Rudolph Grotto Gardens



Our small homeschooling group (as opposed to the big one) went on a lovely field trip to Rudolph Grotto Gardens.  This Shrine was built (grown!) in honor of Our Lady by Fr. Philip Wagner.  He had promised to build a shrine to Our Lady (while he was in Lourdes) if his severely failing health was restored.  His health was restored and voila!  a beautiful shrine.

 

Just as we got into one town one of my children got motion sickness and threw up.  Oddly, we were right across from a thrift shop.  I had exactly 10 minutes to clean him up before it opened to see if I could find an outfit for him and his sister who was sitting next to him.  Oddlier yet, there was exactly 1 pair of pants his size and 1 dress for his sister in the next size up which was ok :)  The only damage was we lost all our apples.  I mean in the sense that he was holding the box of apples on his lap... no one wanted to eat them after that...  so we lost the apples to a garbage can outside the thrift shop...!

 

After that the trip got better. We started with the Traditional Latin Mass with our priest and Sam and Frodo serving.

The lovely statues of Jesus, Mary and Joseph.

 St. Philip the Apostle Church.

 We we all are... just my family that is, minus Dad since he was at work of course.  I had to be in the picture or Kili wouldn't have been as he was asleep in the K'Tan wrap and I wasn't about to wake him up for a picture :)

 The place is gorgeous!

 There is no cost to enjoy the grounds. But there is also this really awesome "Wonder Cave" for a very small fee.  Something like $2.50 for adults to 25c for younger ones and free for littles and it is well worth it!  It goes on for a very long time and is incredible.  Here is inside the Cave.

 Guardian Angel

 Pippin

 The Virtues

 Sam found the cave must have been built by midgets :D

 Our Lady

 The Last Supper

 Agony in the Garden

 Merry

 Merry and Eleanor

 Sleeping Apostles

 Eowyn

 The Nativity

 Eleanor

 Our Lady of the Rosary

 The light at the end of the tunnel :)

 Eowyn, Poppy & Eleanor

 The Sacred Heart

 Galadriel & Marigold

 Eowyn, Galadriel, Marigold & Bilbo

 You can see the incredible intricacy of this place.

 Bilbo

 The Pieta

 St. Peter

 There is a huge set of Stations of the Cross, absolutely beautiful.

 Our God Daughter and a couple of her sisters.

 The chapel had a High Altar :)

 Our Lady of Fatima

 There is a little museum with all sorts of interesting religious items in it.

 Eowyn at the Philomena Shrine.

 This was cute, a tiny little church door and inside...

 a tiny little high altar.

 A friend giving Bilbo a piggy back ride.

 Sam and Eowyn

 A little break for a picnic lunch

 It was at this point that we had to leave as Sam and Galadriel are taking Chemistry this summer with a local friend and Chemistry teacher. 

The truck at the grounds was  a Ford.... but a real Ford not a Chevy Ford :D  If you have no clue what I'm talking about and think I've lost my marbles, first, I have lost my marbles but second you'd have to read a previous post about Sam's first truck :D

I also wanted to mention an interesting article about  a local hopefully, soon-to-be saint HERE.