Snow, Snow and More Snow

The week before Easter Neal, Dad and Andrey made a guy's trip to Mammoth and Lake Tahoe. They had a blast and later on in the week, Mom and I flew up to join them.

Andrey chillin' in the snow with his morning coffee

Dad in his element

The boys at the top of the mountain

A fence made out of old skis. We found some

really old school ones!

Dad found some Volants - the ski of choice in the

Stallcop-Bailey family.

By the time Mom and I arrived, there was only one

day left to ski before the long drive home. Unfortunately,

this is what the day looked like. Nevertheless, we took

advantage of it and conquered the mountain in a white-out.

Neal did so well this trip, skiing several black diamonds,

that he felt courageous enough to ski the Face at Heavenly -

a double black diamond.

Just don't look down

And he's off...

The pictures don't do this mountain justice, but the

moguls are truly ridiculous. After you ski a run like this,

every part of your body hurts for several days.

After a cold and challenging day of skiing, it was only

right to have dinner at our favorite Tahoe restaurant -

Villa Roma.

Back at the resort, we cuddled up by the fire and Neal and

I enjoyed our first glass of wine after a loooong Lenten season.

Easter Sunday Mass

On our way home, I requested a quick stop at Andersen's

Pea Soup for a warm snack. They only have two of these

in the state and their soup is soooo good. It had been

years since I had it and it was just as good as I remember.

Matthew Kelly!!

For a number of years now, I have been listening to the CDs and reading the books of Matthew Kelly. A brilliant Catholic author and speaker, he has changed literally millions of lives, including mine, and he is doing incredible things to positively affect the Church and the world. He has been, for me, a hero of sorts and I have dreamt about meeting him the way others dream of meeting movie stars. Today, after years of hoping, I finally got my wish.

Matthew was holding an all-day workshop in San Diego, so we made the trek down there to see him. We arrived an hour early and got a front row seat.

During one of the breaks, I approached Matthew, gave him a hug,

thanked him for doing the good that he does, and asked if we could

have our picture taken with him. It was seriously one of the

most memorable moments of my life.

Touring with Matthew was Elliott Morris, who has

opened for musicians such as the Counting Crows and

John Mayer.

St. Gregory the Great Catholic Church, where we attended

the workshop, was one of the most beautiful parishes we've

ever seen. Both the inside and outside were gorgeous, and

it was the perfect place to hear such a dynamic speaker.

A very inspiring day!

After the talk we drove to La Jolla (la-hoya) and visited

Casa Beach to see the seals. There were so many of them, but

our eye caught one in particular. Can you pick out the

cutest seal of them all?

Here he (or she) is! Looks like he's waving to his

buddy who is inching his way over.

For dinner we had Chicago style deep dish pizza at The Spot.

I highly recommend it if you are in the area!

On Sunday we had brunch with my good friend Joanna,

who lives in the area, and her beautiful family. We don't

get to see them nearly enough and it was so good to

spend some time together.