an hour well spent

There are items from last weekend that I had wanted to write about, but ran out of time.   

One was my adventure with kid #1.  He is [hopefully] graduating from 8th grade this year, and someone is putting together a DVD of the kids' baby pictures, current pictures and whatever in-between.  Not having any decent current ones - that awkward age thing - we set out last Sunday to go to our local university where there are decent oak trees and backgrounds.  We finally came up with this:  (My single frustration with Blogger is not being able to put my pictures where I want them...I mean, it can't be that hard, but I haven't found the touch yet.)

We walked around campus for a little while looking at various things, taking a walk down memory lane for me, then he asked me [again] to take him to "the Cathedral".   The Cathedral for our diocese is not far, but I really had a ton of other things to do last Sunday, and tried to postpone this adventure.  (Maybe we can take a different church each week this summer, and do some "sightseeing".)

After we got in the car to leave, we drove through campus.  The Catholic Student Center was just finishing Mass, and people were hanging around outside at a bake sale.  It has probably been 20 years since I had been inside, so I asked him if he wanted to stop.  I already knew the answer.  We walked around inside, for 20 minutes or so, just looking at different things.  It was recently renovated.  Some things I remembered.  Others, not so much.

Energized by that, I agreed to at least drive by the Cathedral.  I figured Mass would probably be going on, and I would be off the hook.  No such luck.  We parked, and approached the church.  There was an open door, so we entered.  We used to attend Mass there occasionally, and dear son remarked that "it still smelled the same".  Incense.  The lights were off, but we walked around in there, too, looking at this and that.  Statues.  Stained Glass. He is a visual person, and just drinks in the details.  Someone was there, moving stuff around in the sanctuary.  After a while, he approached us and asked if we would like to see "the relics".  Of course!  The relics are so small, that you can't tell what they are, but there were relics for a dozen or so of Heaven's Finest. 

I like doing this kind of thing, and it's neat to have a son who enjoys it as well.  Actually, it's pretty cool to have a nearly 15 year old who wants anything to do with his mom!  So we spent an hour or so in church.  I still had a ton of things to do when we left, and I'm not sure they got done, but this was an hour well spent!  I hope we do get to visit some beautiful churches this summer!