outside the city. It was foggy, wet and steep, so we stopped for a break and a beer before we started. Then with spirits sufficiently strengthened we began the trek up the hill, enjoying beautiful, though rather foggy views of the surrounding hills and ocean.

There were fields and fields of lupines everywhere we looked. Generally the scenery came in magnificent, stark, solid sections of color: fields of purple lupines, black rock, red rock, or bright green grass.

Exploring a waterfall

After our hike we had dinner at our airbnb and then went to Mass in the cathedral in Reykjavik. It was interesting to recognize tiny bits of the language because of it's similarity to German, and a kind priest gave us booklets with the English, Icelandic, and Latin translations. I enjoyed going out for a few runs along the waterfront near our bnb in the mornings, picking lupines and making friends with geese who were wisely enjoying the view without putting themselves through the ordeal of running, and looking peacefully fat and satisfied with their decision. 

     Our last full day we did another long and beautiful drive through the wilderness with some various general destinations along the way. We saw a huge and beautiful waterfall and walked around behind it and were all fairly soaked afterwards.

We also stopped to walk about seven kilometers to an old crashed airplane that people like to see out in the middle of a nowhere. It was interesting how short the walk looked, because it was a completely flat, open space covered in black volcanic rocks and a few meager flowers here and there.

And ready for the walk back to our warm car!

We walked along the way, complained, enjoyed the rain and prayed a rosary, and got to have another fun photo shoot when we got to the plane.

That's some glacier...

     It was our very last evening in Europe, and for the icing on the cake we got to see a glacier on our way home. We stopped by the side of the road, and walked about 15 minutes right up to it. It was quite a sight. It was very cold and rainy, and so we stayed just long enough to enjoy the view and thank God for his Creation and our family adventure in Europe before stealing a piece of said Creation and heading back.

"And NOBODY saw me do it. "